Article: 6855 of fa.future-culture Path: ifi.uio.no!internet-mailinglist From: HEATH MICHAEL REZABEK Newsgroups: fa.future-culture Subject: Re: Noise Date: 16 Mar 1994 09:40:50 +0100 Organization: Internet mailing list Lines: 98 Message-ID: <2m6gmi$b21@ifi.uio.no> Reply-To: Future Culture NNTP-Posting-Host: ifi.uio.no Return-Path: <<@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU:owner-futurec@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>> Original-Message-Id: <19940316084037.11321.ifi@ifi.uio.no> Original-Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 02:40:35 -0600 Comments: To: FUTUREC@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC >indigo >This extra spam had the same effect that all the new AOL people had, it >raised the volume and made it more difficult to filter out what I >consider noise. This is a bad thing. Being stupid and annoyed, after I >was kicked off the channel for some reason, I decided two could play at >the spam game... to make a long story short... (I'm sure somebody has the >logs) I was kicked off the channel by [pc] when he, apparently had enough >of my spamming (ie, his was okay, mine wasn't). >Joining the ranks of the .rez'd... ha. hmm. power is a very tenuous thing down in here. power only exists so long as there are people willing to entertain it. sure, the person can still pull the plugs and push the buttons, but if there's no-one there to be pushed or pulled, the *phoof* their power is gone. i have slowly been learning this the hard way. i have been forced several times to Prioritize the places i spend my time and the friends i trust, even, on the basis of how i percieve their approach to power. just as power only exists so long as there are people willing to entertain it by the power-full's rules, so also community only ONLY exists in the space of the trust between its constituents. [or so i've found, all imho amen. ;) ] so there's this other list i'm on, which consists of a few [maybe 20] people who i've fleshmet quite a number of times and with whom i've grown very close. there was recently a crisis of sorts in which i again felt that power was being granted or conceded in an environment [virtuality] where it was neither necessary nor productive. rather that let everything fall apart when that person left, [they've since returned and healing is underway], we opted to stay. s/he had been Administrator for the list; the list had been set up as a favor to them. the person who'd set it up, when the other had left, attempted to hand Administrative Duties over to me. i said, fuck off, post the stuff we need to know to sub and unsub people [this was a large part of where the powerr lay, as it is a very small list of relatively close people; inclusion and exclusion is a tricky gnot.] so there it was: to the list at large, instructions were posted.. " send to the list.. ::administrate listX subscribe whoever@wherever.com .. or replace the word sub with unsub. any person, anywhere." talk ensued: what if someone doesn't like it if another subs a person they hate? well, they vote with their feet; they unsub, thus making it a public Issue which must be worked through. or better yet: they unsub the offending person themselves and again, publically, answer to their decision. there ARE such things as self-organizing systems. and the ONLY principle they operate on [well, for communities] is the tenuous fabric of mutual trust, dignity, and respect. one of the things that amazes the fuck out of me about the nexus community is the way it sprung up. hell; you all were here, halfway through november the nexus-meme ate fc's brain [as bookish [i think, or mindy] so eloquently put it. :)] within the space of 5 days, at least that many people SIMULTANEOUSLY said, "hm, maybe we oughtta have a list for this thing..." poof. the time was right. it happened. not a damn person steering the fucker, so far as i can see.. [though dwayne works his arse off trying to remote-admin. ;) ] i was boggled. it seems like fc has gone through HELLISH bifurcations which would have been the death of many other communities. yeah, the founder pulls the plug on a list of 700 people. it came back [along with, evolutionarily unstable and untennable. of course, the scuttlebut from various #channels and alt.groups assuring all the The Edge(tm) had moved ElseWhere. i'm fucking sick of trying to think i always oughtta be ElseWhere. i'm gonna put energy into a goddamned Here if it kills me, and it just might. but it just might save me, so hey, life's a gamble all around. the thing is, lack of centralization is an EXTREMELY THREATENING CONCEPT to human beings who have a goodly amount of grey stuff all-but-hardwired to take it for granted. it takes time for this thing to evolve, and individual decisions. i decided when i was booted from leri for something that occorred on ALEPH for Gum's sake -- that i would never ever again entertain or humor the power-broker. if they want their power they can have it without me. i'll take my fucking dignity, thanks. i've had to stick to that decision a couple of times, and it sucked shit and it is rough as hell. but i'm only ever more convinced that such moves are crucial, necessary. because a centralized system is top-heavy. a centralized system is power-hungry. and let's fucking face facts, as a Post-Existential Memeticist ;) if i've learned anything, it's that the good ol' fashioned centralized system is becoming just plain evolutionarily untennable. unstable. unworkable. unsupportable. for me anyway. pardon my rant. :) hmr