Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 Unisoft-Cosmos; site kepler.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!lll-crg!well!micropro!kepler!jpd From: jpd@kepler.UUCP (John Donovan) Newsgroups: net.news.group Subject: Re: Bureaucracy - DON'T delete net.internat! Message-ID: <312@kepler.UUCP> Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 12:45:11 EDT Article-I.D.: kepler.312 Posted: Thu Oct 24 12:45:11 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 04:22:41 EDT References: <739@inset.UUCP> <212@l5.uucp> Organization: MicroPro Int'l Corp., San Rafael, CA Lines: 44 Summary: Time for the oligarchy to back off In article <212@l5.uucp>, gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: > > Net.internat seems to have readers and writers and a topic that > seriously needs research, investigation, discussion, and coordination. > If somehow somebody forgot to tap-dance when the music came on, so > what? In this self-organized anarchistic network have we gotten so > bureaucratic that because a rule didn't get followed, we'd wipe out a > productive technical newsgroup? (You can tell I've just finished > reading Ursula LeGuin's "The Disposessed" again...) Your information is seriously out of date if you think this is still a "self-organized anarchistic network." That is a nice self-image if you are so inclined, but it doesn't square with the facts. The recent heavy handed treatment of net.internat by one of the Troika is a case in point. The larger problem is, How do you--in a supposedly leaderless environ- ment--deal with people who take it upon themselves to "save the net" from the people on it (and with whom it is synonymous)? this is all in the best interests of the net, of course (and maybe it is)--but how do you deal with this paternalistic arrogation of responsibility that involves no concurrent accountability? The only answer that I see is to take the idea of decentralized responsibility more seriously--and let people vote on new groups, like they are supposed to do. NOT watch such efforts ad net.internat get bounced by some self-appointed guardian of the common good. Touchy? You bet. I've paid my dues around here playing into just a stacked deck. If enough people object to the way new groups are handled, they should object, and something will change; and conversely. I, for one, intend to exercise my God-given right to bitch. Thank you, the soap box is now vacant... > > PS: I'm looking for an "eunet" news feed from some local San Francisco > site. Our feed (ptsfa) doesn't seem to carry those groups... Talk to Matt McClure at The WELL in Sausalito (415) 332-6106. -- ---- ... John Donovan, MicroPro Technical Communications {dual,ptsfa,hplabs}!well!micropro!kepler!jpd