-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article <199507111845.AA16926@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> you write:
Specifically, I was thinking along the lines of a newsgroup where only selected individuals are able to post, but anybody who wants to can read the group. However, the "selected individuals" could fall into several categories. <snip>
I think this is the wrong direction to go - I mean certainly, if a given newsgroup or mailing list wants to have a secret decoder ring that one needs to be in possession of to be allowed to post, they're more than welcome - but viewer/reader/receiver level filtering is the way to go. Most newsreaders have kill files, a newsreader called strn (Scoring Threaded Read News) takes it a step further. In strn you have "score files" for hierarchies, groups, or certain topics, and within these files you specify rules by which each article is given a score. You can then have all the articles below a certain score auto-killed or you can just be presented with a list of articles, sorted highest score to lowest. This lets you not only, select you who *don't* want to read, as a killfile does, but it also lets you choose who you *do* want to read, even though every idiot can post. This gets around the messy censorship questions. I use a program that takes a mailing list and posts it to a local newsgroup, so I can read cypherpunks like I read news. I tried to select the more intelligent posters by giving them high scores, but I found it became rather pointless, as most of the posters (with a few notable exceptions) are worthwhile reading. It is still useful for subject filtering however. In any case, the concepts implemented in strn could easily be expanded and coded into other popular newsreaders and mail agents. I think this is a much better solution. Just a quick add-on thought - this whole discussion started from people talking about moderation - the above is my answer to those who say we (or any group) *needs* moderation. If any group nonetheless *chooses* to moderate, I have no quibble, but it cannot be said that it is necessary to extract signal from noise. I enjoy several moderated newsgroups and mailing lists, and wouldn't give them up for the world, but it's not for everyone. I think this is a good example of repuations at work, in good cypherpunk form. I read moderated groups and lists where the moderater in question has shown good form and judgement and thus has a good reputation - I would avoid groups moderated by those who demonstrate otherwise. It was pointed out that there is a moderated cypherpunks list (I don't know anything about - I'm assuming its some one who gets the list and forwards some part of it, the signal, to the smaller "moderated" list) This is really good example of moderation in that the unmoderated raw feed is still available. Imagine if there were two groups, rec.arts.erotica and rec.arts.erotica.moderated or somesuch, the latter being a subset of the former. That way everybody gets to have their cake and eat it too. - -- Baba baby mama shaggy papa baba bro baba rock a shaggy baba sister shag saggy hey doc baba baby shaggy hey baba can you dig it baba baba E7 E3 90 7E 16 2E F3 45 * Stuart Smith * 28 24 2E C6 03 02 37 5C <stu@nemesis.wimsey.com> * http://www.wimsey.com/~ssmith/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMAT21ai5iP4JtEWBAQEx1wP7BthRjlkOveACG8lbAPDu9b52PznTdEh7 TYLyZGR9/HqQc3ExLMb0051Lo3LaSbh4T7BM6/ZHNOeLZpi4lVqzu7fJCK2dA33Q a2emExbanU/YPnIdiuZZ/bOcWhUbmdDRJ0TttNja1jLpmokQ6RpYs3P2ke+jfi19 rjCwQYhc4oM= =hxjj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----