RE: [ga] Comments from Pawlo

["John B. Reynolds" <john@reynolds.chicago.il.us>]

Kent Crispin wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 19, 2000 at 07:51:30AM -0600, John B. Reynolds wrote:
> >
> > > When the rules are in place, the noisemakers will be silenced.
> > > And then there
> > > will be no noise relating to them.
> > >
> >
> > That's one possibility.  Another more likely scenario is that
> they will find
> > ways to circumvent the rules and/or use them to create further
> disruption.
>
> Compare:  "Laws against robbery will just cause robbers to find ways to
> circumvent the laws and commit robberies.  Therefore, there should be
> no laws against robbery."
>

Laws against robbery are backed by the police power of the state.  There are
serious consequences associated with their violation.  No equivalent
enforcement mechanism exists for the list rules.  If someone were to bypass
the list filters by sending messages directly to each list participant,
there is little or nothing that could be done to stop it.

Additionally, robbery statutes are not typically utilized to facilitate
robbery.  The proposed list rules, OTOH, could easily be used to paralyze
the GA list.  Example:  List disrupter intentionally gets himself placed on
'monitor' status, causing all messages to be reviewed by the Sergeant at
Arms before being posted to the list.  LD and/or his confederates then post
a large number of messages in order to make it impossible for the SaA to
review them all in a reasonable amount of time.  Result:  messages from
legitimate participants are backlogged.