response 175 of 367:

Mar 2 19:30 UTC 1997

(#174 slipped in)

response 177 of 367:

Mar 2 22:21 UTC 1997

robh, ifyou want to quit staff and eave the conferences, that is your own
prerogative, but when you ran for the board you made a committment to
grex.  Absent extraordinary circumstances (like you move away or take a
night job where you cant make meetingws anymore), it is inappropriate for
you to resign before your term ends.  Besides, your reasons for
resigning do not hold water:

1. It is the staff, not the board, that enforces grex policy.  Resigning
from staf accomplishes your goal of removing yourself from the loop.

2.  As a board member,you can always abstain from any future board action
with regards to this policy.

Grex cannot succeed as an organization if it has officers who thnk they
can just walk away from their committments and .etc whenever they feel
like it.  As a user of grex, you can stop using grex anytime you want, but
when you agreed to become an officer of this organization, you made a
committment to the other members of the board and to the membes of grex
that you would serve in an  "official" capacity.  

This unregistered reading issue is not a big deal.  It involves a web
interface that is slow and not that many people are going to use anyway.  

At the4 very least, you should agree to stay on as a board member and
attend meetings until a successor is elected.  Dont just walk away and
leaveyour seat vacant.  That is a common courtesy and you owe grex that.

If you dont like this policy, dont run again next time.  That would be
fair enough.  But just walking away is hurting grex just for the sake of
hurting it.

But ifyou do leave the confs, I'm willing to volunteer to take over the INtro
conf.  I'd like to see that continue and it needs an fw who reads enough confs
to know where the good items are.

response 179 of 367:

Mar 2 23:09 UTC 1997

I've already clearly stated my problems with it. A million times.
Scroll back, for goodness sake. And Kerouac, GREX Does not need
a board member who doesn't want to be there anymore! No
organization does!

response 181 of 367:

Mar 3 02:41 UTC 1997

grex is not closed.  your posts here are not protected.  Anyone can read them
using any name.  Unregistered reading is nothing new, it is grex as usual.
I am frankly surprised robhhas never strenuouslyobjected to the presence
of observe mode in picospan..isnt that the same thing?

This is about fear.  This is about paranoia.  The very things grex had to
overcome just to getthis far.  It is about being deeply distrusting and
suspicious of the majority of cyberspace, because it is invisible.  There
is something wrong with an environment where nobody will talk to anybody
unless they give their name, rank and serial numbers.  Rob, is it REALLY
going to hurt you if someone pulls an item of yours from the Synthesis or
SEx confs through a web search?  The internet cant live up to its
potential unless those of us who populate it can learn to live and trust
each other.  Grex plays an important role in this, and this is why I have
objected so strenuously to this place adopting rules which feed paranoia
and distrust, rather than fight it.

Having unregistered reading willhelp Grex continue to be a bright, shining
example of what is good in cyberspace.  Where people are t4rusted.  Where
everything is open.

response 183 of 367:

Mar 3 14:36 UTC 1997

Arnold, repression includes trying to coerce somebody into breaking a
religious commitment because you personally don't agree with his decision.
You're disgusting me. Let it drop already.

I'd say thatsame, or similar, thing to Kerouac, but I'd be wasting my
keystrokes.

Incidentally, I voted yes, because this motion will, in my view, do exactly
the opposite of what its framers intended. I find that highly amusing, and
I've become so cynical that at this point I want nothing more than to watch
this thing explode and watch egg splatter all over Mary Remmers face.

response 185 of 367:

Mar 3 15:21 UTC 1997

If you -- or anyone -- had given me membership dues, I'd've abstained from
this vote anyhow. I will not become a member just to vote on one particular
issue. Purposes and views of Grex aside, I *personally* see such behavior as
unethical (last sentence direct at Mme. President)

response 187 of 367:

Mar 3 20:20 UTC 1997

If the web interface was fast and efficient enough, newuser wouldntbe
necessary because there wouldntbe theneed to bookmark confs.  If one could
pull up a hundred responses in an item in a few seconds and scroll down,
theydont need bookmarks.  In order to keep bookmarks,you have to read
through entire confs.  With a fast web interfac, youl could simply be
prompted for aname or handle every time you click post.


Newuser could be, and maybe someday, obsolete.  I know of many web
conferencing setups that dont use newuser.  Some sites, you can go and
post every day using a different name ifyoui want.

I think at some point, Grex is goingto have to move awway from Picospan,
because it doesnthave the source, and and in order tokeep pace with the
rest of cyberspace, itneeds an interface it can change and update.  

Having participation files is something of anuisance anyway, becauseany user
can call up yourhom e directory and find out all the confs you read.  Some
people might not want anyone knowing that sort of info.

response 189 of 367:

Mar 3 22:17 UTC 1997

Open web reading is entirely consistent with the founding mission.
It will be useful to Grex.
It will not have the effect that has been cited, not at all.
An advertisement on the Web will be a lot more useful for the intended effect.
I offered one. I was ignored. Too bad, I was serious. One problem with having
so many cooks and no clearly identified Head Cook (apologies, Valerie, but
President is more nomenclatural than function -- but then, you knew that) is
that when someone offers something and there's no interest, no-one feels
inclined to say, "No, thank you." How rude.
  
But enough about me. =}

this "consistent with the founding mission" attitude is annoying, and that's
what tweaked my shorts in the first place. It's less annoying coming from
Rane, since he isn't actually a founder, but all the same, I can't help but
mist up and hear the Stars and Stripes... (1) Places change. Attitudes change.
(2) It was perfectly possible to code a guest account on telnet; the only
difference between such an account and a user registered one would be that
the password couldn't be changed. An oversight, certainly, by the founders,
but no-one's come forward to offer one. Hrm, rewind, you'd also have to code
the guest account so posting was impossible, but that really doesn't sound
THAT hard to me (not that *I* could do it, of course, but still...). (3) Grex
staff thinks too much of Grex' importance in the universe, and overestimate's
Grex' ability to hold people's attention.

response 191 of 367:

Mar 3 23:34 UTC 1997

Did I say anywhere that they were?

response 193 of 367:

Mar 4 01:39 UTC 1997

Say it, Misti. Tell me to leave. I dare you.
But you're mighty defensive if that's the only thing in my recent posts you've
chosen to respond to. A nerve stuck, perhaps?
(struck, too)

response 195 of 367:

Mar 4 02:17 UTC 1997

unimportant in the universe and unimportant to brighn are not the same thing,
last
I checked.

response 197 of 367:

Mar 4 06:18 UTC 1997

Your argument is lost in the 14,000 users that ran newuser and still
do not appear to care about the Grex community. Maintaining those 14,000
accounts tasks resources. Perhaps it is better that a lot more unsupportive
visitors won't create accounts and primarily the supportive will. 

response 199 of 367:

Mar 4 14:07 UTC 1997

#197. Rane, maybe you should go to the doctor for tha wax in your ears.
Have I not said that I voted yes on theproposal?
Have I not said that the proposal will HELP grex?
You have just told me exactly WHY i reasoned that the proposal is a good
thing, then told me that my argument is bad, when it has caused me to come
to the same conclusion you have come to.
  
Geez, Rane, normally you strike me as a reasonably intelligent fellow.