Re: Can we please dekookify the list?

Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Sun, 28 Feb 1999 13:51:23 -0500

Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net> wrote:
> Personally, I think that anyone who wants to be elitist about the list has
> an already existing alternative: join the extropians-select list. Thats
> kinda the point of it. You want more signal, less noise, then join ExI and
> join the select list.

I'm not sure that the select list has any different signal-to-noise ratio. It has never been explained to my satisfaction why paying for a list makes it better. If my ISP charges me more for the Internet, am I getting better data than you? I agree TANSTAAFL, but we have to remember that we are not paying ExI to generate List content. They are running the exact same software for both lists, and many of the posters are the same. I think the tendency to drift off-topic occurs with paid members just as easily as nonpaid members.

>The prime purpose of this public unmoderated list is its public
>relations value. ExI doesn't need a full time PR flack to deal with
>public queries. There are already several dozen people here who can
>answer and debate their questions for free.

I think this was the original point that started this thread. If this is the recruiting/PR arm of ExI, is it presenting the message ExI wants to present? Are the discussions and goals on this List accurately representative of ExI, Extropianism and Transhumanism? (The answer may be that since we people comprise that movement, anything we discuss here becomes a defacto part of that group.)

>
> --
> TANSTAAFL!!!
> Michael Lorrey, President
> Lorrey Systems
> Webmaster, Mallnetworks.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> mailto:mike@lorrey.com Death to Spammers!
> mailto:mike@mallnetworks.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> "A society which trades freedom for some measure of security
> shall wind up with neither." -----Benjamin Franklin
>
> "The tree of Liberty should be watered from time to time
> with the blood of tyrants and patriots."
> -----Thomas Jefferson
> "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security
> of a Free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear
> arms shall not be infringed." -----US Constitution,
> 2nd Amendment
> "You can have my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead
> hands..." -----Anonymous
>
> "Once we got their guns away from them, taking their
> money was REAL easy." -----Unknown North Korean
> Commissar

Nice sig, but it's a little long.

-- 
Harvey Newstrom <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.