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- Xref: sparky comp.misc:4577 news.misc:2030 comp.bbs.misc:1525 alt.amateur-comp:325 alt.culture.usenet:965
- Newsgroups: comp.misc,news.misc,comp.bbs.misc,alt.amateur-comp,alt.culture.usenet
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!blaze.cs.jhu.edu!jyusenkyou!arromdee
- From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
- Subject: Re: A Paper on the Social Forces Behind the Development of Usenet
- Message-ID: <1992Dec13.235743.29851@blaze.cs.jhu.edu>
- Sender: news@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Usenet news system)
- Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.
- References: <1g8k4hINN3d2@milk.Warren.MENTORG.COM> <1992Dec11.002711.8145@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> <19921213.003@erik.naggum.no>
- Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 23:57:43 GMT
- Lines: 28
-
- In article <19921213.003@erik.naggum.no> Erik Naggum <enag@ifi.uio.no> writes:
- >[Tom Limoncelli]
- >| I think the author of this paper should go back and re-read the FAQ
- >| on what Usenet is NOT.
- >[Ken Arromdee]
- >| Your own argument betrays you here. Since Usenet is an anarchy,
- >| there's no real reason he should accept that FAQ as an authoritative
- >| description of Usenet.
- >Sorry, but you've got "anarchy" all wrong. Anarchy means "no ruler", or
- >"no ruling power". It does _not_ mean "no rules", or "no authorities".
- >All it means is "absence of a legally sanctioned force to make people
- >obey rules or authorities". However, people living in an anarchy like
- >order and strive to create it as much as anywhere else, i.e., they will
- >obey rules and authorities when they find them to be productive to their
- >ends. The neat thing with an anarchy is that its members can _choose_
- >the rules and authorities, on an individual basis.
-
- Then: there is no real reason why he should _choose_ to accept that FAQ as
- authoritative. At least, no a priori reason.
-
- I personally am somewhat skeptical about the use of FAQ's to give definitive
- answers to disputed issues.
- --
- "the bogosity in a field equals the bogosity imported from related areas, plus
- the bogosity generated internally, minus the bogosity expelled or otherwise
- disposed of." -- K. Eric Drexler
-
- Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)
-