Date: 04 Mar 96 03:54:52 EST
From: "Chris, London" <100423.2040-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: soc.politics.marxism


Thanks for your comments David, from within the igc-apc
network. I keep up my subscription to GreenNet because
of the highly selected and politically valuable 
range of conferences in apc. (I am currently using Compuserve
for mail as it is easier to handle and GreenNet is still
getting some erratic translatlantic mail delivery)

It helps therefore that you can confirm that gen.socialism
has turned out to be just a billboard for institutions
despite the good intentions of its "facilitator" in 1992.

I would like to clarify some of these issues with you, 
as it is altogether too polarised between me and Jerry, 
and they are of course more important than any individual.


1. What do you think of Kit Gunn's admittedly sweeping remark
"(utterly dead, as moderated groups *always* are)" (29th Feb)

2. Secondly what do you mean by "moderated" when you say a 
truly moderated newsgroup is a good idea? I think
this is the heart of the question.


You describe this mlist as just moderated by 
an autolistserver. IMO that is not correct.
This is a highly moderated mlist. It is moderated
by 350 of the most argumentative assertive
people you could find and it is a self-organising 
system. 

One of the elements of moderation is censorship. There
is *no* censorship, so this community is having to
work out and rework out its understanding of the limits
of abuse and threat, and how to deal with conflict
of major ideas constructively.

Named moderators are at best facilitators of this process,
and people who will particularly greet newcomers,
who may otherwise leap in and create a lot of splashing 
which alters the surface appearance of the mlist.
At worst they are there as symbols, to illustrate a point
by attacking them, as one of the few focal points 
in a non-stop thunderstorm.  (In my completely impartial
opinion of course).

But seriously, what exactly are the ingredients of moderation
in what you favour?

I see that you are facilitator of labr.party-AT-igc.apc.org,
so your practical perspectives will be very interesting.


Chris
London


____________________________________________________________

From: David Walters <dwalters-AT-igc.apc.org>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 06:57:59 -0800
Subject: Re: soc.politics.marxism

The newgroup idea is a good one. Especially if it is truely
moderated and is not just an 'autolistserver' like this list is.

On the IGC gen.socialism conference. Having followed it for some
time, actually since it started, you are write that it is hardly
used. BTW the IGC/Peacenet/LaborNet subscriber base a little over
12,000. It does represent the largest "leftist" internet/BBS in
the world, to my knowledge.

Although the 'gen.socialism' conference is small, many others are
very active such as the labr.party conference which also has a
mirrored list- server. Most if not all left and socialist 'lists',
like this one, are up on IGC as newsroups avoiding the necessity
of 'subscribing' to them.

David





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