Re: Killfile (Was: Lee Corbin's Goodbye)

From: Mark Walker (mark@permanentend.org)
Date: Mon Aug 18 2003 - 14:14:44 MDT

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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Hubert Mania"

    > Maybe it has to to with a language barrier, but when I read the word
    > killfile 15 times in a 35 line message I get the impression there is a war
    > going on in the heads of the posters. All this scoring and voting,
    > collecting
    > points, making impressions, being competitive, getting adapted to the rat
    > race of a mental market place.. Scoring, statistics . . . well I simply
    > don`t like it. The use of this very word "killfile" suggests a hostile
    > atmosphere, at least a competitive one with this
    > noise-to-signal-ratio-correctness, always this obsession to be efficient.
    >
    > I never implemented a killfile in my whole Internet career. I want to
    *know*
    > what my opponents think. That's why I read their messages with a special
    > care and interest. Sometimes I learn from them more than from persons I
    > always agree with.
    >
    > Hubert "Killthekillfiles" Mania
    >
    Luckily someone forwarded this message to me. ; )

    I agree that 'killfile' doesn't exactly have pleasant overtones--of course
    it is not a term I invented. I'm not sure what should replace it:
    'conserving electrons' or 'the right not to hear' are way too cumbersome.

    It would be foolish not to admit that the system I propose would not be
    without costs, and you rightly point out that it may foster a competitive
    spirit, and some may take this to be a cost. As far as I can see, there are
    three options on the table, no list monitoring, coercive monitoring, or
    trying a market option. The first sins against list quality, the second
    against liberty, and the third against fostering a non-competitive
    atmosphere. Presumably you find the cost of the latter too high to even try
    as an experiment, so you'll opt for one of the first two options. Myself I
    am undecided. I would like to see the experiment run, say for 3 or 4 months,
    before I decide. I find it hard to imagine in the abstract how large a cost
    the competitive spirit would be. I can certainly imagine the cost to be too
    high or the system otherwise unmanageable--that's why I call it an
    'experiment'.

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Mark

    Mark Walker, PhD
    Research Associate, Philosophy, Trinity College
    University of Toronto
    Room 214 Gerald Larkin Building
    15 Devonshire Place
    Toronto
    M5S 1H8
    www.permanentend.org

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