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.