From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Aug 29 1999 - 00:07:41 MDT
Kathryn Aegis wrote:
>
> The basic, repeated, complaint is that dynamic, intelligent women who have
> careers in the real world subscribe to these lists and get slammed with
> neanderthal attitudes: An assumption that they came here looking for
> dates. Having to read blatently ignorant threads like the one on female
> genetics and longevity. Having their postings and questions ignored or
> overly criticized.
Well, I personally didn't have to read that thread, having a real
mailreader and all, so I don't know whether or not it was blatantly
ignorant. But if we've got blatantly ignorant offensive posts, then I
say send 'em up the river. Ban the topic for two weeks. Kick the
offenders off the list for a month. Understand, I don't approve of
censoring intelligent discussion no matter who it offends, but I also
happen to believe that this list is for smart posts and that dumb posts
should be summarily dealt with if they become systematic, annoying, or
start having a detrimental effect on list quality.
If Neanderthal posts on this list are driving away female Extropians,
then maybe we should ban discussion of dating. And maybe we should even
create a set of "easily-abused" topics like gender differentials, in
which posting on the subject makes you liable to summary judgement of
scientific illiteracy, resulting in one warning followed by unsubscription.
Oh, who am I kidding. The list moderators are never going to do this.
But I've already written the message and deleting it would be a waste, so...
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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