[116713] in Cypherpunks
The moderation message
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Olsen)
Wed Aug 18 22:47:28 1999
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990818192457.0471e100@clueserver.org>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 19:24:57 -0700
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
From: Alan Olsen <alan@clueserver.org>
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Reply-To: Alan Olsen <alan@clueserver.org>
From the great pile of mail from the old days...
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>To: cypherpunks@toad.com
>Subject: Sandy and I will run a cypherpunks "moderation" experiment in Jan
>Date: Sun, 05 Jan 1997 11:39:52 -0800
>From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
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>I agree with Sandy Sandfort and many others that things have gotten
>way out of hand on the list. He and I feel that the only proposed
>solutions likely to succeed involve inserting human judgement in the
>cypherpunks posting process, rather than mere automation. So I am
>supporting this experiment, primarily by setting up a few more mailing
>lists on Toad and by automatically moving the current set of
>subscribers to the moderated list. You will be able to move
>yourselves back to the unedited list if you don't want to participate
>in the experiment, or if, partway through, you decide you don't like
>the results.
>
>Sandy will be gone til Tuesday evening, so don't expect further
>answers from him (or many from me, I'm swamped with other activities)
>until then. Meanwhile I'm interested in your discussion (on the list)
>of the idea. We'll modify it before starting, with good ideas from you.
>
> John Gilmore
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> SANDY SANDFORT
>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
>C'punks,
>
>Like many of you, I have become very disenchanted with the
>quality of discourse on this list. As others have pointed
>out, I believe a great deal of the blame can be laid on the
>lack of civility between list (and non-list) members. I
>think this, in turn, is the result of the list being open.
>As such, it has no feedback mechanisms to discourage
>gratuitous insults and personal attacks. The result has
>been an escalation of such behavior--something that no
>amount of personal mail filtering can rectify.
>
>Recently, I made a couple of rough proposals to John Gilmore
>to see if there was some way to reverse this trend. We have
>gone back and forth on several issues, but we finally
>reached an agreement whereby I would partially moderate the
>Cypherpunk list for a one-month test period. If the
>consensus of list members is that the test is going well, it
>can be extended. If members think it sucks, it can be
>dropped or modified. Even before we start, though, you may
>wish to contribute suggestions.
>
>The following is our general plan. I'm sure there will be
>questions that have to be answered as they arise, but the
>basis outline is a follows:
>
>1) The test will run from January 11 through February 12.
>
>2) I will review all incoming messages for purposes of
>preserving decorum and reducing obviously unrelated spam. Other
>then that, I will not overly concern myself with off-topic posts.
>I will, however, expurgate all posts containing flames, insults
>and other irrelevant personal attacks, as well as spams, before
>forwarding the remaining posts to the Cypherpunk list.
>
>3) Cypherpunks who wish to read all posts to the list may do so
>by taking advantage of either of two optional lists. The first
>(cypherpunk-flames@toad.com), will consist solely of messages
>expurgated from the main Cypherpunks list. (Those who subscribe
>to "flames" will be able to easily monitor my moderating
>decisions.) The second (cypherpunks-unedited@toad.com), will
>contain all posts sent to Cypherpunks. It will be the equivalent
>of the current open, unmoderated list. It will appeal to those
>who don't want list moderation.
>
>4) During the test month, polite discussion of the test will
>always be on topic. In the last few days before the 10th of
>February, I will call for opinions as to whether moderation
>should be continued, modified or eliminated. John has agreed to
>abide by the consensus of the group with one proviso. Because of
>the large volume of bandwidth eaten by the lists, he does not
>want to maintain both the "flame" and "unedited" versions of the
>list. If list members decide to continue to have the list
>moderated, one of those lists will probably have to go.
>
>5) If list members decide on a moderated list, I will be happy
>to assist in the ongoing process. Though I will continue to be
>available for duty as moderator from time to time, we will need a
>set of rotating volunteers to take turns acting as moderator.
>Volunteers are always welcome.
>
>6) Because every message submitted to Cypherpunk will be posted
>to two of the three sister lists, I don't intend to lose much
>sleep over whether or not this or that moderating decision was
>perfect. I will do the best job I can, within the constraints
>listed here. If I err, it isn't fatal. Everyone who wants one
>will have two Cypherpunk venues for their posts. Sounds fair
>enough to me. What do you think?
>
>
> S a n d y
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>PS: The new lists aren't set up yet, so there's no point in trying
>to subscribe or unsubscribe to them yet. We'll let you know when they
>are working. -- John
>
>
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