Re: Young people peering

Blue-Maned_Hawk <bluemanedhawk@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Sn!pe wrote:
 

You appear to be advocating censorship.  Usenet is a rare bastion of
free speech.  All shades of opinion are given equal weight in the court
of its readership, including those opinions that some do not like.  This
is in the nature of debate.  Valid arguments will win debates, others
will fail.

 
Ignoring the fact that even free speech has limitations, Usenet is not
remotely an example of free speech?newsserver admins can freely downshut
anything they don't like, and many servers require a fee to use,
prohibiting the impoverished from using them.

  News server admins *can* indeed shut down anything they don't like,
but very few - if any - actually do. Quite the opposite, some of them
'allow' (by not taking action), posts which are clearly meant to
disrupt/distroy the group, stifle - instead of enable - discussion,
etc.. So don't worry about "free speech" on Usenet.

  BTW, "the impoverished"!? You're joking, right!? The other stuff they
need to read/post - computer, Internet access, power, etc. - also cost
money. And several servers are free to use and there are several very
low cost paid options. (Mine is EUR 10 per *year*.)

The conceptualization of discussion as ?debates? to be ?won? is
regressive.  All members of a discussion come in with the goal of
expanding their knowledge, and whether or not their original position upon
entrance is correct or not is wholly irrelevant to the final outcome.

  Correct, but many people think and talk in terms of winning and
losing, even when they don't really mean that. Feel free to use your own
terms.