🚀 go-pugleaf

On 12 Aug 1997 16:05:45 GMT, jbuck@synopsys.com (Joe Buck) wrote:

> 
> On 8 Aug 1997 02:55:59 GMT, RyanS @sprynet.com (Ryan Simmons) wrote:
> >> Sounds great, except it should be something like comp.dcom.cable-modems or 
> >> comp.dcom.modems.cable-modems.  I don't see a cable modem group being 
> >> 'alternative.'  It's a technical computer group.
> 
> Peter@adelheid.demon.co.uk writes:
> >That's not what "alt" means in the context of alt.* groups.
> 
> That's *exactly* what it means (I was there when John Gilmore and Brian
> Reid founded the alt hierarchy, I've talked to them both in person, and I

Clever you.

> know).  It was designed to carry those groups that the backbone
> administrators refused to carry because the topics were too controversial,
> or that had been censored: alt.sex, alt.drugs, and alt.flame were among
> the first alt groups.  It wasn't done just to assist the short-term
> thinkers too lazy to go through the newsgroup creation process.

I think, if you read what he said, that he was NOT thinking along
such lines.
I can think of a number of similarly named groups which exist under
alt.* as *alternatives* to other, sometimes moderated, groups. They
are certainly not there for any of the reasons which you suggest.

-- 
Peter G. Strangman              | Wer weiss was die wohl glauben,
Peter@adelheid.demon.co.uk      | Die uns zum Glauben schrauben?
http://www.adelheid.demon.co.uk |     (Friedrich von Logau)
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