Re: [ga] Proposal for mailing list policy

[Joe Baptista <baptista@pccf.net>]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Kent Crispin wrote:

> 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. 

Ah yes - the famous private email complaints.  As long as you have those
complaints handy for any court proceeding - i'd keep copies of them ;-)

> 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...

is this a reference to my good person - oy.

the rest is irrelevant.

regards
joe

> 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
>