What follows is an exchange between Barf Balls and Virginia Slim. This discussion took place on the Singapore Hash List, which explains some of the sensitivity toward police oversight of hash activities, but I think Barf Balls' and Virginia Slim's discussion is pertinent to hashers in the rest of the world.
On On, Flying Booger.
As someone who has always thought that hashing has no business seeking publicity in the media, it had never occurred to me that putting up a web page on hashing events could similarly be considered "publicity."
Apparently some even older and more reactionary hashers than me, consider that hashdom has no business publishing itself on the Web. But considering that the web has some tens of millions of sites, it is most likley that those who seek info about hashing will be members of the hashing community, rather than the general public at large.
Therefore web pages about hashing do no harm.
What do others think?
On On,
Barf Balls
Barf Balls, were you sitting naked on a lounge chair in the sun sipping ice-cold (homemade) brew on beautiful Batam island when you were suddenly struck by a burning need to find the cosmic truth about hash web pages? Or was it just a case of heartburn?
Should hashes seek publicity? This is a touchy subject which can obviously have no objective answer. Among some American hashers, just asking the question is essentially the same thing as holding up a lightning rod during a heavy thunderstorm.
I have seen hashes that took extreme measures to avoid publicity, which isolated themselves from any chance of attracting new members or visitors, and they usually die a slow painful death with three or four inbred old-timers in a circle telling each other the same old jokes.
Is a web page "publicity?" I don't know. Is listing your name in the telephone directory "publicity?" Making information public is not necessarily "publicity." Intuitively, there is a difference between putting your name on your postbox and installing neon signs on top of your house with flashing lights that spell out the words "Free Sex."
Exposing yourself publicly (so to speak) is a matter of degree. Pissing on a tree in the forest during a camping trip is different from running down Orchard Road naked at noon.
Getting back to the original point, I think that a little bit of exposure (or publicity) is generally good for most hashes, but too much or too little is generally not good.
A web page, like the Force, can be used for good or evil. In itself, the web page is not inherently good or evil. A hash web page can give run directions to visiting hashers (good, unless of course the visitors are British sailors who drink too much beer and behave like assholes), or a hash web page can give run directions to Traffic Police investigators who will arrange a drunk driving spotcheck 200 meters down the road (evil, except from the Singapore government's financial perspective of collecting fines).
As far as I know, the good usage of hash web pages thus far vastly exceeds the evil usage. In the future, if the Dark Side of the [Police] Force or other aliens make significant use of hash web pages for evil purposes, then we can reconsider the extent of our exposure on the web.
Until then, keep surfin', dudes.
On On,
Virginia Slim
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