Strange as it may seem to discuss the topic of morality in the context of WinMx, new users will be surprised to encounter issues of value, ethics and morals at every turn. These issues explode in the chatrooms and in user messages, and we confront them routinely in the daily busniness of sending and receiving files. All of the moral problems in WinMx are reflections of the same dilemas in the world outside your computer - and how you solve them will depend upon how you approach these global questions.
Many WinMX users have very firm opinions and strong feelings about the ethics of sharing files. My own firm opinion and strong feeling compels me to argue AGAINST having firm opinions and strong feelings - we should relax and take it easy. The universe will unfold as it should, and WinMX will give us all a bunch of neat stuff, whether we work ourselves into a huff about it or not.
Leeches
The most ubiquitous moral issue in WinMX concerns leeches - people who want to download your files but who won't share theirs. The problem is really a much larger question of economics and politics. Conservatives on the far right have absolutely no pity, and maybe considerable hatred, for those who would take without contributing. On the social level, these people who would leech of the labor of the rest of us hard-working slobs, should get a job or starve. In WinMX, leeches should be cancelled and ignored by all, and whoever downloads to a leech is part of the problem. Liberals on the left, however, take a different view. On the theory that you catch more flies with honey that with vinagar, you should go out of your way to assist the 'poor in spirit'. Give such a one what he needs, and offer guidence in how to become a better citizen. In WinMX, go ahead and start the leech's transfer, and send a message inviting him to have a better experience by becoming a sharer.
Both positions are too extreme for me. The conservative fails to see how badly he NEEDS the leech: the leech makes him feel good because he himself is not a leech. The more he hates the leech, the more he can love himself. Liberals, on the other hand, suffer an admirable but misguided naivete. The leech doesn't care about improving his WinMX behavior - he wants to go on leeching as long as it works.
My approach to leeches? Identify them in your UL queue. Send a message explaining that you would love to send this or that file just as soon as he becomes a sharer. Cancel the leech's queue. If the leech requeues and refuses to quit, add him to the ignore list.
The Ignore List
The ignore list offers another area where opinions differ. The ignored users are analogous to the people in prison out in the real world. From the right, the argument says that you relegate a bad user to the outer darkness and forget him. Hard time, no parole. The left says, "have you no compassion?" You should never lock a citizen away, nor add him to your cancel list, unless there is no alternative. We should be creative enough to solve the problem without resort to meer retribution.
Again, I urge both sides to "get off it". Make liberal use of your ignore list, but declare a general amnesty once a month. Even send a message to the ones reprieved, like "we had some problem a while back, but I don't hold a grudge and I don't remember what the trouble was anyway. Feel free to browse and queue again." Your parolee may have been mad about not getting the ultra-rare file he wanted from you, but now he's appreciative - and maybe better mannered as he deals with you for the much-wanted item.
Immoral Files
There are many kinds of things that clearly do not measure up to what is generally accepted, either in our computers or in our society. They may be pornographic in degrees ranging from the merely tasteless to the downright disgusting. They may promote ideas that are heterodox and offensive. They may encourage hatred or violence. The response of our friend on the far right is clear - have no dealings whatever with those who possess such trash.
I have to side with the liberals here - for three reasons. First, if a user with 99 shared files of XXX trash or Nazi hate propaganda cares to download from me a lecture on the ethics of Plato or the first movement of Scheherazade, then I will have increased the quality of his share folder by one percentage point if I send him the file. Secondly, the line between art and smut can be vague and arbitrary. I am sure that some see the famous statue of David to be offensive. Personally, I find the photos of Maplethorpe to be offensive - but that's just me. Maybe others see honest merit in them. Is there a hard and fast line? Thirdly, the fact that an idea contradicts what I happen to think does not make that idea wrong. And EVERY idea is dangerous at certain times and in certain hands. What to make of an idea or of an image is up to each subjective mind. It is impossible for me to make the judgement on your behalf. I cannot take that responsibility for you. Good folks can disagree with me - that's just what I think.
So if the smut-head shares his smut with others, he is welcome to my files. Who knows? Maybe he'll hear something that will shift his interests toward the things that I value.
I love a good argument. If you have another point of view, please let me know about it at chunte_shagowin@yahoo.com
