Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!sugar!ficc!cliff
From: cliff@ficc.uu.net (cliff click)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: In Moderation
Summary: Hurray
Message-ID: <4907@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 7 Jul 89 12:50:37 GMT
References: <24AF7C38.8967@ateng.com> <24A91A67.28396@ateng.com> <14219@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 23

In article <14219@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, mjm@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Michael McClennen) writes:
> Here's an idea:  Why don't the IMN people simply distribute (via whatever
> mechanism they choose) each day a comment on the day's news feed -- a list of
> articles that they deem worth reading -- and provide each subscriber with a
> special news reader program that processes both the usual news feed and the
> comment list and only shows the user the selected articles.  That way their
> subscribers could continue to use (and re-distribute freely) the standard news
> feed, and would merely be restricted from re-distributing the article list
> (and other comments provided by IMN) which are of course protected by copyright.

Sounds like a good idea to me!

My worry with the IMN concept is the *uncontrolled* censorship which may 
lead to an unwarranted bias in reader's opinions.  Suppose IMN's editor was
recently laid off from Apple - he might subconsiously pass more articles
tilted against Apple than for it, despite their equally high quality.  In
short, the IMN's readers will get to pick up the built-in biases of the 
IMN's editors.  Heaven help us if the IMN's editors are bribable...

-- 
Cliff Click, Software Contractor at Large
Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!cliff, cliff@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5368 (w).
Disclaimer: lost in the vortices of nilspace...       +1 713 568 3460 (h).