From: jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (Joel Furr)
Subject: Lunacy from Dave Van Domelen (Was: Re: User Rights Camps)
Followup-To: rec.games.mud.admin
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Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 19:46:26 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.180821.3214@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> dvandom@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Dave Van Domelen) writes:
>We seem to have some distinct factions on this big hullabaloo, some of which 
>will never reconcile totally.
>     1: Wizzes against rights and players for rights for selfish reasons.
>     2: Believers in universal rights regardless of their MU* position
>     3: Believers in no rights whatsoever regardless of their MU* position
>     4: Uncertain people looking for middle ground and not finding it.

Gibberish.  You left out "wizards in favor of the status quo because it
works" and "wizards who believe that the use of the word "rights" is
meaningless in this context and who tried to redirect the discussion
toward 'privileges.'"

>Of course, there is the temptation to lump most of whoever disagrees with you 
>into group 1 and ignore them, since there seems to be a distinct pro-rights 
>stance from non-wizzes and anti-rights from wizzes who would have to implement 
>any kind of protection guaranteed.

More gibberish.  Implement protection?  Who implements the protection? 
Why, the #1.  The God.  The guy who administers the MU*.  And who is the
protection supposed to protect against?  Why, the #1.  The God.  The guy
who administers the MU*.  One, you're asking the cat to bell himself, and
two, you're forgetting that if your basic assumption, that players need
"protection," is true, ANY PROTECTION SET UP BY SOMEONE YOU NEED
PROTECTION FROM AIN'T WORTH A WARM PITCHER OF SPIT.

Got it?

>     There is also one other division that seems to have cropped up in the log:
>New Wizzes For Rights versus Veteran Admins Totally Opposed.  It was there 
>before, obviously, but was pointed up in the logs (by Xibo?  I'm not mucking 
>thru that log again to check).

New wizzes who have few players and little experience versus those who
KNOW that if you set up a silly system of rules, two things happen: MUD
lawyers emerge who interpret the rules in ways they were never meant to be
interpreted, and two, situations inevitably arise not covered by the
rules.  In situation two, the MUD lawyers of situation one have a field
day screaming "wiz abuse" when you implement a rule of thumb to cover the
situation not covered in the official Roolz.

>     Everyone keep in mind, regardless of your faction, that eventually some 
>sort of laws will be passed to regulate muds.  

You cretinous dingbat, what makes you think that Congress is going to set
up a MUD Security Act?  Congress barely knows what the internet is.  If
laws are passed that affect MUDs, they'll affect MUDs only because they
affect ALL internet-related activity and not MUDs in particular.  Can you
imagine the hysterical cackles if some committee tried to hold a hearing
on tinysex?  

>And if we have our own set of 
>guidelines already prepared we are more likely to have those passed into law, 
>or even have the law stalled for a while by our self-policing.  Remember tha 
>Comics Code.  It kept laws from being passed by the government during a 
>restrictive period, so that it would be easier to come out of the restrictions 
>when things loosened up.  It is quite probable that there will be a crackdown 
>on BBSes and muds in the neat future, and those that will not police 
>themselves will be policed by the government, which has little sense of humor.

You're a loony.  You have no understanding of how the political process
works.  Take your conspiracy theories to the place they belong:
alt.conspiracy.  

>     So, if you don't want any restrictions now, don't whine when the axe
>falls.  It may not fall soon, but it will fall, and those who wore the stiff 
>collars for a few years in anticipation may find that although they may be a 
>bit uncomfortable they deflect axe blades nicely.

You're an utter fruitcake.  A silly little set of guidelines protecting
the poor defenseless players from the evil nasty wizards is going to
somehow WORK or impress Congress in the event that your conspiracy theory
comes about?  Go wiz on a MU* with more than three players for a while,
say, a year, and get back to us.

Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.tiny