Xref: utzoo talk.religion.newage:5386 news.groups:16448
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!ames!saturn!xanthian
From: xanthian@saturn.ADS.COM (Metafont Consultant Account)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage,news.groups
Subject: Re: talk.religion.pagan
Message-ID: <10442@saturn.ADS.COM>
Date: 16 Jan 90 13:55:02 GMT
References: <130242@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <9695@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mt. View, CA (415) 960-7300
Lines: 34

[the story so far: Tim is asked if he is a fascist, answers "yes",
and goes on to say ...]

=> This mess and sci.aquaria show a basic flaw in the newsgroup creation
=> process.  The votes are taken by people who have a vested interest in
=> the outcome of the vote, and who can very easily commit fraud or
=> otherwise dissemble concerning the results.
=> 
=> Wouldn't it be better if some backbone site set up an automatic vote
=> receiver/counter/confirmer?  The overhead would probably be a very
=> small fraction of the cost of being on the backbone in the first place,
=> there would be no more complaints about how hard collector X was to
=> reach, and the votes would be in the hands of a supremely disinterested
=> entity.  The only downside is that someone has to write the software,
=> but it should all be doable with a fairly simple awk script; if no one
=> on one of the backbone sites wants to take a few hours, I'll do it.

I'd guess I could lay pretty good money on identifying half a dozen
net.folks who would be delighted to show you how quickly they could
whip up a little vote fraud generator that would baffle any automated
method of counting votes.  I think your idea would just make things
worse.

Generic complaint: why does there exist a set of
net.control.personalities who insist on taking these vote games so
incredibly seriously?  As someone else has noted, it's just USENet, it
ain't nohow important.

--
Again, my opinions, not the account furnishers'.

xanthian@well.sf.ca.us  xanthian@ads.com (Kent Paul Dolan)
Kent, the (bionic) man from xanth, now available as a build-a-xanthian
kit at better toy stores near you.  Warning - some parts proven fragile.