[ExI] META: A modest proposal for the Extropy-Chat list

[Eschatoon Magic]

Max, my experience is that splitting a list into sublists does not
work, and can only decrease the appeal of the main list. One of the
things that I value here is a wide conversation space, broadly related
to extropy but with some necessary elbow room.

Some considerations:

If I want to read a list where I always agree with everyone on
everything, there is a very simple thing that I can do: to create a
list where I am the only member. Or in other words, talking to the
mirror. Kind of boring I would say.

Yes, there are certainly some enemies lurking here, who can use unPC
posts to attack extropy. I say, fuck them.

Sacred cows are just as good for hamburgers as other cows.

G.

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 1:19 AM, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:
> I believe that Spike will be back in regular email contact sometime next
> week. Until then, I suggest we table any direct discussion of the moderation
> of Lee Corbin. (As I said before, it's my understanding that Lee is indeed
> on moderation and has not been "expelled". Use of the term "booted" or
> "expelled" is unhelpful because it fails to distinguish between these two
> possibilities.)
>
> In the meantime, this issue -- and I don't pretend to have read anything
> close to every post by Lee recently (though I certainly value his
> contributions in general) -- raises again the question of how best to manage
> this list according to the purposes for which is was created early last
> decade, and for which it still exists. Personally, as a co-owner of this
> list, I feel internal conflict. One the one hand, I don't like to suppress
> vigorous debate on controversial and troubling topics (such as forcibly
> relocating people of a certain religious belief). On the other, this list --
> to retain its unique flavor -- should cleave reasonably closely to the
> Principles of Extropy. One of those, you may recall, says something about
> Self-Direction which, in my mind, is not remotely compatible with forced
> relocation of people who hold stupid beliefs (and, frankly, Muslim beliefs
> ARE stupid and dangerous) but do nothing coercive in pursuit of those
> beliefs.
>
> What to so? I do think that we face an overwhelming amount of digital
> "stuff" and quite reasonably want to focus our discussions. Requiring some
> basic level of adherence to the Principles of Extropy on this particular
> list seems quite reasonable to me. (And I don't believe anyone could
> demonstrate dictatorial behavior from me. EVER.)
>
> Rather than an "either-or solution", perhaps we can develop a workable and
> productive "and" solution. In barest form, that would mean moderating this
> list -- probably a little *more* vigorously than we have historically --
> while creating a new list. The new list, perhaps named
> "Extropy-Controversial" or "Extropy-Unmoderated" would be the place to take
> all discussions which the moderators deem unsuitable to Extropy-Chat. Each
> message might carry a note saying that the posts to the list cannot be taken
> as representative of extropian transhumanism.
>
> How exactly this might work, I'm not sure. For instance, at what point
> should moderators move such discussions to the other list? What penalty
> should there be for those who contravene the policy and insist on posting
> inappropriately to the current list? Those kinds of questions should be
> discussed here.
>
> I'm wary of raising these issues now, while Spike is apparently away from
> the List for a few days (or perhaps has limited access), since he has -- at
> cost and no reward to himself -- recently been the main moderator of the
> List, and I don't want to burden him with catching up on a potentially
> vigorous discussion. However, the public inquiry and a couple of private
> inquiries about the status of Lee Corbin have prompted these thoughts.
>
> So, regarding the possibility of:
> Extropy-Controversial"
> or
> "Extropy-Unmoderated
>
> ...what are your thoughts?
>
> Max
>
>
>
> Max More, Ph.D.
> Strategic Philosopher
> www.maxmore.com
> max at maxmore.com
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>



-- 
Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon
aka Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco