From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 05:43:48 +0800
To: m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Subject: Re: "This post is G-Rated"
Message-ID: <199601261839.KAA19984@netcom6.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At  8:57 AM 1/26/96 -0600, Mike McNally wrote:
>Bill Frantz writes:
> > An unmoderated group or list carries a higher risk of seeing inappropriate
> > material.  However even unmoderated lists have standards and those people
> > who enforce those standards.  
>
>Enforce?  Enforce?  Exsqueeze me?

On cypherpunks, Perry is the principle enforcer, although others frequently
join in.

>
> > This kind of enforcement is an example of
> > communitarian as opposed to authoritarian control.  It all depends on just
> > how vital it is to the consumer (and rating group) that NO inappropriate
> > material appear.
>
>And of course, it doesn't work.  There's an unlimited amount of
>mindless dreck floating around every unmoderated nesgroup; I've been
>reading news long enough (and NN makes it easy enough) that I avoid it
>without a second thought.  I assure you, however, that no attempts at 
>"nettiquette enforcement" are effective in a general sense.

Of course it works.  Cypherpunks stays much more on the topic than it would
without Perry.  Since Perry has no way of directly enforcing his opinions,
they can be overridden by any other posters, but his "moral suasion" does
have an effect on many of us.

Bill