From: tstpcc@gwunix1.gwu.edu (Paul C. Chemmanoor)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Details [Who decide what goes on ack etc]
Date: 21 Jan 1993 20:28:46 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: "Paul C. Chemmanoor" <tstpcc@gwunix1.gwu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu



Jayanand Vasudevan writes:

>Newspapers magazines and other media outlets are privately owned, or
>publicly funded under an authorized board of directors.  The issue
>that newspapers etc are censored is not relevant to the issue.  We do
>not own the network. 

What you are trying to say is not very clear.

The newspaper example was given to illustrate the effectiveness
of moderation and how a moderation does not necceassarily
mean devaluing of the said medium.

As for who owns the network I quote Ed Krol's book "The Whole Internet",
O'Reilly Associates, Copyright 1992:

"There is no Internet, Inc, that collects fees from all internet
 networks or users. Instead everyone pays for their part.
 .....
Networks get together and decide how to connect themselves together
and fund these interconnections. A college or corporation pays for
their connection to some regional network, which in turn pays a national
provider for its access."

Perhaps you will be able to derive from this that we the net.users
*do* pay for the network, by means of taxes or fees and that
a right to see what goes on in the internet flows from this.
If you can not, then we are probably on different wavelengths.

>We do not have the right to decide who posts
>what on the network.

If you re-collect the only criterion suggested was religious
propaganda. Perhaps you can see a certain imbalance in the
scheme of things when the only such postings has been from a
group of people who run a *moderated* newsgroup ?
A certain inconsistency ? 
Do we not have the same right as they do ?

But let me get some heavy artillery, as you go so far as to
make insinuations and use phrases like 'personal fiefdom'.

Here is what the founder of news hierarchies Gene Spafford [PBUH]
at Purdue university, has to say about moderation:
[-----]
Original-author: Gene Spafford (spaf@cs.purdue.edu)

A number of moderated groups exist on the net.  These are groups which
usually have one or more individuals (acting as editors and/or
moderators) who must approve articles before they are published to the
net.  

.....
   Groups derived from regular groups which have often been abused.
   That is, the regular groups often received postings of items which
   were not germane to the stated topic of the group (or sometimes even
   within the realm of politeness for the net).  This also includes
   groups suffering from an annoying number of duplicate postings and
   inappropriate followups.  
.....

To post to a moderated group, write your article and mail it to the
listed SUBMISSION address.  The moderator will then do the actual
posting of the article.  The news software on the Usenet will not
allow direct posting to moderated newsgroups, nor will it forward
unauthorized articles to other sites.  The only way to post to a
moderated group is to mail it to the moderator.  
....
your news software will automatically mail your article to the address
when you post.

If you have questions or complaints about the way a moderated group is
run, contact the moderator by mail.  Alternatively, you can send mail
to the mailing list "moderators@cs.purdue.edu" and it will be
rebroadcast to all of the current Usenet-only newsgroup moderators.


[-------]

Further more, here is a very small extract from the list of groups that are
moderated at present. Take a close look.

misc.news.southasia
	Surekha Gaddam		surekha@nyx.cs.du.edu
rec.arts.cinema
	Manavendra Thakur	thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu
rec.guns 
	Jim Purtilo		gun-control@flubber.cs.umd.edu
rec.humor.funny
	Maddi Hausmann		funny-request@clarinet.com
soc.feminism
	Muffy Barkocy, 
	  Miriam Nadel, & 
	  Cindy Tittle Moore	feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu
soc.politics
	Charles McGrew		poli-sci-request@rutgers.edu
alt.atheism.moderated
	mathew			atheism-request@mantis.co.uk
alt.hindu			editor@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu


>All votes etc are not the final word. We (net users) are not in 
>any position to enforce any "net rules" (they are called "nettiquette"
>n'cest pas?). All we can do is recommend that the guidelines be 
>followed and keep our fingers crossed.

Well, to be precise, if a moderated newsgroup was formed we would 
be definitely in such a position. As Gene's article would have made clear.
Or is that french to you ?

>So yes we live with a lot of compromises as far as censorship in the
>media goes. So what? Bring it in here too? This is a public forum. Not
>somebodies private fiefdom where the decision to post or not to post 
>is taken by a self appointed group of "enlightened users".
>ChCiao.
>Jayanand

Your article seems to be full of insinuations.
Unfortunately you have relied on painfully few facts.

This group of moderators would not have to be "enlightened" or 
"self-appointed" . Any one who is willing to do the work would
be part of the committee which would go on the ballot.
The ballot for forming the new group would have to confirm
their faith in these people by voting. 
So they would be far from self-appointed. 
I do hope they will be enlightened, though :-)


2] Perhaps you were not aware of moderated newsgroups.
   I hope this clears things up.
   I do wish you refrain from making insinuations especially
   when you are wrong and seem to be ill-informed.
   
3] And speaking of "personal fiefdoms" isnt it a trifle strange that
   its you who has difficulty in accepting  majority verdicts ?

    Let me end with another extract from Ed krol:

"In many ways the Internet is like a church: it has its council of elders,
 every member has an opinion about how things work, and you can either take
 part or not. Its your choice.
 .....
Internet users express their opinions through meetings of the Internet 
Engineering Task Force (IETF) The IETF is another volunteer organization.
....
Anyone can attend IETF meetings and be on working groups; the important
thing is they work.
"

Paul Chemmanoor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
.    ~ ~                                                                  .
.    o o         signito ergo sum.                                        .
.     |       i sign therefore i am.               paul chemmanoor        .
.     =                                            washington d.c.        .
---------------------------------------------------------------------------