Re: OWNERSHIP: Fwd: Status of moderator discussion

[Dan Bell <dbell@kent.edu>]

Bill,

By authority, I mean that the KSU computer support staff do not work for 
the OEOC
and are not paid by the OEOC. The key person there continues to help us, 
because
he is a good person and, to some extent, supports COG's mission. Since he 
has no
obligation to help, I have no "authority" over him, and thus no authority 
to delegate.

If a moderator began sending instructions to him directly, he would simply 
redirect the
person back to me.

So again, I am speaking about the mechanics of operating the list; not the 
governance.

Regarding governance, where mechanically practical, I am happy to assist 
the active
participants in setting up and implementing whatever rules they feel 
comfortable with,
going forward.

As for the pre-moderator period, I do not intend to make a practice of 
deleting items from
the archive, and do not have the capacity to take on the task of reviewing 
large quantities
of text in order to decide what should stay and what should go. Again, that 
does not mean
that there will not be exceptional circumstances under which a message might be
deleted.

I do not recognize any obligation to maintain the archive, or any part of 
it, available to the
public for all of eternity. In fact, if the COG server dies tomorrow, I 
have no funds to replace
it, so I would no longer be able to make it available to the public.

Under the rules, or lack of rules, for this list up until the time that a 
moderator volunteers and
is accepted, there has not been a clear process for restricting what might 
be posted. In that
sense, all participants have enjoyed the freedom to express themselves, 
whether or not they
have exercised that freedom in a responsible and courteous manner. 
Preserving what they
have written is not COG's obligation. If a protester burns the flag, no 
Supreme Court is
going to interpret the First Amendment as obligating the government to 
videotape it and
keep this video available for the public for all time. If you are concerned 
about any
particular content disappearing from public view, I would recommend that 
you download
the files to your own computer and set up a web site where they can 
continue to be
displayed.

Going forward, if the active participants choose to restrict the freedom of 
expression
practiced on the list, ie, banning insults, those who choose to participate 
are choosing
to do so with full knowledge that their speech in this forum will be limited.

Cheers,

Dan


At 11:31 AM 7/12/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>You state:-
>
>"I cannot delegate to someone else the authority to
>make such requests."
>
>I will take this to mean what it seems to say, that
>you will remain solely responsible and answerable for
>deletions from the archive.
>
>I remember that have I directed your attention
>previously to computer viruses in the archive, which
>were quite reasonably removed.
>
>If moderation is limited to merely requesting from you
>that you take certain action regarding the existing
>archive, or any other matter, as all of us have the
>equal right to do, inasmuch as each of us individually
>has the freedom of speech to express his opinion on
>any matter whatsoever--I will have no objection.
>
>I fully expect you will respond to any such request in
>a responsible manner, as you have always done in the
>past.
>
>It is a very serious matter to change the rules of the
>game after several years, if messages are deleted from
>a public archive, to which the public previously had
>access.
>
>I remind you that the obligations imposed by the First
>Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
>particularly upon federally tax-exempt institutions
>involving political discussion, are not trumped by
>majority vote, however defined, or by any person
>supposedly chosen by majority vote, however defined.
>
>You can't declaim personal responsibility because you
>are following some arbitrarily defined "democratic"
>process, especially when it is you who has arbitrarily
>defined the process.
>
>That's what Pontius Pilot did, by the way--in no way
>comparing the trivial importance of this situation to
>that one.
>-
>
>
>
>--- Dan Bell <dbell@kent.edu> wrote:
>
> > Bill,
> >
> > At 07:04 AM 7/12/2005 -0700, you wrote:
> > >I take note that the proposal to delete messages
> > from
> > >the existing archive is off the table:-
> > >
> > >The moderator will not be able to:
> > >
> > >c) clean up the files.
> >
> >
>
>I was simply clarifying that an ability to make
>frequent changes to the archive is unrealistic since
>it requires the unpaid work of KSU support staff. I
>cannot delegate to someone else the authority to make
>such requests.
>
>They are willing to remove items from time to time,
>when I request this. I have limited these requests
>primarily for removing spam and attachments with
>viruses, but could request on a limited basis that
>other messages be deleted, if the active participants
>authorized a moderator to make such requests. For the
>most part, such a practice would be limited to
>messages added to the archive after such a process
>were authorized by the group, though there could be
>exceptions.
>
>Since the moderator would control what messages were
>relayed to the list, I would not expect the moderator
>to make such a request very frequently.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Dan
>-
>
>
>
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