On Fri, 20 Nov 1998, Greg Harp wrote:

Darn, I thought this was that mailing list...

It could be this mailing list if someone else would take over the mailing list management duties from Merit and then apply Fidonet style moderation techniques. For the benefit of thoise of you who did not pass through Fidonet on the way to the Internet, the main rules of Fidonet discussion groups, called echoes or echomail, were as follows: Do not be excessively annoying. Do not be excessivel annoyed. Anyone could join an echo and if they got out of line, then an echo moderator (not the same as an Internet mailing list moderator) would send them a private message asking them to stick to the topic and follow the rules. Then if the individual persisted in their annoying or off-topic behavior, they would be barred from the echo. They could be blocked from posting or they could be blocked entirely at the moderator's choice. Now, if you think this through carefully, this type of moderation role does not require excessive time commitments from the moderator. They would just read the discussions and react if someone gets out of line. SOmetimes they would receive a private message asking them to pay attention to the activities of a certain individual. But because of the two rules of Fidonet, you could not pester a moderator or you would get kicked out yourself. So the moderator job was not a major burden. I think that this list would benefit from having such a moderator. But because of the terminology confusion, I think that we should use a different name for that role. So far this doesn't explain why we need to take the list duties away from Merit. I may be wrong about this but I sense a great reluctance among most Americans to prevent someone from posting to a mailing list. This seems to be partially a cultural trait caused by misunderstanding of what the 1st Ammendment means. And partially a fear of being sued since in the American court system, the winner of such a lawsuit may still be stuck with a legal bill. There are two ways to solve the problem. One way is to have a Canadian organization manage this North American mailing list. Canadians are more willing to shut up a disruptive individual since we have no cultural tradition of free speech. And if you sue someone in a Canaduian court and lose the suiyt, then you pay all legal costs for the person that you launched the suit against. The other way is to have someone with more guts run the list. I can't blame the Merit folks for being gutless because they do operate within UMich and it is hard for an academic institution to act on this issue because of the legal risks and because of academic traditions of freedom. Private companies have the legal staff to advise them on how to minimize their risk. An example is the RBL which is run by a private individual because it is beneficial to him. But he shares it with others as well. -- Michael Dillon - E-mail: michael@memra.com Check the website for my Internet World articles - http://www.memra.com