I got this from Gautam. Sorry about the Portuguese header,
but I decided not to edit anything. Alberto

DATA: Quarta, 30 de janeiro de 2002, 09:53:08 -0200 
DE: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
PARA: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
ASSUNTO: Re: Etiquette 

Alberto,
For various bizarre reasons that I'm currently trying to resolve, I can't
post to the list from work, so I'm responding to you off-list.  I actually
kind of want this to be on-list, so if you it's not a problem could you
forward it to Brin-L?  Thanks.

GM



I think it�s not the proper moment to criticize the
_executor_ of the Etiquette rules. When these rules
are posted [all the time], we all agree to them, either
implicitly [with our silence] or explicitly [by making
suggestions, such as removing the requirement to
add the e-mail to the signature].

And JDG wasn�t banned, not as much as I was, when
we violated those rules [and IMHO my breaking of the
rules might be worse than his, because I did that
on purpose, while he did because his fingers type
faster than he thinks :-)]

OTOH, if Etiquette-violators like me and JDG [whose
opinions are respected, and who few people would really
like to make us shut up] aren�t punished in public
[and I hated when Jeroen did that to me, as I told him
in the chat room] on what basis we can ask the list
moderators to punish trolls?

Or do you *really* want a brin-l list with unmoderated
free speech?

Alberto Monteiro

Me:
First, I'm criticizing not the executor (well, a little bit, I guess) but
the execution.  JDG really didn't do anything that bad.  If all caps
posting ticks you off that much - grow up.  And delete it, I guess.  If
_Nick and I_ can resolve something with mutual apologies, anybody can.  For
an absentee list-owner to abruptly step in with a context free admonition
of one of the list's most active and (imo) respected posters is simply
wrong.  Since it was clearly prompted by an argument with another
list-owner, it smacks of intimidation.  In answer to your final question I
would say - it depends on what you mean.  Brin-l is not open to
_commercial_ speech, surely.  That is a limitation on our freedom of speech
that we have chosen to accept.  But I would not accept, and would not
participate in, a forum that demanded limitations on opinion speech.  I
picked where I went to _college_ based partly on that, I'm certainly not
going to be in an internet discussion group that limits itself in such a
way.  If someone chooses to call Jeroen a Nazi, that's their business, and
it's not okay to censor them for it.  Ever.  Etiquette is etiquette - one
of the things that is implied by etiquette is that it is enforceable only
through social sanction.  No one arrests you for using the wrong fork.
Banning someone from the list is not social sanction.  So I'm going to
maintain my previous stance on this.

Gautam Mukunda





 
 

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