Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 16:08:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: MT: The future of the marxism space


It's shame this list is so inactive, since it was created as an alternative
to the cul de sac reached elsewhere, and I shall miss the frankfurt-school
list, but we got just what we deserve being dropped by spoons, after making
their lives so miserable.  In retrospect, many of these problems could have
easily been solved, but one only learns to boil a complex situation down to
essentials after going through the experience of tortuous complexity.
First, we should have had a better idea of how much of this volunteer work
was necessary to maintain the lists, and specifically, how many marxism
lists could spoons support without the labor overhead getting out of hand.
You've got x lists, divide 'em up anyway you want, enemy forces stay out of
each other's hair and don't bother us about your problems, and stop acting
like ungrateful bastards.  The second solution would have been to choose
intelligent moderators.  Thaxis fell into the wrong hands as apparently
other lists did.  Both decisions of inclusion and exclusion depend on the
moderators, and arbitrary choices were made both to include and exclude
certain individuals.  A list membership exercised a certain veto power in
that if enough key people deemed essential threatened to boycott a list,
then some other individual would be given the boot to prevent the list from
ceasing to function, regardless of the moderator's preferences.  In other
cases, various maniacs who should have been confined to certain lists but
ended up in others got to roam free due to moderator tolerance, sometimes by
the same people who would exercise arbitrary intolerance in other
situations.  Both the principles of inclusion and exclusion were screwed up
in many instances.  More intelligent moderation combined with strict
policing of who gets to participate in what lists might have helped contain
some of the fighting to properly designated combat zones.  But in the end,
the fault lies not with spoons, and not even with stupid moderators, but
that marxists, sectarian and academic, are such shits.

OK, I'll sit back and enjoy theory while it lasts.

At 06:56 PM 4/21/98 +0300, j laari wrote:
>This message by the spoons came today. Seems that marxism lists will
>be closed down for a period. ....