[net.news.group] moderated groups-- another view

chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Zonker T. Chuqui) (10/18/84)

Deevie, an anonymous poster for mod.singles, asked me to post this for
them...

-----
One thing that I want very badly to point out (TWO! two
things that I want to point out), but can't, are these:

1)  Mod.whatever is NOT replacing any newsgroup.
    It is simply an alternative for those who wish
    to have the chosen moderator do some 'n'-keying
    for them.  No one's personal rights to speech
    are being infringed--think of it as a voluntary
    withdrawal of some people to a more moderate
    environment.  You have the right to scream about
    Jesus Christ in a public street, but not in
    a crowded synagogue on Yom Kippur (which, incidentally,
    is what happened this year in my shul.  A guy smuggled
    a New Testament into services and disrupted them in
    the middle.  After a moment of shock and confusion,
    he was hustled out most unceremoniously by some of
    the men in the congregation).

2)  The moderator acts as a representative of the
    people, one who gets his votes and instructions
    from those same people.  No tyranny comes into
    the picture.  It is the same reason we elect
    representatives in Congress--we elect them to
    take care of legislative business that we can't
    do as an unorganized mass of people.  By the same
    token, we elect him and trust him to make decisions
    for us under the function of VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION,
    not ACTUAL REPRESENTATION.  We do not have time,
    and it is downright impossible, to tell him/her what
   to vote on every day.  In this way, the moderator
    is given discretion to act for us in selecting the
    wheat from the chaff--and we vote for or against
    his actions by telling him, or using our 'n' key
    ourselves.

As a final thought, it seems to me that a lot
of these people who are objecting to the mod.
groups are simply afraid that they will be left
out of an area they want very badly to belong to.

	-- Deevie
-- 
From the Department of Bistromatics:                   Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui  nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

(Editors note: Bistromatics is NOT a typo. Bistromathics is the study of
math on an italian waiters checkpad. Bistromatics is the study of Italian
cooking on females of the human species. Please quit sending me mail)

  I'd know those eyes from a million years away....

jwp@sdchema.UUCP (John Pierce) (10/19/84)

Deevie (via chuqui):
> ...  You have the right to scream about Jesus Christ in a public street,
> but not in a crowded synagogue on Yom Kippur (which ..., is what happened
> this year in my shul.  A guy smuggled a New Testament into services and
> disrupted them in the middle.  After a moment of shock and confusion, he was
> hustled out most unceremoniously by some of the men in the congregation).


Very polite of them, I'd say.  Actually, I'd say it was too bloody polite.

			John Pierce, Chemistry, UC San Diego
			{sdcsvax,decvax}!sdchema!jwp