From: lishka@dxcern.cern.ch (Christopher Lishka)
Subject: Re: ADMIN: Pressure, pressure, pressure. Ouch!
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1993 09:37:52 GMT
Organization: CERN European Lab for Particle Physics



I am addressing this to sci.virtual-worlds, >not< the Univ. of
Washington contacts, because I feel this matter is of concern to the
participants of this group.

Something about the course of events detailed in the original article
rubs me the wrong way.  Newsgroups are not >run< by one university.
Newsgroups are an international, "net-wide" forum, and as such we the
readers and posters have a say in how the newsgroups should be run.
NetNews is distributed in such a way that every site contributes some
disk space and feed time to maintain the newsgroups.  And as such, no
one institution or university has control of a newsgroup.
Institutions are free >not< to receive a newsgroup, but they are not
free to control one.

Which is why I think the Univ. of Washington's decision to moderate
sci.virtual-worlds by >commitee< is just plain wrong, and also
presumes a lot.  When was there a vote by the readers and posters of
this group to agree to moderation by commitee?  Do we want this?

What is the Univ. of Washington's stake in sci.virtual-worlds?  I
assume they have the archives, but they in no way "own" or "control"
this newsgroup.  If there is a change in moderators (or a change to a
moderator-less newsgroup), let >us< decide, not a bureaucrat at >one<
university who doesn't even participate here.  There should be a vote
on this, not just an organized takeover by some party not directly
reading the newsgroup.

This decision certainly does not seem to ME to be in the "spirit" of
InterNet NetNews.  So, what do we do about it?

I personally have been happy with the current moderators (Bob Jacobson
and Mark De Loura).  However, if they do not have the time, we should
find a new moderator ourselves (any volunteers?) or decide to go to a
moderator-less format.  I am quite happy to let the current moderators
proceed, but they may now have constraints imposed on them by the
Univ. of Washington administration.  (Does Univ. of Washington provide
a news-feed for the moderators?  Why are Bob and Mark giving in here?)

I would like to hear more comments about this.  I find this turn of
events very disturbing, for this newsgroup and for NetNews as a whole.

							.oO Chris Oo.

-- 
 It takes love over gold,                                  Christopher Lishka
 And mind over matter,                                     PPE Division, CERN
 To do what you do that you must.                         lishka@dxcern.cern.ch
                     -- Dire Straits                         vxaluw::lishka