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| Author |
Message |
| 8 new of 57 responses total. |
mary
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response 50 of 57:
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Jan 22 03:26 UTC 2001 |
What I meant is getting to know something of their community, their goals,
how they handle some of the same situations we've wrestled with, like
censorship and keeping the doors wide open even when you'd rather make it
a closed club, for a while at least. I'd like to hear what it is brought
them to the point they are at so maybe we could learn something of what
tends to not work so well.
If we invite them in, even under the umbrella of a totally separate and
distinct system, Cyberspace Communications will be their sponsor. I just
think it would be a responsible thing to do to find out a little about
their community and system. I wouldn't tend to discriminate based on
whether a worthwhile organization is non-profit or not - heck, Grex was a
worthy cause long before the paperwork said we were. And although Jan is
no doubt correct when he says they are good people, honestly, I'd not let
that stand in the way of helping out either, at least not without knowing
more. I'm far more interested in what they value and how they get their
than by how well they are "liked".
I expect this would have gone to a membership vote and by that time we'd
have gotten to know them a bit better. It is a pity they couldn't have
become part of Grex, I was looking forward to a few new faces. But it
sounds like they had better options. I wish them well and look forward to
visiting their system when they are open for company.
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aruba
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response 51 of 57:
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Jan 22 03:29 UTC 2001 |
Just because you cant do something for *everyone* doesn't mean you shouldn't
do it for *anyone*.
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mary
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response 52 of 57:
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Jan 22 03:42 UTC 2001 |
I'll also admit I'd be likely to vote against sponsoring any system which
fosters intolerance or discrimination or believes censorship is a good
conferencing tool. Which is why I asked about those specifics. Such
systems have a right to exist, no problem, but I don't want to support
such activities, hence my vote.
I guess that means I wouldn't want to see Grex help out the
Boy Scouts by sponsoring their website either. ;-)
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janc
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response 53 of 57:
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Jan 22 05:50 UTC 2001 |
As far as I know, E-Minds has always has always accounts to be created
by anyone and used immediately. I've not heard of any users being booted
off, or any postings being censored.
The style of discussion is similar in having lots of "how was your day"
items, but very different in replacing the political types of discussions
common here with a lot of California-style neo-philosophical artistic
maunderings that I don't particularly understand. (Registers as "they're
talking about nothing!").
So far as I can tell, they don't have any legal existence - they haven't
incorporated in any form. Governance is not by on-line debate forum.
A small group of self-selected people make decisions, and everyone else
says "yeah, we trust you to do the right thing". Bizarre as all get-out,
but typical among Well-derived communities who are used to having the
practical end "taken care of" while they debate the deeper meaning
of life. They are having a fundraiser to buy their first computer.
Nobody has asked who will own this computer. If there isn't an EMinds
corporation to own it, then presumably it will be the personal property of
some individual. Is this a problem? Does anyone care? I don't know.
In the atmosphere that exists there, it seems like a rude question
to be asking. Instead they are busy trying to figure out what the
machine should be named. Phoenix? Spirit? Dragon? That's the level
of involvement in this new server project that the wider community seems
to think is appropriate for them.
Actually, digging around a bit, it does appear that there have been instances
of users being banned and postings being removed. Hard to tell exactly, but
they seem to take their host system's "terms of service" as their rule set.
Mostly the place is hard to pin down. They don't have policies.
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mary
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response 54 of 57:
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Jan 22 11:44 UTC 2001 |
Thanks for the information. The governance sounds just a bit
like M-Net under Mike. You know, the good old days. ;-)
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janc
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response 55 of 57:
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Jan 24 06:09 UTC 2001 |
Except Mike actually owned M-Net. Nobody on E-Minds owns anything except
knowledge of admin passwords.
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mdw
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response 56 of 57:
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Jan 24 06:18 UTC 2001 |
I bet they have policies alright. They just aren't written down. A
sociologist could likely write down a fair approximation of those
policies after due study. Unwritten policies work well if you have a
fairly small cohesive group, with a very low rate of admission of
outsiders. I suspect their "newuser" software has not worked more often
than it has, and that they don't especially go out of their way to
recruit new people.
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davel
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response 57 of 57:
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Jan 26 14:01 UTC 2001 |
Heh. I think "their 'newuser' software has not worked more often than it has"
is a tautology.
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