I never would have guessed that I'd weigh in on the side of S. Finer, 
but it just goes to show that miracles can happen.

My take on this whole embroglio is that you have a study as well 
conducted and as valid as 90% of the sociological studies going around, and at 
least as valid as any psychological theory existant.

Then you have a reporter who makes a statement that equates Usenet 
newsgroups to the Internet, the kind of statement that I've seen made 
more than once by people who with a little work would know better.

And for some reason, one that I suspect is related to the fact that the
topic is sex, the discussion  switches from exploring the
accessiblity and appropriateness of Internet content in a mass
market to attacks on the methodologies of both the study and the
report of the study. 

If the Internet is to become a mass market phenomenon, and believe 
me, it will, something has to be done about alt.sex newsgroups and 
other repositories of similar content.

A reasonable prelude to action of any sort is a definition of the 
problem, and then a discussion, perhaps leading to consensus, perhaps 
not. 

The thread around here, as elsewhere, seems to be a red herring more than 
anything else. Of as much value, at bottom, as the intros on 
inet-news.

dw



        Donovan White

        Online Information Development and Design

        dwhite@iii.net           DonovanWhite@ichange.com

        (508) 597-5321           (508) 597-3285

------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #236
*********************************


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