The unofficial soc.women FAQ

Q: What is the charter of soc.women?
A: Soc.women doesn’t have a charter. It is a grandmothered group which was created long before groups had charters.

Q: What is the history of soc.women?
A: Soc.women was created as a very early newsgroup, back in the days when all group names started with net. In the beginning it was called net.women. The history runs like this:

Day 1: Usenet is created for rapping about computers
Day 2: Everybody starts talking about politics, etc.
Day 3: The flame is invented.
Day 4: Women complain, do we have put up with this crap.
Day 5: Net.women is created.
Day 6: Men take over the net.women group.
Day 7+ No change.

Q: What is the purpose of soc.women?
A: Since there is no charter there is no official purpose. The unofficial purpose depends on whether you are a man or a woman.

Women: This is a newsgroup for women
Men: This is a newsgroup about women

Q: Who reads soc.women?
A: Nobody reads soc.women. See “Who posts to soc.women?”.

Q: Who posts to soc.women?
A: Nobody posts directly to soc.women; they include it in the list of groups that they are cross-posting to. There is one exception. Every so often a bewildered newcomer discovers that there is a group called soc.women, samples it, and posts a plaint, “What is this nonsense?”

Q: Who cross-posts to soc.women?
A: The short answer is – everybody. Women are half the population. They are in every occupation except male prostitution. All topics impact women. Ergo soc.women is relevant to all topics. However there are certain groups that are cross-posted to soc.women most of the time. There are:

• talk.abortion: Nominally about abortion, actually about character assassination.
• alt.feminism: Fights over feminism. Populated by men obsessed with hating feminism and women who love to hate them. I don’t understand it either.
• alt.child-support: Divorced men and women arguing about whose spouse treated them worse.
• soc.men: Created by women on the grounds that men should suffer too. Big topics – feminism and circumcision.

Q: If I write about feminine reproductive organs will men ignore it?
A: No. One man will write about his wife’s problem. Another will explain female physiology to you. A third will write a bitter diatribe about feminism.

Q: Should I read soc.women?
A: Yes. You need a higher level of stress in your life. You need to know first hand that there really are people like that out there.

Q: Why is this FAQ written by a man?
A: This is soc.women; what do you expect?

Q: Will it get any better?
A: No.