Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!inco!mack
From: mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Scrap the current NG creation procedure, invent a new one
Message-ID: <4832@inco.UUCP>
Date: 31 Mar 89 19:56:35 GMT
References: <3010@looking.UUCP> <14200002@tippy> <3023@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack)
Organization: McDonnell Douglas-INCO, McLean, VA
Lines: 43

In article <3023@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
>I would say that if the 5 board members no "nothing" of amateur radio,
>that would indicate that a specialized subgroup needs extra evidence to
>be created.  As it is, I can't imagine the members knowing nothing about
>it, although they could all know very little.

Oh my God, it's the Usenet Investigative Committee on Amateur Radio.

Before this goes any further, there are a few questions that should
be considered:

1) Do we need any sort of policy-making body in Usenet, or for that
   matter, do we need policies? Do we need the guidelines we already
   have?

2) Should we shift from a cooperative anarchy to some other form
   of organization, such as a participatory democracy? If so, how
   should we enforce the dictates of the majority? Should we have
   the sort of "ruling council" that Brad has suggested? What happens
   if the majority decide to ignore them? Does anyone remember the
   Backbone Cabal?

Until we decide the answers to these questions, I think the discussion
over the newsgroup creation/deletion rules, including Brad's Gang of
Five, is premature. We need to decide *if* the net is going to be run
before we decide *how* it's going to be run and by whom.

Let's remember that the net is an anarchy not because everyone agrees
that that's the best way for it to be, but because there is no way to
impose any kind of order on it. There are no enforcement mechanisms.
The news software source code is provided to every site that runs
the news and it doesn't even require superuser privilege to install.
Any enforcement mechanism that is built in can be removed by someone
who can program in C.

Ultimately, the question is "Will we agree to be ruled?" If the
answer is "no", the current discussion is a waste of bandwidth.
If it's "yes", then the debate on the form of government to adopt,
along with the associated questions on how to enforce the decisions
of the governing body, can begin.

-- 
Dave Mack