Re: Mandatory Voluntary Self-Ratings

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 11:40 PM 5/9/96, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:
>From:   IN%"tcmay@got.net"  8-MAY-1996 16:30:16.71
>
>>Then we'll see what happens. (This is an old debate, here and on the
>>Cyberia-l list, to wit, what happens when people/perverts/libertarians
>>choose to subvert the voluntary ratings by deliberately mis-rating their
>>stuff? Or what if they genuinely believe, a la NAMBLA, that youngsters
>>should be exposed to certain things?)
>
>        I don't agree with NAMBLA, BTW, in case anyone is wondering.

No need for people to point this out, as my point was an hypothetical, to
show that there simply _is no objective standard_ in such matters.

For every proposed "ratings" system that involves value judgments about who
should see something, I can think of examples where a quite opposite view
is held.

I still think we are being led down a dangerous path in trying to architect
ratings systems. As I said, we don't rate written words (at least I don't),
we don't rate newspapers, etc.

If a system gets built into the WWW, as with proposals for PICS, it _will_
be used by those who want to control content. We should think twice before
helping in any way.

(No, I'm not _against_ private ratings services...but this has little to do
with _me_, and I won't participate. More importantly, I won't have my
content have any kind of tag attached! Thus, the PICS thing looks intrusive
to me, and not at all what I think of as a "private ratings service." I'll
elaborate if my point is unclear.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
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