Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ames!amdahl!pacbell!well!fico2!everexn!karen
From: karen@everexn.uucp (Karen Valentino)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Sci.philosophy.objectivism
Keywords: Objectivism, SPO, opposition, reasonableness
Message-ID: <1990Feb5.172439.15846@everexn.uucp>
Date: 5 Feb 90 17:24:39 GMT
References: <7445@tank.uchicago.edu>
Organization: Everex Systems, Inc.
Lines: 42

rwt1@tank.uchicago.edu (Robert Tracinski) writes:

>This is why I think the charter ought to say that reasoned opposition is 
>welcome, but that it should set a context which makes it clear that casual
>insults or opposition for its own sake are not welcome.  I don't think that
>most of the readers of SPO will want to cut through all of the noise of such
>irrelevant postings.

I don't disagree with your ideal at all, but I'd like to inject a
little practicality here.  My limited experience on the net has
shown me that you can write whatever you want in a charter, and some
people will ignore it.  But, generally a newsgroup will develop its
own tone, which will endure.  

An example is news.newusers.questions.  It's a relatively young group.  
When it was first created, all kinds of merry pranksters showed up to 
make trouble; but some were ignored, and some were told, "this is n.n.q., 
you don't get to flame here because any question asked about news, its 
software or email are legitimate."  And the troublemakers got bored and 
went away.  

I expect that you will see some of that with your group--lots of
troublemakers at first.  But, you may not have the good fortune to have 
detractors go away, as in the example above.  The topics in n.n.q. are 
generally noncontroversial.  With any topic that's controversial, such as 
Objectivism, there will be "lively discussion" and flames, unless you 
police the group through moderation.  

Wherever the proposed group falls in the hierarchy, it may not turn out 
to be the newsgroup you envisioned.

Karen


Karen


-- 
   Karen Valentino  <>  Everex North (Everex Systems)  <>  Sebastopol, CA
      karen@everexn.uu.net      ..{apple, well}!fico2!everexn!karen

	  "The best way out is always through."  Robert Frost