Re: My Departure, Moderation, and "Ownership of the List"

[Mark Grant <mark@unicorn.com>]

On Mon, 3 Feb 1997, Adam Back wrote:

> My vote is for renaming:
> 	`cypherpunks-unedited' -> `cypherpunks'
> and	`cypherpunks' -> `cypherpunks-edited'

I have to agree. I'm only a 'cypherpunk' in the sense of setting up
various crypto-related Web sites and writing and giving away thousands of
lines of cryptography code rather than regularly posting to the list, but
my main concern is that the default for the list has gone from anarchy to
moderation. 

If the users of the list truly believe in anarchistic solutions to
problems then the moderated list should exist *in addition* to the
unmoderated list, rather than replacing it. In a truly anarchistic society
the cypherpunks list would be an unmoderated forum full of spam and
opinions related in some way to the list topics and numerous moderators
would charge us for their versions of the list in which they simply pass
on the messages they like. We could then choose a moderator whose
interests are similar to ours and pay them for providing us with
apropriate information. IMHO this is the way that mailing lists and Usenet
are likely to evolve as they become too large for us to read and react to
all posts; we should be in the vanguard of creating appropriate solutions
to the problems. 

Providing a moderated list which saves me from dowloading spam is a
worthwhile exercise which is potentially valuable to me (and I'm grateful
to Sandy for offering such a service for free), but I do not believe that
it should be the default for new subscribers.

	Mark

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