IUBio

[off topic] A functional computer model of human or rat brain.

Joseph S. Wisniewski the_wiz at earthlink.net
Sat May 1 14:35:51 EST 1999


Please excuse my off-topic contribution to this seriously off-topic
thread.

"Arthur T. Murray" wrote:
> 
> Protestor's note: The formerly free and democratic comp.ai newsgroup
> has been removed from the "Newsgroups:" line

I've added it back, in my belief that the new moderators of comp.ai
should hear the opinions that you are spreading through USENET.

> because a clique of
> vested interests has succeeded in "taking private" a public newsgroup
> where the fate of all human beings is being decided in our lifetimes.

That's one point of view. Another might be that they simply wanted to
keep it on topic, because too much off topic traffic was seriously
reducing the number of on topic posts. A quote from the CFV for the
moderation of comp.ai:

    With the growth of Usenet in recent years comp.ai has
    suffered from an excess of off-topic posting and inappropriate
    cross-posting.  The technical content is now very low, with few
    experienced researchers or practitioners contributing to the group.

Arthur, that's exactly what you're doing: "inappropriate cross posting".
This very thread is an example. It originated on "bionet.neuroscience"
and the poster was quite specific in his request for information. You
ignored his needs, by your own admission your diagram is not a
functional model, but rather an instrument to start people on the path
towards the development of such a model. You simply used his post as yet
another excuse to post your diagram, and you added several new groups.
Maybe is is on topic in comp.ai, and possibly on comp.ai.philosophy, but
I defy you to explain how it is on topic in comp.speech,
comp.ai.nat-lang, or sci.lang. In fact, many of us would find your
explanation of how your last three posts to comp.speech could be
considered even remotely on topic.

Now, on to your reference to comp.ai being "formerly free and
democratic" and having been taken over by a "clique of vested
interests"...

There was a "free and democratic" election, and an impressive majority
voted (by a margin of 197 to 29) to take measures that they believe will
make the group more useful to the majority. With such an overwhelming
majority of voters, they could just as easily have added
comp.ai.moderated to the comp.ai hierarchy, which would have been the
actual cliquish thing to do.

OK, off my soapbox.

Joe

Joseph S. Wisniewski - Make flutes, not war!




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