Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel, who teaches the 900-student course Moral Reasoning 22, "Justice," has addressed various discussion group questions during his lectures.

"[The discussion group] is a valuable opportunity for students to continue the debates that arise in class and in section, and for me to see what students find puzzling," writes Sandel in an e-mail.

Bergen says although HyperNews is catching on in the humanities and social sciences, it has been "particularly useful in science courses."

"It has not taken hold in every case, but where the teaching staff has become invested in its use and emphasized its use, students have been participating vigorously in the discussions," he says.

Too vigorously?

Edwin H. Yoo '98 says he was just trying to start conversation among fellow classmates in Computer Science 50, "Introduction to Computer Science." He and other students bandied about stories earlier this semester from the City Step Ball and their senior proms.

Several other newsgroupies protested the "irrelevencia," saying that there are "better forums" for such discussions, and that the newsgroup should be restricted to more course-related discussion.

"I was kind of bothered by that," Yoo says. "It's not like people are struggling to get needed info," he posted soon after the admonition.

But that wasn't the end of it.

After one student posted a message complaining he lost his girlfriend to a football player, one Crimson athlete replied that he loved being put on a pedestal.

"We're spending the afternoon shellacking football players and nailing them to pedestals. They make great wall fixtures," responded Stewart L. King '98-'99 in a later post.

"It just went crazy from there," Yoo says.

Andrew B. Dills '00 responded on behalf of Crimson players.

"We have a lot of what you don't have (in more ways than one) and you hate us for it...Quite simply, we are cooler than you and you hate us for it," he wrote.

A plethora of postings like those flew back and forth the first week of November.