From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Wed May 29 2002 - 01:39:25 MDT
>
>
>I've lost track of who wrote what here so apologies for any lack of clarity!
>
>Somebody wrote:
>
>[snip]
>Well, I'm prone to this inquisitiveness as much as anyone,
>but what's not in me is to say: "Hey you two! Quit talking
>about that." Shouldn't we all fight the urge to tell other
>people what to do in situations that don't necessarily affect
>us?
>
[me]
If you are seen as part of a group, the behaviour of every single member
of that group affects you personally. New members and the general public
are going to judge the group according to what they see in real time. If
I joined a new group and the topics on its mailing list were unpleasant
in my opinion, I'd withdraw, not perhaps realising that these posts were
a minority. I'd then tell others who asked about this group, "oh, they
just seem to talk about murdering all the time; don't bother with them,"
etc etc. If someone statred causing bad trouble in public and shouting
about being an extropian, I'd hesitate to ally myself with anything
connected with that word.
And I'm on _your_ side! ...remember there are anti-extropians out there
looking for anything to discredit us...and heavily contraversial
conversations could provide them with ammunition. Don't tell me you
don't believe this list never gets hacked or that anti-extropians never
join it to monitor what's talked about! I know I'm a cyberchondriac but
don't tell me that everyone is so security conscious that they never
leave this mailing list sitting on the computer screen in front of their
friends whilst they go and make dinner or whatever. This list is not
private, and no conversation on it can be considered private.
Always ask yourself, before chucking anything in the cybersea, "Would I
mind if this were all over the newspapers next week with my name and the
extropians name all over it?" Because this _is_ going to happen to
somebody at some point.
As a member of a group we all have a responsibility not to do anything
deleterious to the reputation of that group. We're in control of the
reputation we get only as long as that responsibility is acknowledged.
[somebody else]
>(Now I do not want to be misunderstood as advocating
>"anything goes"--- I'm sure that the list monitors would
>step in if some thread descended to personal abuse, or to
>blatant pornography, or to *things that Lee Corbin cannot
>in his infinite wisdom anticipate* right now. And so should
>they rightfully step in. It is true, finally, that this
>list is private property.)
>
[me]
>
>Many threads descend to personal abuse (depending on your definitions of those words) but that only reveals who's emotionally mature and who isn't. It isn't dangerous in that any antagonist reading it would probably think we're just not too bright and slag each other off all the time. A far cry from discussing stuff that people are highly likely to misunderstand or deliberately twist and use against us. Discussions which fall into this category should be kept off the list (and preferably encrypted) because it's not how _we_ interpret them that will affect the reputation of extropians, it's how they will be interpreted by people who would prefer it if we didn't exist.
>
There is an old saying on the planet I come from. It goes:
Never Shit on Your Own Doorstep
Ramonsky
>The Ramonsky disclaimer: Anything I may have said or written that may have caused offence to any person was not intended to do so; however please tell me, so that I may avoid doing it again, whatever it was.
>
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