Re: [ga] Proposal for mailing list policy

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2000 at 11:25:30PM -0600, John B. Reynolds wrote:
> >
> > But indeed they do.  And in FACT we have seen it be the case on
> > this very list.
> >
> 
> False.  All that has been asserted is that certain individuals and groups
> choose not to participate in the list due to the presence of those who you
> would "filter".

It's not false, it is a fact.  I have received private mail from people
who won't post to the list because they don't want themselves
immortalized in a bit of Baptista doggerel smut. 

> Nobody has prevented them from contributing - their
> nonparticipation is a consequence of their own decisions.

You have a city park full of pimps, prostitutes, street gangs, and drug
addicts.  Nobody has prevented people from letting their children play
there -- it's a consequence of their own decisions...

It may not fit with your idealistic view, but it is a cold fact that
Baptista, Williams, et al, are chasing people away.  We are left with a
situation where we are making our forum safe for thugs and lunatics, but
others leave because they don't want to deal with thugs and lunatics. 
Your answer to this is "if somebody is bothered by thugs and lunatics,
and they can't or won't learn to use filters, then they can leave." That
is, you are willing to trade gentle, well-mannered people for thugs and
lunatics. 

You can't have it both ways -- you can't have the GA list be an open
forum that allows verbal pornographic assault, and at the same time have
it be a place where intelligent discussion of domain name issues among
the necessary interested parties takes place.  That really is the 
choice.

What you, Karl, Froomkin, and others want an easy way out -- a nice
technical solution that absolves everyone of any responsibility.  But
that's not possible.  In fact there are genuine conflicts in individual
freedoms, and we have to choose who we are going to deny freedoms for,
and what freedoms we are going to deny; we all have to take
responsibility for those choices, and we have to be constantly watching
to be sure that abuses don't develop.  That's what it means when you say
"the price of freedom is eternal vigilance". 

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