How do you encourage people to use resources more-or-less wisely? 1. The socialist/nanny model - take charge and give 'em orders We've tried that and it apparently didn't work out. 2. The market model - charge people for what they use A while back, omebody suggested a system which would be self-funding, by charging people for each post they made. Maybe we should try it? If each little piece of ASCII art cost a poster a buck or two to send, he might send fewer. On the other hand, we don't want to discourage interesting posters, so I think some system to reimburse interesting posters would be useful. I'm not the guy to set up the system, but I'll happily buy a modest amount of "posting tickets." Brad On Tue, 11 Feb 1997, John Gilmore wrote:
Sandy hit a pothole in the moderation experiment when Mr. Nemesis submitted a posting containing nothing but libelous statements about Sandy's employer. He never anticipated that he wouldn't be able to follow his announced "post it to one list or the other" policy because to do so would make him legally liable (in his opinion; he's a lawyer, I'm not). His gears jammed, and the whole machine came to a halt for a few days.
Sandy has agreed to continue moderation through the end of the original 1-month experiment (through Feb 19). And it's a good thing, too, because the "cypherpunks community" had better get off its whining butt in the next ten days, or it will no longer exist.
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not willing to host the cypherpunks list any more. It's not the true assholes that brought me to this decision; it's the reaction from the bulk of people on the list: suspicion, flamage, and criticism with every attempt to improve things. I noticed few people volunteering some of their own time, money, or machines to help out. Almost all the suggestions were advice for *other* people to implement: ...