Barry Harmon, one of the most experienced amateur bread bakers around and the man behind the informative Artisan Bread Baking website, has just started a new Google Group, "bread baking." To join it, first go to Google Groups and open an account if you don't already have one, then search for "bread baking."
As of now, there are only 4 members in the new group, one of whom is Barry. Those who join early will help to shape its course.
The explanation of why Barry started this group is a bit convoluted, but here goes.
The Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has been cracking down vigorously on child porn, a bit of long-overdue law enforcement which is entirely admirable in its intent. However, as with so many crusades undertaken with the best of intentions, there are turning out to be some unforeseen and wholly unintended consequences.
These consequences involve the restriction or total blocking of access to one of the oldest parts of the internet, UseNet.
For those who aren't familiar with it, UseNet works very much like email, except that it is not sent to individual addressees. Instead, it's an enormous public bulletin board organized into various hierarchies. Each hierarchy is divided into sub- and sub-sub-hierarchies, then finally into individual "newsgroups" covering every conceivable topic.
Originally, UseNet consisted of just a few "top-level" hierarchies strictly regulated by committees. All of the original newsgroups, which were, after all, begun back in the days when memory was precious and 300 baud was considered high speed communication, were text-only.
Over the years, UseNet dveeloped its own form of "netiquette," which was enforced either by newsgroup moderators or by vigorous flaming directed at the miscreant by the more experienced members.
With the passage of time came vast improvements in technology, unfortunately accompanied by a sharp decline in standards of personal responsibility.
As memory and bandwidth became more plentiful, users began to demand the capability to start new groups which did not necessarily adhere to the rigorous standards of the older ones. In response to this pressure, the "alt" hierarchy was begun.
Many of the new "alt" groups were very similar to the older newsgroups, but were operated in a more freewheeling, informal manner. They were, for the most part, unmoderated, and thus depended upon the innate good taste and self-discipline of the members supplemented, when necessary, by a dose of vigorous flaming. In addition, newsreader software with increasingly sophisticated filtering capabilities became available, enabling some members to "killfile" others whose posts habitually offended them.
With further improvements in bandwidth, memory, and hard drive capacity, another type of newsgroup, the "binaries" sub-hierarchy, also joined the mix. Originally, they were used to exchange programs among the computer enthusiasts who wrote them. The programs – binary files – were encoded into a pure text form, transmitted, then decoded by the recipient.
It wasn't long before some of these enthusiasts realized that the same methods which could be used to transmit programs as plain text through newsgroups could be used to distribute any other type of binary file as well. Before long, newsgroups were set up for the purpose of exchanging music, then pictures, and now even video. Increasingly sophisticated newsreader software handles the tasks of encoding and decoding the files automatically and transparently, just like email clients. The sending user need only select the file to be uploaded, then send it on its way with one click. The recipient need only open the received file as an attachment. Even large files, which must be sent in "segments," or "parts" due to size restrictions, are now automatically decoded and reassembled with no human intervention other than a single click.
Many of these files consist of perfectly legitimate exchanges of information among interested participants, some of whom may be among the most highly qualified professionals in their fields, and others of whom may be dedicated amateurs trying to learn all they can.
Particularly before the development of the World Wide Web, such newsgroups were enormously useful. They enabled interested people all over the world to interact and exchange information in real time, and at extremely low cost.
It wasn't long, though, before some people began to employ UseNet for some rather unsavory purposes. In particular, the alt.binaries groups rapidly became the electronic equivalent of a very bad neighborhood. While some of the alt.binaries groups still fulfill legitimate functions, others have become cesspools of hard-core filth, including child porn.
Enter Andrew Cuomo. In an attempt to stem the increasing flood of illegal material pouring through UseNet, he began to pressure some of the larger ISPs to do something about it.
The sensible thing to do would be to selectively filter out the offending newsgroups. However, ISPs soon realized that by so doing, they would also be exercising – gasp! – censorship, and thus bringing the wrath of the ACLU and its like-minded allies down upon their heads.
Even before these recent developments, AOL, which used to provide just such a filtered UseNet feed to its subscribers, had decided instead to cut off all UseNet access. Now, in response to pressure from AG Cuomo, two of the largest ISPs, Verizon and Time-Warner, have decided to restrict their subscribers to the so-called "big 8" hierarchies – that is, the older ones which are run according to strict standards by committees.
These measures will, indeed, stop the flow of child porn and other unwelcome material through the systems of these ISPs, but such non-selective wholesale blocking also stops everything else, including a great deal of useful and perfectly legitimate information.
For example, I subscribe to the following newsgroups belonging to the "alt" hierarchy:
alt.ascii-art
alt.bread.recipes
alt.comp.freeware
alt.comp.software.financial.quickbooks
alt.comp.software.financial.quicken
alt.food.barbecue
alt.food.diabetic
alt.food.sushi
alt.humor.jewish
alt.os.linux.ubuntu
alt.quotations
alt.support.psoriasis
alt.support.skin-diseases.psoriasis
None of these groups permit binaries, and none have anything to do with porn of any variety, child or otherwise.
Fortunately, my ISP, AT&T, has no intention of restricting access to UseNet, nor to its "alt" hierarchy, so I am not directly affected – or am I?
Suppose that a leading authority on a certain topic, and one who contributes heavily to the success of a newsgroup devoted to that topic, is suddenly cut off from access to that newsgroup. Suddenly, he can neither read it nor post to it. "Newbies" are now unable to ask him questions in a public forum, and he is unable to answer them.
Yes, there are workarounds. Particularly if one needs access to text-only groups, and not to the binary groups with their far greater bandwidth requirements, there are several free and low-cost newsgroup servers available which can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection – if they know how to do it. But the technical aspects of obtaining and utilizing these services, while not difficult, are way beyond the capabilities of many UseNet subscribers.
That brings us back to Barry Harmon.
Barry is a regular in the alt.bread.recipes newsgroup, and an invaluable resource to those of us just learning how to bake. He's a dedicated amateur who is constantly learning, experimenting, and expanding his knowledge. He's infinitely patient with "newbies," answering their many questions and taking the time to diagnose their baking problems without flaming them and making them feel like idiots. In short, he's a treasure to those just learning how to bake bread, as well as to those who have progressed beyond the beginner stages and wish to refine their techniques.
In response to these latest UseNet developments, Barry decided to start the "bread baking" Google Group as an alternative to alt.bread.recipes, so that those who lose access to the alt hierarchy will still have a public forum in which they can discuss their baking results and ask questions.
While I doubt seriously that I will have much to contribute, I have joined Barry's new group. I'd encourage everyone else with an interest in baking any type of bread – sourdough, yeasted, or quickbread – to join and turn it into a rousing success.
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