[LUAU] Hello - My Name is Scott

[Jim Thompson]

On Mar 26, 2008, at 4:24 PM, R. Scott Belford wrote:
> Hello.  My name is Scott.  I have never seen my name so many times  
> in a
> generally negative light as I have these last few days on the LUAU  
> mailing
> list.  This is life, and people have voices.  So be it.  It is  
> easier to
> destroy than to build.  Such is entropy.
>
> My hero is Don Shula.  When confronted with these situations, he  
> simply
> stated that he would not dignify such comments by responding to  
> them.  It is
> hard when one is being slandered and libeled, but, so be it.
>
> I live by the words - if you have nothing to be defensive of, why be
> defensive.  It seems to work.  Many of the issues being dragged onto  
> the
> LUAU mailing list are being patiently, persistently, and positively  
> dealt
> with on a mailing list called HOSEF-managers at lists.hosef.org
>
> http://lists.hosef.org/pipermail/hosef-managers-hosef.org/2008q1/

Subject to your malicious and capricious moderation, of course.  An  
action, I might add, that is expressly *NOT* endorsed by
HOSEF's board of directors.

This is the very reason why the discussion has moved (in part) to  
LUAU, a forum which you (hopefully) will not also not moderate at your  
personal whim.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."  John  
Gilmore, quoted in Time Magazine's December 6, 1993 article "First  
Nation in Cyberspace"
In its original form, it meant that the Usenet software was resistant  
to censorship because, if a node drops certain messages because it  
doesn't like their subject, the messages find their way past that node  
anyway by some other route. This is also a reference to the packet- 
routing protocols that the Internet uses to direct packets around any  
broken wires or fiber connections or routers. (They don't redirect  
around selective censorship, but they do recover if an entire node is  
shut down to censor it.)

The meaning of the phrase has grown through the years. Internet users  
have proven it time after time, by personally and publicly replicating  
information that is threatened with destruction or censorship. If you  
now consider the Net to be not only the wires and machines, but the  
people and their social structures who use the machines, it is more  
true than ever.

> It is in my last three postings and another upcoming that I am doing  
> my best
> to put the kind of face to this that would make my parents proud.
>
> The irony is this - I tried to get someone else to host LUAU, the  
> mailing
> list through which we are now conversing.  This mailing list is now  
> hosted
> on an account that I pay for through a domain that I pay for.  I
> deliberately do not have any control or moderation over LUAU.

Implicit threats, all.    These are HOSEF's assets, not yours.

> I even made sure that all the messages got ported over, even the  
> nasty ones about me.  I
> am paying for you to say whatever you want to say about me.  I don't  
> know
> where I went so wrong that people try to destroy, rather than build  
> upon,
> whatever good I and others have accomplished, but at least I am still
> providing you a platform to do it.

If you will listen, there are many who will tell you where you went  
wrong.

> The original server that was hosting this list was built and donated  
> by me.

If it was donated to HOSEF, then title to same remains with HOSEF, and  
you are not free to dispose of it as you wish.

> The creation of HOSEF gave me and the other contributors over the  
> years a
> chance to take a tax deduction for these donations.  This server is  
> still in
> the racks at UH awaiting help and support upgrading it.

Michael Bishop and I have volunteered to remake it at Vince's bidding.

> It is yours, I have no control over it, and it, like LUAU, can be  
> used to say whatever people
> want to say.

I'll say it again, if it was donated to HOSEF, then title to same  
remains with HOSEF, and you are not free to dispose of it as you wish.

Jim