Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!spdcc!tauxersvilli!alphalpha!nazgul
From: nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: The Moderator Who Doesn't Give A Shit
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.161511.4804@alphalpha.com>
Date: 12 Feb 91 16:15:11 GMT
References: <74436@bu.edu.bu.edu> <1991Feb11.185846.20778@lavaca.uh.edu>
Organization: asi
Lines: 35

In article <1991Feb11.185846.20778@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu ("J. Eric Townsend") writes:
>This has about as much to do with EFF as anything else in this goofy
>thread.  One of my biggest concerns related to the global village is that
>people with biased interests will take over various channels of
>communication while constantly claiming how "fair" they are to

Usenet is one of the purest democracies in existance.  Anyone who wishes
to take responsibility (e.g. moderating) can.  So long as the readers
like you you have power.  When they don't, they you don't.  You can't
take power in cyberspace, it can only be given to you.

The reason that Prodigy has people so upset is that they see it as
violating this principle.  Prodigy exploits the weakest link of cyberspace -
they control the transport.  Whoever controls the transport has the
ability to take and give power irrespective of the wishes of the
people.  Fortunately two factors intervene.  Prodigy by no means has
a monopoly on transports, and the marketplace - the traditional way
of deciding things in this company, can also take away power if it
decides to.

If you really dislike what Prodigy is doing - hit them where it hurts.
Design a PD protocol and software for doing nice pretty little interfaces
that are understandable by the common citizen (computers as appliances).
Then distributed to all the BBS' and online systems in the world.  If
Compuserve and Genie et.al. have any sense at all, this is exactly
what they are doing now.  In fact, I hope they are working on it together,
since a multi-system standard would definitely be more effective.
-- 
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I'm not sure which upsets me more; that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.