X-Message-Number: 3456
Date: 10 Dec 94 21:49:07 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: CRYONICS Net Content

Charles Platt asks why the quality of posts has been so low recently.  Others
have remarked that Kevin gets unsubscribe messages post flame wars.

There is a kind of Gresham's law in a market place like Cryonet.  One major
problem with Cryonet is that I have to PAY for the posts before I see them.
While I mean no offense to anyone, I would probably not be unhappy to not see
another post from Trygve Bauge, Yvan Bozonetti, Jan Cotzee or David Cosenza.

With magazines and other communications formats the reader can get an idea of
what he is about to buy before s/he picks it off the newsstand.  Subscribing
quite often comes after seeing sample issues or repeated newsstand purchases.
Feedback (filtering for quality or at least consumer interest) come from fees
paid for the information which the EDITOR (or at least the
stockholders/owners(s)) are acutely sensitive to.

Only a diluted form of that exists here.

Unfortunately, pleading with people not to lob mud  probably won't work.  And
besides, some of the conflict has lead to useful information for many people.
Where do you draw the line? What Cryonet really needs is a moderator or editor
who operates by a set of established and relarively sinmple standards.  That

too, for many reasons (including the thankless job of DOING it) is not likely to
happen.  A for instance here would be to restrict net posting to issues dealing

biomedical, scientific, legal or financial aspects of cryonics; no "news" and no
"gossip" and above all no personal attacks or inneuendo.  That was, after all.
as I understand it, the original function of the net.  Other material such as
that which was posted here recently and in the past which deals with issues of
personality or politics should be if File 14 or published elsewhere.  In short,
what I am saying is that we have a bunch of people here (myself included) who
are not playing by the rules.  If Cryonet is to survive and to be useful, those
rules may have to be enforced.

As for myself.  I get less and less interested in posting technical or other
material on Cryonet and I feel its quality is declining sharply (through no
fault of Kevin's!!!).  Eventually, I will probably do what many others have
done: send a kill request and let the others have at it.

Finally, I just want to echo what others have said: none of this nastiness does
ANYONE any good.

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