This is my reply to all those who replied to my suggestion to start
an a.c.b ( alt.culture.bengal? alt.culture.bangla? alt.culture.bengali?
group).
Harsh Varma was very rude and unnecessarily impolite. I do not think
I should answer any of his personal remerks, others have done that for me.
I must thank them for that:-)
(1) The main contention against a.c.b is that it would not contain anything
that SCI already hasn't. This is not true. A.c.b should be modeled as a group
to discuss relevant to the language and not the religion and politics of that
part of the world. SCB reads more like a propaganda machine for two major
religions. ACB could deal with literature, including the modern Bengali
literature and since it would be assumed that the readers would be more
familiar with the language, the discussions will gain greater depth. This will
not prevent people from posting in SCI when the topics warrant a more general
discussion.
(2) Another reason is the high rate of traffic on SCI. My posting alone generated over 10 responses. Splintery newsgroups won't supplant SCI, but will aid to
keep the traffic lower. Besides, it is laborious to go through 100 postings on
Hinduism Vs Islam to read one posting of depth. Alt.culture.kerala is a good
example of how such a group might work. In a.c.k people discuss the literature
of kerala, kerala cousine, and about other things of interests which otherwise
would not have appeared on SCI. They are even thinking of starting a magazine for ackers. Besides, as I said before, since a minimum awareness of the readership
is expected, the postings can deal with issues directly than spend bandwidth
explaining elementary material.
(3) About my comment on soc.tamil. I did not mean that *every* posting in
that news group is for bashing people, nor did I say that Tamil culture
is any way inferior to any other culture. My statement was in referance to
all the flame wars that go on in sct. Now, for those pessimists who predicted
the same fate for acb, may I refer you to alt.culture.kerala? They has crossed
1000 postings and there has not been a single flame war yet. It does not
represent any special character of that culture, but that of the people who
use that newsgroup.
(4) Now about the national integration and all that stuff. A.c.k has not
created any feeling of rift within ackers, then why should acb be any different?
As I said previously, alt.culture.* groups should augment the culture/language of a group not negate the culture/language of any other part of the country.
(5) Arindam, you have opined that there won't be sufficient interest. Judging
by the personal emails I got, I must say that you are wrong. There is a lot
of interest. But, why should we limit the group to discuss just "esoteric"
literature? We could discuss Bengali films, plays, street activism and the
rich literature associated with it, Calcutta and its culture, cousine,
and all that.... And if the issues are of broader importance, we could post it in SCI. Since the nature of scb will be different from SCI, I do not think
that SCI will lose any readership
(6) Listserv mailing list has many disadvantages and it takes so much
time and effort to compile, edit and rectify the technical problems.
It is definitely a more complex procedure than starting a newsgroup.
(7) I must thank all those who were polite in their replies. It is
perfectly understandable that some had opposing views. But to call
each other names and to make unsubstantiated allegations is, to
put it euphemistically, childish.
(8) Lastly, one will be spared these arguments about whose culture is
superior in the splintery newsgroups:-) Oh by the way, did I hear
someone suggesting that all newsgroups discussing American culture
(more than 100 of them) should be integrated as soc.culture.american
