Re: Are we gatewayed to Usenet?

This brings up the question,

In the event _the net_ were centralized, and not a disperate
entity, how might selective distrubution be affected?

->
I would reccommend that if certain sites become a
problem by attracting flamers, communists, liberals, or government
authoritarian types, that we could remove them on a case-by-case basis.
<-

In the event this became a problem, how might a theoretically
"private" or "psuedo-private" (constructively private?)
newsletter/mailing list be restricted.

Even today, what recourse do we have to keep the circulation
of the list minimal, and (egads) filter the readers such
to keep bandwidth low and flame / agitator disruption to a min.?

Doesn't this smack of censorship, and if so where's the line
between censorship and exclusivity, and is cypherpunks
even really exclusive?  It was nice before the summer when
the list was a little less well known and it had that
"private feel" that I think T. May was talking about.

Is there a basic conflict between impact power of the list
as a political sway force and that personal feel?

Some Dark thoughts:

> Even today, what recourse do we have to keep the circulation
> of the list minimal, and (egads) filter the readers such
> to keep bandwidth low and flame / agitator disruption to a min.?
> 
> Doesn't this smack of censorship, and if so where's the line
> between censorship and exclusivity, and is cypherpunks
> even really exclusive?  It was nice before the summer when
> the list was a little less well known and it had that
> "private feel" that I think T. May was talking about.
> 
> Is there a basic conflict between impact power of the list
> as a political sway force and that personal feel?

Some very good points.

Eric reports that there are more than 550 subscribers. No doubt many
will drop off, for a variety of reasons, but the number seems to be
consistently edging higher.

We can think of conflicting goals for the membership:

* as many people as possible, to help spread the word, to get local
groups formed, etc.

* more selective, more elitist.

Which is preferable? At what point does a group like ours get so
extended, so large, that all sense of community is lost and we're just
each doing our own thing?

Hard questions to answer, so we'll probably just continue on as we
are. 

--Tim May


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