[extropy-chat] Politics

[Harvey Newstrom]

On Dec 27, 2005, at 9:43 AM, Natasha Vita-More wrote:
> First let me state that politics is not banned on this list.

Thanks.  This is important.  As I read back through the archives to see 
what I missed, I see that some people have misunderstood me to be 
calling for censorship.  I want to make it clear that I do not condone 
censorship.  Nor, do I think anybody on this list has done so.  I think 
everyone wants to maximize the utility of this list.  Unfortunately, we 
differ on which topics are interesting.  There must be a win-win 
scenario that allows everyone to discuss extropy-related topics without 
destroying anybody else's discussions.

That is the problem.  Surely we can come up with a solution.

Some have proposed just hitting the delete key on posts we don't like.  
This takes a lot of time and effort to sort through many messages to 
delete them to find the ones we want.  Depending on one's interests, 
the work of reading and deleting unwanted posts could quickly override 
the value of the interesting posts.  Some people also have limited time 
to devote to this list.  Any time detracted from the interesting 
articles diminishes the value of the list for them.

Some have proposed using prefixes on postings.  These prefixes would 
categorize posts with "POLITICS:", "HUMOR:", "TECH:", etc.  This sorts 
the subjects and makes it easy for people to skip the categories they 
don't want.  Unfortunately, many people either forget or refuse to do 
this.  Thus, the system breaks down because it is not enforced or used. 
  So even if this system "would" work, it hasn't been put in place, so 
it "isn't" working.

Some have proposed filtering messages on the receiving end.  This is 
simply not possible for many clients in many situations.  In those 
cases where filtering is possible, it is not easy to develop filters 
that consistently block the unwanted material while never blocking the 
desired material.  Different people have different threshholds for 
losing valuable messages.  I, for one, cannot accept any level of false 
filtering.  If a filter blocks a legitimate message, it is unacceptable 
to me.  Most of the spam filters and content filters I have reviewed 
have a high error rate.  I process over a thousand messages per day.  
An error rate of even 1/10th of one percent causes me to lose real mail 
every day.  This is not acceptable to me or my business needs.  If 
anyone has discovered filtering technology or definitions that actually 
identify topic based on content without making mistakes, I would love 
to hear about it.

My favorite method for categorizing posts is to have the divided by 
topic.  A group could have multiple lists with each list devoted to a 
specific topic.  Continued discussion and replies automatically go to 
the same list. People could subscribe to only those topics they desire. 
  I do not understand what is wrong with this method.  However, others 
have objected that they feel demeaned if their message is not 
"on-topic" for the most popular or main list.  They don't want their 
favorite topic relegated to a 'side" list.  There is also a fear that 
we don't have enough people or topics to subdivide the list, as if the 
list would dwindle away to nothing if we only talked about our favorite 
topics, and we needed to include uninteresting topics to prop up the 
volume.  There also seems to be an element of proselytizing to the 
audience in political or religious arguments.  The promoters seem to 
want to deliberately spread their message far and wide, even to people 
who don't want to see it.  Such people will resist any method to 
categorize their posts so that people can avoid them.  They insist that 
their posts are "on-topic" and the most important topic of discussion.  
They sometimes even insist this to the point of disrupting other 
threads or conversations to convert them to their more important topic.

Does anybody have any other proposed solutions or objections to 
proposed solutions to add to this list?

--
Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
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