Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!cs!ptownson
From: ptownson@cs.bu.edu (Patrick Townson)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: The Moderator Who Doesn't Give A Shit
Keywords: hypocrisy, politically correct thinking
Message-ID: <74436@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 11 Feb 91 05:54:21 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu
Reply-To: this newsgroup only - Not to me personally
Followup-To: comp.org.eff.talk
Organization: TELECOM Digest
Lines: 110


Isn't it sort of strange that all the messages in TELECOM Digest in
the past -- indeed, the several instances of entire special issues of
the Digest -- devoted to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, matters
of email and telecommunications privacy and related topics are being
totally ignored as the topic of my fitness as a moderator on Usenet is
discussded in minute detail here?

Isn't it a bit odd that the dozens of messages appearing in the Digest
over the past two and a half years of my tenure there which have been
graciously handed over to rebuttals of my philosophy -- messages which
took me just as long to format, paste up, edit and distribute as the
ones which I find 'more agreeable' have been totally ignored, as if
they did not exist in this discussion?

Does anyone find it as incredible as I that a person who was given a
complete issue of the Digest (and some additional message space as
well) to respond to a critic who accused him of various falsehoods
would now come to this forum and post a message saying, and I quote, 

"we all know Townson is a shithead,"  and encourage others --
presumably people from a socially responsible organization like EFF to
violate news etiquette by posting direct to the news group bypassing
the moderator?  Is that any more incredible than the fact that not one
person from the socially responsible among you criticized such a
technique? 

Why is it that if I express an opinion in a forum which I work hard to
produce and maintain it suddenly turns me into a bigot and very biased
person unfit to use the bandwidth here but when I spend an equal or
greater amount of time/space/bandwidth running press releases prepared
by EFF touting their plans and activities not a word is spoken about
bias or bigotry?

Where is it written that this net is to parrot the liberal nonsense
spouted by several of you?

Are your complaints about me *really* dealing with 'bias' and lack of
proper moderation in comp.dcom.telecom or is it that you don't like
the idea of a relatively well-read and popular newsgroup espousing
views opposite your own?

I defy you to go back through the archives of TELECOM Digest during my
tenure and by any rule of measurement -- most space devoted, number of
messages pro or con, who gets the 'first word' or 'last word', or any
fair standard you wish to employ -- demonstrate where there has been
less than total fairness and a well-rounded presentation of ideas and
opinion. I can't help what people write to me about, but I have gone
so far as to juggle messages around in the queue in order to present
them in the Digest in what I think is a fair juxtaposition.
Admittedly, a lot of Digest readers agree with me on things. I guess
if they did not, many of them would not continue reading and writing
to the Digest.

If your complaint really is  (and don't bother being honest with me
now, but try being honest with yourself) you don't like someone with a
relatively loud voice saying "CALLER ID IS A GREAT IDEA" then use the
Digest's supplementary discussion group on Telecom Privacy to say so.

Curious, is it not that I regularly promote our overflow discussion
areas as a place to air controversial issues to everyone's
satisfaction -- and exercise NO editorial control whatsoever over
these lists (Telecom Privacy and Computer Underground Digest) and yet
find myself branded as a bigot and biased for my efforts. Both of
those forums started from message threads in TELECOM Digest; both are
full of opinions and ideas that ought to suit you just fine.

I favor Caller ID completely. It is the best thing to happen in
telephony in many years. I favor continued aggressive prosecution by
the government of people who break into computer systems and telephone
networks. I find nothing socially responsible about such behavior and
I find no mitigating factors favoring the people who do these things.

If that is the problem  -- the real problem which subjected me to a
bunch of nasty messages here in recent days and meta-discussions about
how you can get comp.dcom.telecom back under your thumb and keep it
under tight control then you might at least say so, and can the 
crap about whether or not the moderator is 'biased'. If being biased
means having definite opinions on subjects and expressing those
opinions in a forum with others then I cheerfully admit to being
biased. 

If {Arbitron} can be believed, about 50,000 Usenet people read TELECOM
Digest daily. That does not include the mailing list, the readers at
Compuserve, MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, Sprint Mail, the Net Exchange BBS,
the several Fidonet BBS's which post each issue, and others. I can see
why you must be concerned  :)  .... But I built the Digest up to the
level of readership it has today, and I did the same for
comp.dcom.telecom. 

I don't intend to be silent merely to placate those of you who do not
like what I have to say. I will continue to say what I want, when I
want, and try to always accomodate 'the opposing viewpoint'. If you
have complaints and you can be intellectually honest in your
expression of them I will listen ... but your complaints of "Is the
Moderator of comp.dcom.telecom biased" don't interest me in the least,
except that I get sort of annoyed at being called a shithead by
someone who appealed to me for rebuttal space, was given it and still
managed to make a poor showing in the discussion. 

By the way, the one or more sysadmins who are routing
comp.dcom.telecom straight to the bit bucket these days -- not even
having the courtesy to pass it along to their downstream feeds will
soon have the opportunity to try and intercept the mail also as more
of the end-readers are asking to be added to the mailing list in order
to receive each issue.  


Patrick Townson
Just sign me the Moderator who doesn't give a shit.