Re: Can we please dekookify the list?

KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Mon, 01 Mar 1999 11:50:14 +0100

It appears as if Jonathan Reeves <JonathanR@mail.iclshelpdesks.com> wrote:
|
|I may be new to this list, but I was under the impression that
|extropians valued free thinking, free speech, learning about all areas
|of life and science, accepting the importance (and usefulness) of
|hearing points of view which differ to your own own.

They do.

|Now, it seems like some kind of clique are trying to claim the list as
|their own personal chat room, by either setting up democratic
|censorship or just simply buying the thing outright.

Text cathegorization lets the reader decide. It breaks the author's broadcast monopoly on the list. It works like a SPAM filter: the reader decides, not the author.

|Apologies if I have miunderstood anyones intent, but the tone of the
|postings has seemed to me very suspect. I don't care if someone's
|grammar or spelling aren't too clever - they still have a right to
|express their point of view - do you want people to pass an entrance
|test before being allowed to post to the list?

Anybody can write. But everybody need not read it.

You appear to confuse the reader's free choice with censorship.

|In principle the prefixes are a good idea, although so many of the
|discussions are linked in ways which cross over the boundaries that I
|think it might be a little hard (and misleading) to enforce.

Prefixing saves time. Some have very little of this precious resource.