Right now, I think that perhaps much of the nets is still made up of people who are experienced in netrunning, but the sheer quantity of new inexperienced people joining is getting astronomical. If their initial contact is with a group containing a disrupter type, then they may run shuddering from the nets forever. If enough of them complain (to school administrators, postmasters, political figures), then very heavy handed laws will be slammed down in top of the nets in retaliation. It is a well known historical/political fact that any activity that is not successful at self-control WILL BE controlled from without, or smashed apart for "the good of the people".
I agree with you strongly; however, the notion of a list as a space, and the list members having their collective image tarnished by the presence of disruptive members clearly hasn't sunk in. Instead we get a lot of silly "freedom of speech" rhetoric. I guess they haven't realized that every forum doesn't have to be a noisy street corner or an all-comers keg party. (where, respectively, free speech works to the point of tolerating loud crazies and vomiting) The whole argument that people can use kill files is utterly bogus if outreach is even a minor goal for the group. Note that the extropians not only provide list-administered kill files, but also threaten disruptive members with expulsion, and as a result have excellent signal to noise. Good parallel to the similar problem of disruptive and violent individuals on MOOs, btw. Doug -- ---------------- /\ Douglas Barnes cman@illuminati.io.com / \ Chief Wizard (512) 447-8950 (d), 447-7866 (v) / () \ Illuminati Online metaverse.io.com 7777 /______\