I am sure that there is a very interesting digression about how YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), relates to EPA standards, fuel consumption, and back to Middle Eastern Politics and the class struggle involved with BMWs, but heeding Barry's comments, I would like to return to (hopefully) the more germain topic of studying the role of the internet in the current issues surrounding proposed U.S. attack against Iraq. I remember from my days as a demonstrator, that an important aspect of the demonstrations was always gathering afterwards for a beer to talk about what had happened which helped galvanize the sense of commitment to the cause, sense of community etc. I've noticed what seems to be a similar occurance in blogs, especially after last weekend. I know that there are people here interested in the role of blogs. Is anyone looking at blogs as an emerging political tool? For another example to look at in this area, Former Vermont Governor Dean's campaign for the Presidency has a blog. (http://dean2004.blogspot.com) Is this a topic that the panel on Blogs in Toronto is going to touch on? Aldon --- Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
Folks,
I've seen too many lists torn apart by digressing from their purpose -- in this case, discussing internet research -- to other matters. Sure, everything is germane (I once unsuccessfully tried to get the BMW list to discuss the class struggle as a cause of car jackings), but some are more germane than others.
Second, I've seen too many instances where posters to lists assume that everyone shares their opinions. It's part of the partial communities that we belong to. There is a rough community of interest around internet research here, but that doesn't generalize to politics, etc. In short, political discussions belong on political lists, not here.
That's my .02. YMMV (curious if anyone remembers where the latter comes from).
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