John Petrush wrote:
>Freedom of speech is priceless. And we must tolerate what, at times, feels
>like abuses. [...] Alternatively, the list could be made private, and have
>each subscriber agree to a Code of Conduct. Then you would have some basis
>for due process to remove those who are hard to tolerate. But IMHO that
>would greatly diminish the value of this fine list and ultimately kill it.
Gary Reese added:
>List or message boards that have too strict rules can get rather stuffy.
>Freedom of speech coupled with community are what make a List or board a
>place people want to return to and be a part of.
I wholeheartedly agree with the above sentiments. For me, this list is
akin to a social club. I take part in some threads, and skim through or
simply skip many others. I enjoy both the profound and the "profane".
(At times, I'm more bored by the former -- but that's moi :-))
Sure, every once in awhile our little OLY club turns into an OLY saloon,
or, God forbid -- an OLY "brothel". So f***ing what? It's all in good
fun, and no one but N*k*n/C*n*n/M*n*lt* owners gets hurt. I assure you
that as soon as some High Priest of Proper Conduct succeeds in turning
this list into some sort of an OLY "monastery", I'll be out of here in
a New York minute.
R. Lee Hawkins wrote:
>[PvT's posts are] blatantly commercial, which, since this list is
>hosted by an educational institution, is not a good idea. If the list
>becomes predominantly commercial in nature, then Shawn might well decide
>that the *educational* purpose of the list is gone, and drop it.
I'd rather hear this from Shawn -- he seems to be perfectly capable to
speak for himself. Moreover, IMHO the above argument is rather weak.
AFAIK, the vast majority of educational institutions carry the xxx.jobs
and xxx.forsale newsgroups w/o any problems. As long as PvT doesn't dump
here daily/weekly his entire inventory, I don't think we're in trouble.
Finally, speaking of crass commercialism, I can't resist reminding to my
dear friends Frank van Lindert and Paul van Tuyl that crass commercialism
was introduced to North America in 1626 by a certain Peter van Minuit,
who'd bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians for $24 worth of
beads and trinkets. It's been like this, or worse(!) ever since... :-)
Cheers,
/Gary Schloss.
Studio City, CA
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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