From: Jeremiah A Blatz <jer+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 21:49:43 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks-unedited@toad.com
Subject: Re: Cocksucker Gilmore's Big Adventure
In-Reply-To: <199702120040.SAA06406@wire.insync.net>
Message-ID: <0n0JV2200YUg0Kakg0@andrew.cmu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net> writes:
> A Gilmore Supporter writes:
> 
> > You know, I was vaugley offended by John's comments about whiny
> > cypherpunks, until I read this message and realized who he was talking
> > about. John, thank you for your years of service to the cypherpunk
> > community 9such as it is), 
> 
> John Gilmore's only contribution to Cypherpunks has been to provide
> a box.  I can't even remember the last time he contributed something of
> interest to the list, and he certainly ranks as one of the least
> frequent contributors of substance over the years. 

You have obviously never administered a Unix system. Just runing a
machine with a few users requires some effort, I've done it. Managing
a mailing list, especially one this immensly huge, has got to be one
of the bitchliest things on earth. If you think running a majordomo
for cypherpunks is just a matter of "providing a box," why don't you
try it?

> > and Sandy, thanks for your well-intentioned
> > (but doomed from day one) efforts to take some resopnsibility for our
> > current mess. It's too bad things had to end in such a pissy way, but
> > anyone who wants to dole out blame should realize that in an anarchy,
> > all members are responsible for the maintainence of freedom.
> 
> Sandy, unlike Herr Gilmore, has been a major contributor of substance
> to the list since its inception, and hopefully he will continue to be
> in the future.  The idea that he should moderate the list was of
> course a silly one, but for reasons which do not reflect badly on him
> in the least.  
> 
> What Mr. Blatz fails to realize is that the "problem" which certain
> people tried to solve never really existed.  The quality of the
> Cypherpunks list is determined solely by the amount of signal, not
> by the amount of noise, unless one is getting ones feed of the 
> list via 1200 baud long distance UUCP.  

RTFM well-intentioned. And please excuse my lack of gratuitous "scare
quotes." (There, is that better?) List members complained. John said
there was a problem, Sandy belived him and foolishly volunteered to
"moderate" (enough scare quotes for you?) the list.

Maybe John has grown into a crumudgen after his years of taking care
of toad.com, but he's all but out of the picture now. At least he had
the common sence to realize that he was not able to run the list in an
appropriate manner and force a carthises. Better that then to let the
list die out from continuing moderation.

> The notion that the list was ever threatened by the humour of Dr. 
> Vulis, or the one line bot-spammed insults about Tim May's heritage,
> is an absurd one.  No one should have had any problem ignoring such
> material, and only a politically naive fool would buy this as the
> excuse for the blatant usurpation of the list by Gilmore and crew. 

Agreed. I do, after all, read the "unfiltered" list. But you have no
right to tell Mr. Gillmore what to with his machine and his time.
Perhaps 10 days is not enough to get a smooth transition to another
system, but it does have the nice effect of moving people to action.
You could take a look at the literature on social loafing for a full
explanation.

Cordially,
Jeremiah Blatz

"standing on top of the world/ never knew how you never could/ never knew
 why you never could live/ innocent life that everyone did" -Wormhole

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