Rialto Archives - was Re: [Ansteorra] Railto

[Chris Zakes]

At 07:04 PM 1/2/02 EST, you wrote:

(snip)

>       You  may also go to http://www.dejanews.com and read from their
>archive of newsgroups and search their archives.  They claim to have a
>complete 20 year archive.  I don't know how long rec.org.sca has been in
>existence.  It's an interesting though often contentious perspective on SCA
>history.  Particularly when you go back several years to a time before all
>the regional and subject specific mailing lists when the Rialto was all we
>had.
>       If you have a week or two to spare, and have a strong constitution you
>can learn more than any sane person would ever want to know about the BOD's
>attempt to institute "Pay to Play" several years back.


I'll second that. Although the Rialto has a large number of SCA-folk
posting to it, it is not necessarily an accurate reflection of what the SCA
is or how it operates. For one thing, the anonimity of the computer means
some people are willing to be *far* more outspoken and less polite than
they probably would be face-to-face. Also, not all of the discussions have
to do with period issues (one of the biggest ones right now is on the Lord
of the Rings movie, for example.)

On the other hand, there are a lot of very knowledgable people posting,
too. I still recall the time when I asked "is cheesecake period?" and got
opinions, documentation and a couple of period cheesecake-like recipies
from people whose specialty is period foods.

	-Tivar Moondragon