Date: Mon, 13 Jun 94 06:49:05 EDT
To: avant-garde-AT-world.std.com
Subject: Re:  The shutdown story


> it seems there's a lot going on behind the screens & bugger all on them at
> the moment, this spoons consortium have broken away from dialognet &'re
> setting up shop on their own & this [list] is it... am i on the right
> track? what is going on? the whole point of these machines is that you can
> communicate with n people as well as 1, why aren't we seeing debates on
> this (nothing better to do at the moment anyway, we kinda ran out of steam
> & need something new to play with - isn't it always the way)...

Well, here is the story, compressed.  Michael and I disagree with Kent
about whether or not there should be a-priori "rules" for these net
discussions, and some kind of "authority" which enforces these rules.
Kent believes that such rules are possible and necessary, 
and has from time to time exercised his privilege as list-owner to
step into discussions and call people to order.  Whenever this
happens, it drives me and Michael up the wall and results in 
endless bitter disputes which sap Kent's energy, make him question
his whole enterprise, and lead him to some kind of temporary
withdrawal from list management.  And it is absolutely true that
single-handed management of these lists is just unfeasible, and that
a scheme has to be found whereas it doesn't all rest on Kent's
shoulders.  

So what happened this time was that Kent intervened in a discussion
on the deleuze list and the list strenuously objected.  There was
a short but intense discussion of the incident both on deleuze and
on the list "dialognet-administration", which consists of all
the list moderators.  After several heated exchanges, Kent announced
that he was temporarily shutting down all the lists.  Michael and I
felt that this was unacceptable to us, so we opened another account 
on world -- the "spoon" account -- and requested that the lists we 
moderated -- deleuze, film-theory, avant-garde and technology -- 
be transferred to that account, so that they would continue to 
run unimpeded and without this constantly looming shadow of conflict.  
Kent then continued trying find a solution to his present burnout by
soliciting administrative help from other moderators.  The
discussion of this was not progressing quickly enough to promise
a fast cure, so Kent proceeded with his plan for a temporary 
shutdown.  Michael and I then offered to take over, for a while, the 
management of selected lists so as to exclude them from the shutdown.

This isn't as compressed as I thought it would be.  


- malgosia