Wiardgroup

Hi All,
     I cruise this list ever few days and since there's been no 
discussion lately, I decided to go research the member list.
    Wowee! I know a few of you personally and a few more of you by 
your postings on other lists - The traffic on this list is just not 
living up to the talent potential in it's member roster. So I'm gonna 
lob a grenade into this tupperware party and see it catalyzes some 
chemistry. If not I'll just go back in my hole and doink on my 
enevelator.
   (relax Mike, I solemnly pledge that my view is that any discussions 
of panel graphics or 'form factor' are beneath contempt)
   here goes:
   What do you folks think of the new culture of internet groups?
    There are plenty of ostensible benefits…..
     but how many of them are REAL for you.
    i.e:
    Do newbies get the information they want?…….need?
    Do oldies find kindred spirits?
    Does Grant (or any of the designers) get feedback that they 
wouldn't get from plain ol' private email
    Are WE getting any feedback here that we wouldn't get otherwise.

   Here's my $.02 to 'seed the batch'…
   I'm an old guy. I've been patching since 1972. I'm fascinated by 
the fact that it is now possible to communicate almost instantly with 
folks who have similar gadgets and interests. The concept is dazzling. 
In contrast, the reality of this fascination is composed of delight 
and rueful morbidity in nearly equal parts. For instance, my 
perception is that close contact among users has fostered the growth 
of 'tribes'; cults of personality formed around design concepts of the 
gadgets  from which the nature of the designers is extrapolated (with 
a predictably-high degree of  inaccuracy, I think)
    While anthropology/sociology 101 students will give this 
observation the big yawn (wellll… duh!) I'm nonetheless interested 
because in the 1970's I did not experience anything approaching the 
level of 'tribalism' in the user bases. Sure, there were Moog 
partisans and Arp fans (and about a dozen professors who had actually 
seen a Buchla) but I didn't see the level of fractiousness that you 
can read in an afternoon of browsing the analog lists today. People 
weren't rallying around Dr. Bob or Al Pearlman or Don Buchla and we 
definitely didn't see them addressing one another directly.
Mind you I'm not complaining, or  waxing nostalgic. I kinda think that 
THIS is the golden age of analog but I'm theorizing (with apologies to 
Dr. MacLuhan) that the media (i.e. the internet groups) ARE the 
message .
Whadda you folks think?