jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) (10/22/88)
In article <5178@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@arthur.cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes: >As far as comments about the backbone go, well, everyone complained >about the backbone group and its attempts to set some guiding >policies. It was only when the backbone refused to follow their own policies that the backbone became a target for incredible amounts of abuse. Unilateral moves by the backbone became less and less tolerated. > Those complaints took their toll; Bob Webber and his ilk got >their way. The backbone is gone, as such. It would appear that Bob Webber is gone as well. Bob Webber was NOT the problem. While I wrote a great number of very harsh words, which I now regret somewhat [ no, not that they were harsh, only the choice of actual words ], the complaints peaked when the backbone failed to do its job. > And until someone can come >up with a reasonably fair, sane method of resolving disputes for a >network of over 10,000 sites and 300,000 readers -- including some very >stupid and anti-social members -- you'll have to settle for this: No backbone? That is not a solution. A democratic technocracy is what we do need. The backbone, as it existed prior to 1988, was doing a fine job. When the backbone became so large that power struggles grew - THEN - the backbone ceased to work. >commentary and debate in the news.* groups, with an occasional >unilateral move that may or may not be accepted by everyone else. What we need is a smaller backbone with members selected by the community. It was claimed, true or false I won't say, that Rick Adams and Greg Woods were directly responsible for comp.society.women being held hostage. If this were in fact true, then it would behoove us to remove those members from the backbone committee. That is the type of unilateral move we don't need. On the other hand, in the good old days, comp.sys.next probably would have been created weeks ago. That is an example of A Good Thing. What I propose is a 15 member committee. Fourteen members are selected from the largest sites by vote, after a nominating process. They then select a speaker-to-the-net from some other ``well-connected'' site. This body then formulates and implements USENET policy. All discussions are made public in a moderated digestified newsgroup. No more secret meetings. Members serve until they resign or are removed by vote of no-confidence. Empty seats are filled by nominations from the backbone and vote of the net. The chairman serves at the discretion of the remainder of the backbone. Presumably since the backbone would then be responsible to the community, we wouldn't have the secret police running around behind our backs as we had earlier in the year. -- John F. Haugh II +----Make believe quote of the week---- VoiceNet: (214) 250-3311 Data: -6272 | Nancy Reagan on Richard Stallman: InterNet: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US | "Just say `Gno'" UucpNet : <backbone>!killer!rpp386!jfh +--------------------------------------