Re: Some thoughts on censorship in this mailing list.

[Florian Weimer]

* Marcel:

> The worst aspect about this whole episode--from my perspective in
> isolation--is that nobody can tell that I am trying to respond
> thoughtfully and intelligently to their posts; the censors do not even
> need to forward a note to forum members saying that such and such other
> member has been silenced nor do they need to provide a specific response
> mentioning the "offending" portion of the post. This makes the
> censorship even more violent.

This is not true.  You can send your reply directly to the author of
the post you are repling to and Cc: the list (like I did in this
message).  This way, they receive your response, whether or not it
makes it to the list.  Mailing list moderation is simply not a very
effective tool for suppressing voices.  After all, anyone can take
addresses from the list and harass posters off-list.

I don't like the moderation either for various reasons (if anything,
it's confusing and reminds me of the mid-90s, when email was not
real-time), but I trust the people who have deemed it necessary.