Jeroen wrote: > In the past, some other people have had that power as well. IIRC, in the > six years of its existence, Brin-L has had five individuals who acted as > listowners (Hector Yee, Stewart Blandon, Eileen Tan, Julia Thompson, and > me). None of them ever abused his/her powers. Given the possible > consequences for a listowner who abuses his/her power, as well as the > stated policy on use of powers, I see no reason to expect that any > listowner will abuse his/her powers in the future.
and > True. However, I need three things in order to boot someone: means, motive > and opportunity. Do I have the means? Yes, my status as listowner gives me > the means. Do I have the motive? Sure, I have been attacked often enough > and removing the offenders would have made my on-line life a bit happier. > Do I have the opportunity? Yes, it will only take one message to the > listserver to boot someone. But despite the fact that I could have booted > certain people, in the eight months I have been a listowner I have never > done that. If I *would* do that, I would almost immediately loose my > listowner status and probably find myself booted not much later. IOW, I > have nothing to gain from abusing my powers. > > And that, my dear friend, should be enough reason to have no fear I will > ever act otherwise. If you insult me today, you will still be subscribed > when you wake up tomorrow. This seems to me to be a pretty clear statement from Jeroen regarding his feelings on this issue. I am willing to believe, based upon this, that Jeroen will not abuse his powers. I'll even put it in all caps: IT IS MY BELIEF THAT JEROEN HAS SUFFICIENTLY DEMONSTRATED THAT HE WILL NOT ABUSE HIS POSITION AS LISTOWNER. However... I still think the mist of misbehavior is a Bad Idea. Several others have already listed their problems with it. There is a fine line between creating and enforcing a community standard of behavior and intimidating community members. It's best to hew as closely as possible to the original goal of this group, to be a free-ranging forum. Individuals are welcome to join or leave at their whims, based upon their happiness with the community. Individuals are also more than able to use filtering options in their email software to delete or ignore posts from those they do not think credible, or on subjects they do not wish to discuss. That's all I'm saying on it. I am now through discussing it. Just my $0.02, which today is worth 0.0217841 EUR. Adam [EMAIL PROTECTED]
