🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct28.013523.6946@pixar.com> Bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens) writes:
>My original error was in underestimating the fervor with which news
>administrators and news users in general embrace the anarchic nature
>of news. The consensus appears to be that the need for freedom of
>expression _in_any_manner_ overrules their distaste of the occasional
>abuse of that freedom. I should have seen this from the reaction a decade
>ago to the plans to moderate all news groups so that they could be carried
>on Stargate.

I would express it differently.  The right to freedom of expression
is so valued by the USENET community that they would not willingly 
divest themselves of that right to a self appointed arbiter (or
arbiters) of what is "proper".

Besides, anyone that mouths off to nastily is very quickly deluged
with such an excessive amount of mail that only the real masochists
persist.

>One test of the effectiveness of an electronic forum is the degree to
>which it is taken seriously by _outsiders_. The most sucessful netnews

One test of one's self esteem is the extent to which you are NOT
affected by other's adverse opinions of you.  Maybe we (as a forum) 
just have good self esteem....

(hey, I'm from california, they had a government convened self-esteem 
task force here...)

>earning the respect that RISKS has gained. I now believe that the natural
>stratification of the usenet into structured and moderated discussion
>forums that exist in parallel with anarchic anything-goes newsgroups is  
>its best hope.
>					Bruce Perens

You may be right in this.  The hope of the world is USENET and freedome
of communications.



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		-Richard Hartman
		hartman@uLogic.COM

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Disco isn't dead...			...it's just in witness protection!