On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Dale Thorn wrote:
cypherpunks@count04.mry.scruznet.com wrote:
Please as soon as possible... make this into a moderated list... then I can kiss this noise goodbye...
Could you please (!) state for the record:
1. Why you can't use filters?
Filters aren't intelligent enough. How do you propose to filter out the anonymous dialy warnings about Tim May? while they originally came with a fixed subject which one could filter, they are now popping up anonymously with random crypto related subjects. If you filter all anonymous mail, you lose the good anon mail you might want to read. Yeah, you can look for "Timmy, Mayo, Maya" and other clues, but these will prevent you from reading other posts which contain those words. Least you expect us to use A.I. filtering which require trainng and don't really exist. Feel free to write one if you are so inclined. Even our friend Vulis has sane posts when he takes his medication (though I suspect he does so rarely.) Filtering out everything he posts doesn't make sense, as reading the sane stuff will have some value. I don't want to miss what he says when it is worth my time to read it.
2. Why you want your news censored? Do you think when (if) you pick up your favourite big-city newspaper, that having a "Times Staff Writer" edit (rewrite) all the stories is better than getting them straight off the wire, i.e., AP, UPI, etc.? I'll bet you do, you budding little fascist.
For the same reason that you don't watch all 150+ cable channels on your TV (assuming you have a TV and cable) at the same time. It is a waste of your time to attempt it, you have no interest in 99% of it. You want to read what is relevant to your interests, if you have subscribed to cypherpunks, it is because some of the material posted here is of interest to you. This material has to do with crypto, crypto-anarchy, some politics as it relates to crypto, and crypto related news. IF you want to find out about the mating calls of seaguls, you subscribe to whatever mailing lists share that interest; not everyone who subscribes to cypherpunks wants to read about seaguls. Or mad rants about the sexual prefs of folks on this list, especially when posted with malice. Or for that matter tons of posts advertising various crap sent to "Fuck_You_Punks" and other such users. These were clearly requested to us by folks who claim their names to be "Fuck_You_Punks"; advertising doesn't belong here either. If you want to advertise on the list, fine, pay the list owner for air time. As for me, I do not read newspapers or watch the news on TV since to me they are depressing, boring and useless. The proposed scheme should not affect anyone in any way. Those who want the filtered list will get it, those who want the spams and flames and ads and turds will get them, those who want it all will also get them. Why are you so opposed to giving people a choice to pick between the moderated and unmoderated lists personally? Just as there is freedom of speech, there is the freedom to ignore, to chose to filter or tune out flames and turds. The proposed scheme of having three mailing lists empowers the readers of this list to chose for themselves. Are you so afraid that no one cares about what you have to say, that they won't have to listen to you? Or are you just paranoid and see flashes of censorship before your eyes? Think about it this way: if a device existed that allowed TV viewers to not see commercials, would they purchase it? Why shouldn't you allow them to chose to ignore commercials? Maybe because you're an advertiser and are paying for the commercials? Maybe, but I think most TV watchers would love to have such a device; some won't want it, or would want to watch the commercials. But they would have a choice. How is this any different? =====================================Kaos=Keraunos=Kybernetos============== .+.^.+.| Ray Arachelian | "If you're gonna die, die with your|./|\. ..\|/..|sunder@sundernet.com|boots on; If you're gonna try, just |/\|/\ <--*-->| ------------------ |stick around; Gonna cry? Just move along|\/|\/ ../|\..| "A toast to Odin, |you're gonna die, you're gonna die!" |.\|/. .+.v.+.|God of screwdrivers"| --Iron Maiden "Die With Your Boots on"|..... ======================== http://www.sundernet.com =========================