Re: MD Douglas Adams, usenet, and a prospect

From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Aug 28 2005 - 20:11:43 BST

  • Next message: Scott Roberts: "Re: MD The MOQ conference hoax"
  • Next message: ian glendinning: "Re: MD Fwd: Re: my paper"

    Hi MoQ'ers,

    I had the pleasure of shooting the breeze with Horse, sharing loaves
    and fishes, breaking the bread and drinking wine with Sam the other
    day.

    Sam asks here
    Are we going to ever do something constructive with [MD] ?

    That's kinda where I was coming from with my lines in the sand. If MD
    is simply to be a genuinely open no-holds-barred (other than human
    decency) forum, with new and old members all participating, I can't
    see us doing much more than recycling arguments and debates, and
    constantly "changing the subject" whatever the intent of any specific
    thread.

    Horse is indeed working towards upgrading the MoQ Forum / Discuss
    software so that multiple forums can be set up - by us, the members.
    Gerd has taken his own initiative and set up a Wiki for us already. I
    believe what we should do is ensure that some areas of the debate can
    have rules of engagement that encourage synthesis from some MoQ
    "givens". I'd rather such "rules" were enforced voluntarily, and if
    sanctions were ever needed, they were not in the hands of individuals,
    but a group of moderators. Again, it's always possible that groups of
    us can choose to set up entirely private correspondence and debates,
    but I think it would be healthier if all forums were open, even if the
    rules of participation were controlled.

    Any thoughts ?
    Ian

    On 8/27/05, Sam Norton <elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote:
    > Hi all,
    >
    > Came across this whilst browsing, which Douglas Adams fans might find
    > interesting;
    > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.douglas-adams/browse_frm/thread/29b40b7d2300ce6e/1bde2619252bd648#1bde2619252bd648
    >
    > More significantly, I came across it via this:
    > http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
    >
    > Which made me think about the prospects for our future. I understand Horse
    > has got some exciting things in the pipeline, which will be with us once the
    > hardware issues are sorted, which may well solve many of our problems. But
    > it's weird to think that everything said on this forum is now on-line
    > forever.
    >
    > Are we going to ever do something constructive with it?
    >
    > Sam
    > http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
    > Mail Archives:
    > Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    > Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    > MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
    >
    > To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    > http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
    >
    >

    MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
    Mail Archives:
    Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net

    To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Aug 29 2005 - 05:18:06 BST