Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!cynic!curt
From: curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Curt Sampson)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Anarchy
Message-ID: <173ws5w163w@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 20 Nov 90 04:19:23 GMT
References: <1990Nov19.192456.3726@com50.c2s.mn.org>
Organization: Mad Artists' Technological Hangout, Vancouver, B.C.
Lines: 37

craig@com50.c2s.mn.org (Craig Wilson) writes:

> In article <yLFVs4w163w@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca> curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Curt Sam
> >Oh?  How about some examples of this centralised authority?  There is
> >on the internet, but I have yet to see any on the usenet.
> 
> Moderated newsgroups and the newgroup creation "rights" consolidated in the
> hands of the moderator of news.announce.newgroups; to list the most obvious.

Oh?  It's not too tough to post to moderated newsgroups without going
though the moderator.  I can do it with no difficulty whatsoever, and
the only thing anyone can do to stop me is take away my feed.  I could
then go get one somewhere else if I were so inclined.  The only way I
could eventually be stopped is if enough individuals in the net were
pissed off at me that it was impractical to get a feed.

I don't see any "newgroup creation 'rights'" belonging to the
moderator of news.announce.newgroups, either.  I have yet to see a
case where he has refused to post a call for discussion or a call for
votes when asked a second time after a refusal.  (In the recent
controversy he turned down a rather stale call for votes and the
poster turned around and started flaming away rather than asking a
second time.)  And again, there's nothing stopping me from generating
a newgroup message any time I want.  If enough people go along with
it, it will be created no matter what any "central authority" or
moderator has to say.  And of course there's always the alt.* groups.

So what control do these "central authorities" actually exert?  To my
eyes, they have no more than the rest of the net chooses to give them.
If somebody in usenet gets quashed, it's not by a central authority.
It's by the consensus of a large part of the net.

cjs

curt@cynic.UUCP                  | "The unconscious self is the real genius.
curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca          |  Your breathing goes wrong the minute your
{uunet|ubc-cs}!van-bc!cynic!curt |  conscious self meddles with it."  --GBS