BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
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Usenet. Repalced by Barbelith(and it's varied brother and sister message boards)?

 
 
Digital Hermes
19:40 / 20.01.06
I was reading a Usenet forum on GURPS recently, and struck by how vitriolic and hostile the discussions were. Not to mention how detailed and prolonged. People are posting and re-posting in a constant sense of rebuttal, to the point where the origianl topic of discussion is long gone, and has been replaced by an epic battle over a minor point.

It seems as though Usenet is more than this, but I'm not sure how yet. It seemed like the prototypical data-sharing world, but it just seems, (as far as I can see) e-mail flavour message boards...
 
 
Triplets
14:54 / 23.01.06
On the level of aggressiveness... I believe the threaded/branching format of Usenet lends itself incredibly well to ad hominem attacks on people. You can argue with a specific post, which can often be used to argue/attack a specific person in the discussion. Or that it can be taken that way.