X-Message-Number: 23991
From: "mike99" <>
Subject: Re: Spam is in the eye of the libertarian beholder
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 21:13:43 -0600

randy <> wrote:

>I notice that a slashdot-like ratings system, complete with karma, is
>being implemented for cryonet.  Apparently this has been brought on
>repeated posts associated with Mr Pagnato, who appears to be the
>sympathetic to Democratic party/liberal politics.  There have been
>perhaps a dozen or so such posts on cryonet in the last month or so.
>
>And, now, voila, karma ratings loom.
>
>Funny, though. There sure have been a lot of political discussions on
>cryonet in the past. Hundreds, in fact.  But it seems that all those
>posts seem to be the products of ... LIBERTARIAN posters.  Perhaps
>poor Mr Pagnato just has the wrong political orientation?
>
>I guess Spam -- like beauty -- is in the eye of the beholder. And the
>beholders on cryonet tend to be libertarian.

I think you mischaracterize the problem here. I have no qualms whatsoever
about political discussion messages from liberals, socialists, communists,
libertarians, conservatives, anarchists, minarchists or people of any other
political persuasion. But what Mr. Pagnato posts is not his opinion, but
rather messages forwarded from some political website or email list. When
people than ask Mr. Pagnato to say something himself, in his own words, he
never replies. In other words, he's just a conduit for political spam. In
fact, Pagnato might not even exist: the name might be cover for someone else
to re-post political spam.

That kind of behavior violates the spirit of this group and every other
online discussion group. If it is allowed to continue, others will try it,
and soon the signal-to-noise ratio will become so poor that this group will
die the death that so many other unmoderated discussion lists have suffered.
It's the online version of Gresham's Law: fake currency drives out the real
thing.


Regards,

Michael LaTorra




"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski

Member:
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