Re: Psychadelic and other Garbage on Extropians

Chris Hibbert (hibbert@netcom.com)
Tue, 22 Jul 97 15:19:45 -0700


Robin wrote:
>> A high quality open list can stay that way only if participants
>> are willing to take the time to discourage those who make low quality
>> posts. This can be via a moderator, flaming, careful critiques,
>> obscure language, an appearance of boring topics, or whatever.

I've been using a filter on extropians for some time. Only people who
seem to be making useful contributions (in my not-so-humble opinion)
get through. (It's a positive filter, not a negative one.)
Unfortunately, when the people I respect stoop to word-throwing
contests with the people I can't see, I have to wade through the empty
words from one side of the snow-ball fight.

When someone I respect responds to someone I didn't know before who
had an interesting comment or question, I often remember to add the
newcomer to my list, and I start seeing more messages. I occasionally
miss an interesting part of a discussion, but not often enough to make
me want to change the way I read the list.

Chris

---
Chris Hibbert         It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup, but
hibbert@netcom.com    not so easy to turn fish soup back into an aquarium.
                        -- Lech Walesa on reverting to a market economy.

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