[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: ADMIN: Possible Threat to HPfGU lists

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

Iggy:

> And, if you notice, it has been suggested that the discussions don't
> need to stop, but it might be better to move them to another group or
> location.

Oh, so *another* list can benefit from the ideas that *our* listies 
would rather post here?

And I think you'd agree that there *is* no other place like HPfGU for 
discussing Harry.  Sure, a listie could take their discussion somewhere 
else when it got too - What? Sexual? Taboo? - but not only would that 
be artificial, that listie would also be sacrificing themselves and 
their ideas to some nebulous phantom menace.

Not acceptable, IMHO.

> I would also like to point out that these friends of the list aren't
> encouraging crushing discussion about certain themes.  We are simply
> trying to make people aware that such discussions could be problematic
> for the group and might want to be moved elsewhere.

*looks at you suspiciously* What is this "friends of the list" jargon?  
I don't understand.  We are not *friends* of the list.  We *are* the 
list.  You mess with the listies, you mess with the list.  There is no 
way to avoid it.

And, as many others have pointed out, going by Yahoomort's history, if 
a complaint is filed, they will either a) ignore it or b) delete us 
with no investigation at all.  That's *assuming* there is even a threat 
of the main list being deleted at all, which there very well may not be 
(go back and read the admin letter a little more closely).

In short, running about like Chicken Little in response to this problem 
is not going to help *anything*.  I do understand the desire to batten 
down the hatches and go on the defensive, but it *won't* help.  IMO, it 
could irreversibly damage the group itself.


> Some people try to be friends to the list by seeing the grander effect
> of what's being discussed and the effect it could possibly have on the
> group as a whole.  I believe in freedom of expression just as much as
> anyone (trust me... if you only knew...).  On the other hand, if we
> ignore the fact that keeping one topic type open on this list could 
> help
> get the list as a whole shut down, then we're actually doing more 
> damage
> to the group.

If we wanted to make the list impenetrable to assault (which would 
probably not even help if a complaint were filed against us), we would 
have to do away with a *lot* more than just sexual discussion, trust me.

Personally, I am not one for trying to preserve things under glass 
cases to the detriment of those who could benefit from them.  *If* 
censoring could save the list (which it can't), what then?  We 
basically have the *shell* of our old community intact, but not the 
community itself.  What's the worth of that, I ask you?  *If* we get 
deleted, we pick up the pieces and build everything back.  It would be 
tragic, yes, but not so much as the destruction of our community, I 
think.

What's the point of being a fox if you're never going to leave the 
foxhole?

Laura

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