Newsgroups: alt.drugs,alt.drugs.culture,alt.drugs.pot,alt.drugs.psychedelics
Subject: Alt.Drugs Is Dead [ FAQ ]
Reply-To: [g--os--s] at [brahman.nullnet.fi]
Summary: Top 7 reasons why alt.drugs is dead
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 95 03:00:33 EET
THE NEW ALT.DRUGS IS DEAD
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
VERSION 1.2
Maintained by: [g--os--s] at [brahman.nullnet.fi]
Last update : 27 Oct 1995
0) Is alt.drugs dead?
Yes. Mostly, anyway. None of the following applies to alt.drugs.caffeine
or alt.drugs.usenet; in addition, alt.drugs.chemistry and alt.drugs.hard
will hang around until suitable replacements are found.
1) Why is alt.drugs dead?
Because there was an official vote about the creation of a new rec.drugs
hierarchy, and the large majority voted YES. Since the two groups
overlap entirely, and rec.drugs is technically superior to alt.drugs,
alt.drugs is gradually being removed at sites worldwide. The actual
results were:
Yes No : 2/3? >100? : Pass? : Group
---- ---- : ---- ----- : ----- : -------------------------------------------
365 93 : Yes Yes : Yes : rec.drugs.cannabis
356 99 : Yes Yes : Yes : rec.drugs.psychedelic
362 99 : Yes Yes : Yes : rec.drugs.misc
12 invalid votes
As of 27 Oct 1995, rec.drugs.* is now getting more posts than
alt.drugs.*, so the majority of posters have switched over to the
new groups.
2) So what should I do?
You should unsubscribe from the alt.drugs.* groups and subscribe to
the rec.drugs.* groups instead. If your system doesn't get them yet,
whine to your system administrator, and while you're at it tell him to
alias alt.drugs.* to rec.drugs.*.
3) Now wait a sec, why should I do this?
Because rec.drugs is better. There are a number of reasons:
o rec.drugs is, or at least will be, better propagated than alt.drugs.
That means more people will see your messages if you post them in
rec.drugs.
o All of rec.drugs is equally well propagated. That means that instead
of crossposting to alt.drugs, alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.hard
and alt.drugs.culture to get your message about LSD through to everyone,
you can just post it to rec.drugs.psychedelic.
o Therefore rec.drugs has less crossposting. If you read rec.drugs,
you're less likely to have to read the same message over and over
again since some twerp crossposted it to every single group.
o alt.drugs is a mess, and rec.drugs is the only solution to the mess.
New working groups cannot be created in alt.drugs, alt.drugs is
littered with dead and/or stupid groups, etc. rec.drugs is in the
Big 8 hierarchies, so group creation is orderly, bogus groups will
not be added, and especially from the system administrator's point of
view it's a lot more manageable.
4) OK, what are the rec.drugs groups?
At the moment there are three:
rec.drugs.cannabis The drug cannabis (marijuana).
rec.drugs.psychedelic LSD, Ecstasy, magic mushrooms and the like.
rec.drugs.misc Stimulants, sedatives, smart drugs etc.
rec.drugs.cannabis is equivalent to alt.drugs.pot, rec.drugs.psychedelic
is equivalent to alt.drugs.psychedelics, and rec.drugs.misc covers the rest.
There is currently a proposal for the following three additions:
rec.drugs.announce Announcements about drugs and drug-related issues.
rec.drugs.chemistry The chemistry of recreational drugs.
rec.drugs.smart Smart drugs (nootropics).
They have not been created yet, but they are likely to be. Vote for
them when the CFV arrives!
5) Hey! What about the other alt.drugs.* groups then?
o alt.drugs.caffeine lives on. Coffee addicts are encouraged to keep on
using it.
o alt.drugs.chemistry is still around since most of its residents like it,
but a rec.drugs version likely to supplant it is coming up.
o alt.drugs.culture was a pointless group never used for anything other
than crossposts.
o alt.drugs.hard is very, very poorly propagated, but due to
complaints from a small hard core (pun intended) of residents,
it too is still around. No rec version is in sight, since the
group members are opposed to it.
o alt.drugs.usenet was and remains a joke group. There is no exact
equivalent, but try to use rec.humor instead.
6) Why did alt.drugs.pot become rec.drugs.cannabis?
Because "pot" is a uniquely American term that many people outside the US
would not recognize. Cannabis is the genus name for the plants /Cannabis
sativa/ and /Cannabis indica/, it's known by that name everywhere, and
unlike "pot" it can be used to describe both marijuana and hash.
7) Why isn't there a group for left-handed North Dakotans who feed a mix of
PCP and DMT every other Sunday to their pets for medical purposes and
think homosexual pot smokers should be shot?
We wanted to keep the initial rec.drugs hierarchy as simple as possible
to increase the chances of it passing.
8) Why'd the contents of this FAQ change?
Because as some Englishman once said, "Americans are incapable of
noticing irony", and too many people took the silly parts of this
file seriously. So, this is the dull version. Yawn.