Re: Ebonics

[Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>]

Ray Arachelian wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Dec 1996, Dale Thorn wrote:
> > Dr. Vulis has in fact been forcibly unsubscribed.  He's on my "who
> > cypherpunks" list as of 12 Oct 1996, but does not appear as of
> > 04 Nov, 30 Nov, and 18 Dec, when I last asked for a list.

> As far as majordomo is concerned, - yes.  However, there are those who
> subscribe invisible and therefore wouldn't show up when you say "who
> cypherpunks" to majordomo@toad.com.

I subscribed to this list at the recommendation of someone else, and at
the time it was my first experience on the "new" Internet, i.e., browsers
and such (three years ago when I got on and off it was numeric menus only
as far as I know).  It's interesting to me how many ways there are to do
things, and how many ways there are to get around them.

For example, there must have been more than one way Gilmore could have
dealt with Dimitri (he chose the worst), and there must have been several
ways Dimitri could get around the ban (he chose a very easy methodology,
apparently, which sure makes me wonder what Gilmore was trying to do).

> It's not a question that he found a way to read from and post to the
> cypherpunks list.  He hasn't been prevented from doing so, therefore his
> unsubscription hasn't been enforced, so he's still here.

Hasn't been enforced?  Are you saying that Gilmore is trying to tell us:
"Hi, I'm John Gilmore. I'm cutting Dr. Vulis off the list, but actually,
I'm not cutting him off. Hee hee." (April Fools, or something like that).
I can handle the humor, if that's what you're getting at.

> If before he was unsubscribed he was able to post messages and read
> messages, and now that he's unsubscribed he's able to post messages and
> read messages, what's the difference to the rest of us on the list?  As
> far as we can see, he's still subscribed.  Never mind that he gets his
> messages from usenet or elsewhere, he's still here.  There is NO
> difference to the rest of cypherpunks.

Well, if there was *no* difference, why was there so much traffic on it?
I dare say that that thread was the biggest (and most divisive) of all time.