Re: Crocker's Rules vs. Politeness

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 12:43:45 -0500

Oh, and before anyone points it out - Crocker's Rules apply to being offended by subject matter, not by violations of list etiquette (except insofar as list etiquette prohibits personal attacks, or otherwise attempts to enforce politeness). The main point of Crocker's Rules is to prohibit objections to posts on grounds of political incorrectness, or bluntness, or personal insults - to never say "I am offended; therefore you should not post."

There's no obligation to tolerate, say, spam email. "This doesn't belong on the list; therefore you should not post" is still necessary for as long as the list is based on fencing off a virtual location and not on collaborative filtering.
--

           sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
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