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Originally Posted by tompe
Yes, but not more than what all people contributing here gives. So I really do not like the viewpoint that one person own a forum or a mailing list and can decide whatever they want. Practically maybe one person can make decisions but the participants will leave if the decisions are bad and then it is not the same forum or the same mailing list.
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So start your own forum and create a 'community' ownership of said forum. This forum belongs to Alex, just as my house belongs to me. I can invite friends over every day of the week, but after months of those friends coming into my home and discussing topics and perhaps even helping out around the house it doesn't make the house their house. It is still mine, and any day of the week I can change how I approach things. If Bob and Sally start discussing topics that I decide I are inappropriate then I have the right to tell them to stop. People can leave if they want, they can be upset and they are welcome to hate me for it. Other people are welcome to feel that way and leave as well, but the group can't suddenly turn and say, "Oh, we disagree, you might own this house but since we hang out here all the time we can do what we want"
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If you started using the internet when News was what you used then it is totally natural that a forum or a mailing list belongs to all that participate. But I know that younger people sometimes take a different view on this.
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There are a couple problems here. A privately owned forum is not analogous to a non-centralized distributed network system such as the Usenet groups. They were created in that manner and expressed as such to its user base. And even then different groups were and are 'owned' in the sense that there is a clear hierarchy of decision making and moderation in the group.
And I started on BBS's and Usenet groups and knew THEN that if I wanted decision making abilities that I could chose to run my own. I started a couple groups and SysOp'd and CoSysOp'd a few boards. I never once felt entitled to someone else's creation. And before you claim different 'open' groups left that open to me and the community, those rules and options were laid out BY the creators, in this case mainly a group of students or staff at a University or Universities. And later by private individuals and companies.
I think the opposite is true of your 'young people' statement. It is more of a modern attitude of community entitlement to a private entity's property. I no more own a 'piece' of MobileRead by my contributions then if I went to an art gallery each day and answered questions of the patrons. It wouldn't entitle me to become an official staff member. I also wouldn't have the right to order an owner of a coffee house me and friends use as a public forum to carry a specific brand of coffee. I have the right to make a suggestion, or leave a complaint. Or leave and go to another coffee house altogether. But I certainly wouldn't have the right to tell said owner what to do.
People have expressed being upset about Alex's decision to close the Conservatory and that is something they have a right to do, but these additional posts of entitlement and the community's 'right' to dictate terms to Alex, or dictate that Alex must justify his actions are disturbing at best.
-MJ