Re: [ga] waste of time

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Fri, Nov 12, 1999 at 11:56:37AM -0600, Weisberg wrote:
> R.Gaetano@iaea.org wrote:
> 
> > David Conrad wrote,
> >
> > > The risk of not moderating a list in the face of stupidity is
> > > that people who
> > > prefer not to wade through shit to find useful content simply
> > > unsubscribe.
> >
> 
> I agree with Roberto, 100%.  The answer is to discuss what you think is
> important and filter the noise.  It works for me.

But it doesn't work for everyone.  People coming in over a slow 
connection can be overwhelmed by junk.  For them Jeff Williams is a 
true denial of service attack.  As a concrete example, the sole 
member of the IDNO from China had to leave the list simply because 
he could not download all the mail.

What many knee-jerk fanatic free speech advocates forget is that
noise can cause actual damage.  I can't put a megaphone to your ear
and shout, blowing out your eardrum, and claim that it is my free
speech right.

Overuse of bandwidth is an infringement of OTHERS free speech rights. 

Offensive language that drives people away from a forum is an abuse 
of OTHERS free speech rights.

Breaking rules of etiquette that causes others to leave the 
discussion is an abuse of THEIR free speech rights.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain