1. Post it in Usenet I.
2. Put it on a mailing list. Or two. Or twenty.
3. Put it on a web site. Or two. Or twenty.
4. Use some other technology that we haven't thought of yet.
This objection was raised back in the days when moderated newsgroups were
were being experimented with. As it turns out, (1) instances of abuse
of moderation powers were extremely rare and (2) even 15 years ago,
there were plenty of ways to work around those abuses. Now there are
even more -- so many that nobody can hope to suppress a point of view,
or a discussion topic, by means of Usenet II.
As a First Amendment supporter (for non-US readers, that's the Amendment
to the US Constitution which guarantees a right of free speech), I'd be
one of the first to raise an alarm if I thought Usenet II would suppress
free speech. I don't see any indication that it will do so.
>The universal law of entropy -
>that things will and must move from order to increasing chaos - has to
>apply to the internet as well. Yes, there is a lot of noise on Usenet, and
>no there's not a lot anyone can do to stop it. But for a lot of groups,
>there is still some intelligent discussion going on. It's not time to jump
>ship, and definately not to this Usenet II.
Usenet is more than noisy: it's becoming a useless repository of spam,
misposted articles, flame wars, and drivel. We have more newsgroups
than ever before, but the signal-to-noise ratio drops lower every day.
Yeah, Usenet II is a radical step, but so was Usenet I -- and it worked
reasonably well for about a decade (1979-1989) before the roof started
to cave in.
The few remaining useful newsgroups on Usenet I tend to be either
(a) moderated or (b) populated by small, focused groups of posters
who respect netiquette and each other. Both are easily moved to Usenet II;
in fact, I'd suggest that those be the *first* to be asked to migrate,
which is great for Usenet II but lousy for Usenet I. However, since
I consider Usenet I pretty much a lost cause, I don't think that's
a bad thing.
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk@itw.com