time there was very interesting, exciting, and sometimes insightful
discussion in this newsgroup.  Alas you might find there is far less
discussion of any sort here anymore.  Why is that, and more importantly,
what can you do to find the sort of information and discussion you want?

        Why is that?  Briefly, there was such an influx of new posters who
had no understanding of (or concern with) how Usenet functioned that they
overwhelmed the resources of the people who posted to and read discussions
in alt.backrubs.  (Some say that alt.backrubs was hit harder by the
so-called September That Never Ended than other groups, but any discussion
of that is beyond the scope of this list.)  Over time many of the former
regulars stopped reading the group and they were not replaced by posters
who maintained the former type of discourse.  Some of the those former
posters have continued discussions in mailing lists and other networked
fora.  See question 5.2 for some examples.

        What can you do to find the sort of discussion and information that
you want?  The `group.split' file in the archive contains excerpts from
previous discussion of related problems with the group.  Here are some
suggestions from previous discussions (from least to most radical):

        * Make postings of the sort you want to see, or at least about
         topics that you are interested in.  As Bill Arnett wrote,
         alt.backrubs is a newsgroup not a magazine.  If you want to read
         something in it then you have to write something (a question,
         comment, answer, summary, etc.).

        * If you have a suitably equipped newsreader you can use killfiles
         and scorefiles so that you don't have to see posts you wouldn't
         read anyway.  (You may have a copy of my trn style killfile just
         by asking for it.)

        * Abandon this newsgroup in favour of mailing lists and other fora
         (see questions 4.2(a) about the BODYWORK mailing list, and 5.2.4
         and 5.2.5 about online discussion fora such as
         misc.health.alternative).

        * The most radical notion is to create a new newsgroup but it is
         far from clear that any new group would be free from the trouble
         that has afflicted alt.backrubs.
           The alt.health.massage-therapy newsgroup is an example of such a
         group.  With your help it could succeed.
           That group was created in mid-March 2001.  Some discussion
         preceding the creation is in the archive's `group.split' file.
         When there is a description of the group then it will appear in
         question 5.2.4(m).

[question added 13 November 2000, latest update 13 October 2001]
--
Jamie Blustein   `No trees were destroyed to make this post'  <jamie@csd.uwo.ca>
                 The disclaimer is the subject of question 0.6
               See also http://www.ii.uib.no/~kjartan/backrubfaq/
    This document is archived in ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.backrubs/