From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 08:08:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: RE: Nitwits
In-Reply-To: <2FBF98FC7852CF11912A0000000000010D19ADDE@DINO>
Message-ID: <v0313031bb29df059d4fd@[209.66.101.206]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 3:02 PM -0800 12/16/98, Harvey Rook (Exchange) wrote:
>Tim May Wrote...
>>
>> Some (Nitwits) are from Yahoo, some from MyDejaNews (tm), some from
>> HotMail. And then
>> there are the unilluminati from WebTV and AOL.
>>
>
>The depressing thing is that AOL as at least 14 million paying subscribers.
>It may even be up to 20 million. Hotmail has 30 million active accounts. The
>unilluminati are the future of the internet.
>

By the way, I don't condemn AOL and even WebTV out of hand. For some, it's
the best way to get access to the Net, or at least better than what they
currently know about. As bad as some features of AOL are, their browser and
mailer capabilities are actually _better_ than what some university and
corporate users are stuck with (until recently, some only had VT100s
running off of VAXen).

The problem is that the Net and all fora on the Net are being invaded by
folks who were the "C" students in high school English. (Actually, some of
these illiterates may have gotten "B"s in their English classes, maybe even
a few "A"s...such has been the effect of dumbing-down and ebonicizing our
educational system.)

"Like, cuz, my bad! WareZ..where? I cant unnerstand why u all think speling
is so imporrtant. Like you prolly past English class or sumpin."

And these folks don't seem to read, haven't thought deeply about poltical
or social issues, and just appear to drop in on lists and spew for a few
weeks before, thankfully, vanishing.

Filters are the answer, of course. If I were on any high volume mailing
lists these days, which I'm not, I'd consider shifting to a "positive
reputation filter" mode. Which I may do anyway.

--Tim May

Y2K -- LMGALMAO -- Loading my guns and laughing my ass off
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.