Tuesday 20 November 2012

Back in the (Flame) War


The good old Usenet had one big difference between it and blogging. It was interactive when that was hard to achieve on t'interweb and it was vicious.  Flame wars abounded, as I am forced to recall when I look at some of the old stuff. Brutal I'd call it, though not in the instance below. I'll try and find the one about short measure. That went on for weeks.

I did come across one piece in which I featured, which showed, if nothing else, what goes round comes round.  An exchange about CAMRA and the GBG took place.  Here it is:

On 1 Nov 1999 22:22:13 -0000, plutc...@SncsaP.uiucA.eduM (Joel
Plutchak) wrote:
In article <381e04dc .8821...=".8821..." br="br" news.virgin.net="news.virgin.net">Peter Alexander
wrote:

There is a place for all of these guides but ours is about cask
conditioned beer and where to find it.  No higher recommendation is
needed in my view but you have to adapt it to your needs.
plutc...@SncsaP.uiucA.eduM (Joel
Plutchak) wrote:

  That begs the questions (1) is all cask-conditioned beer good,
and (2) is all non-CC beer not-good?  The more cynical amongst us
view the zeal of the CAMRA fanatic with a bit of suspicion.


Peter Alexander
wrote:

But you already know the answer.  I'll repeat it for you though:

1) No
2) No
The more sensible among us view any fanatics with suspicion. 

So there you have it. Tandleman. Always the voice of reason and I'm glad to say, consistency. Well back to 1999 anyway. On that one occasion.

Funnily enough Joel is my mate now. One of our Yankee circle. And me and that ersatz German, Erlangernick

6 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

Even in 1999, people on the Internet didn't know what "begs the question" means. Truly it was a barbaric century.

Sat In A Pub said...

Those were the days.

Cooking Lager said...

How did this usenet work, was it coal fired or did it operate with pigeons?

Erlangernick said...

Coal or pigeons? Peat!

Tandleman said...

Mostly pigeons.

Joel said...

Late to the game here, but "begging the question" was exactly what I meant back in 1999. One could (many did) proclaim "We're CAMRA, we support only Real Ale!" That was stated with a certain pride in cask ale and dismissal of all other forms of beer. That kind of attitude and statement certainly begged the questions I stated. In more formal terms "a proposition which requires proof is assumed without proof." Or, if you wish "the unstated premise is essential to, but not identical with the conclusion."

But Peter obviously understood, and has had opportunity to ably educate me since that time.