From: Dave Hayes <dave@kachina.jetcafe.org>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 14:14:27 -0800 (PST)
To: gbroiles@netbox.com
Subject: Re: what's in a name?
Message-ID: <199702052214.OAA05697@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com> writes:
> Wei Dai's message raises an important question: what is the relationship
> between ownership and list content or quality? 

I'll assert that ownership can only have a negative impact on
content. Freedom is preferable to bias, and hence loss of freedom
can only hurt content...according to -my- standard of content anyway.

> Are mailing lists an example of a situation where "the tragedy of the
> commons" is not a useful metaphor? 

Yes. Such analogies assume that common people create tragedy, which 
is only true if their leaders have designed things to work that way.

> Is the desire for an anarchic community at odds with a desire for
> good use of resources?

The network resources are there to handle email traffic. Attempting
to place a non-technical content-based standard on the usage of
resources invites censorship and leads to stagnation of ideas.

If people would simply learn to filter what they don't like from their
net.viewport, there would not be a perceived problem.
------
Dave Hayes - Altadena CA, USA - dave@jetcafe.org 
Freedom Knight of Usenet - http://www.jetcafe.org/~dave/usenet

Nasrudin arrived at an all-comers horse race mounted on the slowest of oxen.
Everyone laughed, an ox cannot run. 
"But I have seen it, when it was only a calf, running faster than a horse.",
said Nasrudin. "So why should it not run faster, now that it is larger?"