From rj14yc at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  7 07:48:54 2003
From: rj14yc at yahoo.com (Red Mike)
Date: Wed Jan 12 17:26:29 2005
Subject: [REVIEW] alt.politics.usa.republican
Message-ID: <3f081af9.2546982@news.mindspring.com>

Newsgroup: alt.politics.usa.republican
Description: Discussions of the USA Republican Party
Moderated: No
Charter-Location:
ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/alt/alt.politics.usa.republican.gz
FAQ-Location: None
Reviewer: Red Mike (rj14yc@yahoo.com)
Review-Date: July 6, 2003

alt.politics.usa.republican is a lively high traffic group.  It
typically has twice the traffic of alt.politics.democrats, and five
times the traffic of alt.politics.libertarian (which is actually a
surprisingly good showing for the Libertarians).

The group has just passed the tenth anniversary of its creation, which
was April 15, 1993.  Whether creating the group on tax day was by
chance or a symbolic gesture is conjecture.

Use of the group doesn't match the short line description.  Following
such a description would mean most participants would be Republicans,
which is not the case.  The group attracts posters from across the
politcal spectrum.

Debates include almost every imaginable political issue.  Participants
are avid crossposters.  Regardless of their views, they tend to
include groups where opposing views will be present.  A typical
technique elsewhere is to select crosspost groups to insure there are
more supporters of the poster's views than opponents to those views.
But that plan for winning arguments isn't generally followed here.  

Posters instead desire to engage the opposition, and don't care how
many opponents there are.  The "bring them on" attitude of
invincibility results from a conviction of holding the high moral
ground.

Many participants are familiar with each others arguments and will
consistently respond to each other.  This makes things a bit difficult
for a new poster, who may find his first posts ignored.  But, over
time, he will attract the ire of someone and the support of someone
else, and at that point can consider himself a group regular.

None of this explains why alt.politics.usa.republican has so much
activity.  There is one thing eveyone agrees on, though, and that is
that this group is the designated field of battle in the war between
good and evil.  Which will win, and which is which, will depend on the
reader.


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