Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 11:16:07 -0800
Reply-To: developtrust <developtrust@HOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: developtrust <developtrust@HOME.COM>
Subject: Re: filtering out off-color jokes, rants, etc - sort of long
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I totally agree. We all need to learn to chill out and lighten up-- and
Laugh at ourselves. Lenny Bruce would have a hay day on this list.
Fortunately the bulk of this list are mature people who really do want to
help others and do not get caught up in these nonutilitarian useless
interchanges.
But also with free speech, even those who want to censor have the right to
say so. We should not censor the censor if we want to be fair.
What I find offensive is the people who are mean and critical and who do not
seem to be aware that they hurt others deeply. Even more the ones who want
to censor others who are just trying to add some humor to the list. I have
had a few "hit and run" messages from people with a huge bug up their ass,
and who just dump their mean and cruel comments. I feel sad for them as they
must live a life totally devoid of kindness or real quality friendship. Or
maybe they have enough friends and do not need more friendship in their
lives.
When people have their heads up where the sun don't shine then they have
questionable material (S_ _T) for brains.
But yet, the group as a whole CAN ban the obvious inappropriate list
comments by voicing concern often enough that the list moderator can take
action.
I totally enjoy this list, and especially the new friends I have made. And
the money and time I have saved do not even compare to the improvement to my
Vanagon.
William Polowniak
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Baker" <abusguy2@SPRINGMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: filtering out off-color jokes, rants, etc - sort of long
> Ahhhh, CENSORSHIP. I must respectfully and strongly disagree with this
idea of censoring the list. Primary point: 90% of all material anywhere
could be found offensive by someone. If someone says they like Baywindows
better that splits, and this offends me, should it mean they are not allowed
to state this opinion? No way! We are all adults, we will all be offended
by someone or something at sometime in our life, so does this mean we should
stay in our homes so as not to expose ourselves to being offended? Not me!
If someone on the list were to offend me (it would take alot to offend me,
but it is theoretically possible), here is how I would handle it: I would
go into my mail program and tell it to redirect all mail from this
particular sender into the recycle bin. I would NOT petition to the list
that this person should be removed or censored. When you start talking
about censorship or offensive material you are walking on a very fine line.
Who decides if it's offen!
> sive? Because it's not offensive to me, does that mean it's not offensive
to anyone? No. Well, the same goes for the other side of the debate, just
because it's offensive to one person, that doesn't make it definitively
offensive to others.
> I will share a true story about a local company that used such a filter to
screen their employees emails and computer systems. The company is Iams Pet
Food company. They used such a filter for their computer system, after a
few months they were getting complaints from clients about their email
messages getting "bounced". Turns out that the filter was bouncing all
messages with the technical name for a female dog in the message. Being a
pet food company, I imagine their clients would be sending a lot of messages
with the word "bitch" (sorry if this offends anyone) included.
> Anyway, If this list filter is enabled, who is THE ONE person who decides
what words will cause a message to bounce? You?? Me??? No thanks man, I'm
not interested in that gig!
> A Friday rant because its too darn rainy to be working on my bus
(obligatory VW content!)
> Peace & FREEDOM! John Baker
>
>
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 08:22:14 -0800 Peter Johnson <johnson@SAW.NET> wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> Being Friday and all, I suspect there may well be a number of off-color
jokes and comments posted to the list today. Personally I have not been
bothered by these attempts at humor in the past, and have actually enjoyed
several of them for they have given me a good chuckle at times. Some
listees have been offended by jokes and digs of various sorts, and I recall
last week that a listee posted a response to someone who voiced offense at a
particular joke that that person should simply use the delete key so as not
to be offended. The offended party responded by asking how he could know
whether the posting was offensive without reading it in the first place.
The solution to this problem is to filter out (delete) potential offensive
material before it is read by using filtering criteria features that many
email software packages offer (many of you already know about this I'm
sure). For example, MS Outlook Express allows users to define words or
phrases that appear in the subje!
> ct line of incoming messages to trigger specific actions such as move to a
different incoming mail folder, delete, forward to another address, etc. If
folks on the list who enjoy posting potentially offensive material would
agree to flag the subject line of their posting with words like "off-color"
or "ethnic" or "sexist" and users who don't want to receive such material
use those words as filtering criteria, we would end up with less anger and
resentment and more harmony on this awesome list.
>
> Doing my part to strive for peace.
>
> Peter J
> 85 Westy GL "Nesta"
> Willard, WA
>
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