X-Message-Number: 26713
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 09:16:26 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: re: exclusion, a suggestion

Hi Everyone!

The issue of just how bad a messagers messages to Cryonet must be has
arisen once more. While I don't manage Cryonet, and don't plan to 
set up a substitute, I understand why Kevin wants to exclude some
messages. The problem with excluding messages is that getting everyone
(other than the author of the messages) to agree on their exclusion
looks hard. The one case in which some kind of exclusion might be
reasonable would be hyperlong messages. 

Here is a suggestion. I don't know myself how easy or hard it would
be to implement in the present Cryonet software, but I'll make it
anyway: NEVER exclude messages unless they are too long. Instead
the excluded messages always come as the last messages on each
issue of Cryonet, with a special header saying "Excluded" before
the set of excluded messages. 

We could then if we DIDN'T want to read such messages, simply  stop
reading that issue of Cryonet (I generally delete it after I've
read it and answered any message that I felt deserved an answer;
sometimes I do save individual messages if I thought they had
something I wanted to keep, but never the whole issue). 

It is, of course, Kevin Brown's choice as to what to do here. This
is just an alternative to exclusion, and I put it forward as
a slight step toward total freedom of expression on Cryonet...
which can often be unpleasant to many.

            Best wishes and long long life for all,

                Thomas Donaldson

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