From: m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 05:30:45 +0800
To: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Subject: Re: "This post is G-Rated"
In-Reply-To: <199601261839.KAA19984@netcom6.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <9601261850.AA09988@alpha>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Bill Frantz writes:
 > >Enforce?  Enforce?  Exsqueeze me?
 > 
 > On cypherpunks, Perry is the principle enforcer, although others frequently
 > join in.

Oh, right.  I remember now.  All the off-topic junk I see on this
list is just my imagination.  All the billions of "UNSUBSCRIBE" and
"SIGNOFF" and "SET NO-MAIL" messages I see on the mailing lists I'm on
are just bits of lint that slip by.

The "enforcement" is always a reactive thing.  I don't think you'd get
far with a parent explaining that the material they consider indecent
which somehow showed up on alt.kids.only would be dealt with by
blistering flames.

 > >And of course, it doesn't work...
 > 
 > 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.

So you think those who want a "controlled cyberspace" would be happy
with newsgroups that stay "mostly decent"?  I strongly doubt it, and I
will also add that such "enforcement" is far, far less effective on
newsgroups than on mailing lists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
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