From: lfh <lfh@pacbell.net>
Subject: AMY Could Learn  A LOT From Yesdick. Really.
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 98 18:29:00
Message-ID: <35331bff.129231014@news.pacbell.net>
Newsgroups: alt.music.yes
Organization: Pacific Bell Internet Services

Well, amy folk, you might not believe the veracity of the header, but
some consideration may be in order before dismissing it out of hand.
For those who think Yesdick is nothing more than a useless and
irritating waste of bandwidth, think again. He is serving quite a
useful purpose at present. As the song says, (by a band who had a
lyricist who wrote *quality* lyrics :) "once in a while you can get
shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right."

Consider these sentiments, which have been echoed (with variation) by
a host of others since the Yesdick/Wendy thing boiled over. 

>But why should we, as a community, have to put up with
>abusive trolls or other forms of 'Net abuse?
>If someone is acting contrary to the rules of their ISP,
>then it seems only polite to point that out to their ISP. (Henry)

>As for doing things for your "personal enjoyment". . .
>as Usenet becomes ever more crowded, I think one needs
>to curb one's desires to piss around on the newsgroup
>just because it makes one feel good. (Henry)

>I'm all for freedom of speech, but that does not include
>copyright violations *or* obscenities. He needs to have a
>truckload of soap jammed down his throat until he learns to
>communicate in a civilized manner. (William Maddock)

Henry is always good for culling statistics, so maybe he can get us
the # of posts during this whole affair that earnestly or otherwise
focus on some version of telling *others* what to do or how to make
AMY the "way it *should* be." It seems the #'s would be not
insignificant.

I would like to pose a question: What would happen if people just let
AMY and its participants be what it is/they are and went on from
there, posting what they thought was proper and leaving be what they
thought wasn't? Note, that I am *not* saying anyone *should* do this
or that. You are all free to do whatever the hell you want, and I
would never suggest that anyone can't do this or must do that. If you
want this "community" to be a platform for your particular brand of
social reform and censorship, go nuts. We get it everywhere else, so
I'm not surprised to see it here. I just don't know why so many people
want to spend so much energy playing cop.

AMY is touted as a community. But, being virtual, it is unlike
communities elsewhere. One of the beauties of ng's in general is the
freedom of expression they offer, unencumbered by the usual restraints
and contracts regarding "social" or "civilized" behavior. Yesdick gets
slammed regularly by the members of this community for his supposed
breach of "civilized" conduct. It's all too true that he is generally
tasteless. But, as a crime against the community, I'll take
tastelessness and Yesdick any day over the more insidious breaches his
detractors are committing in the name of "decency." Free speech, yes,
but not if it includes obscenities? What's that, free speech lite?
Everybody's up in arms because Yesdick "abused" Wendy's poems, and
copyright infringement is brandished about like holy writ. He didn't
steal her stuff, he just parodied it. Folks have been doing that to
Jon's stuff for ages, and I've never gotten a whiff of lawyers before.

I've seen Sully's posts hacked up by Clam again and again.
Finger-wagging, yes, but no whiff of lawyers. Are we only to get up in
arms because of piddling with *Wendy's* posts. Only verse is sacred,
is that it? Or, Sully’s stuff doesn't count because he's not as *nice*
as Wendy?) Things are starting to stink around here, but it's not just
the shit Yesdick is generating. I'm not being all that nice here,
either, so I guess I'm open season as well.

Unlike other sports, they let players fight in hockey because it is a
lot safer. Stop the allowance of fist fighting, and you have the same
heated emotions *and* a lethal weapon in the hands of the heated.
Here, it's just words, words, words. They sometimes sting, and egos
get bruised, but it's relatively harmless posturing and playing. I'm
not sure why so many people think they have a duty to police the
playground or work to cast it into *their* image. I'm certainly not
sure why they believe that such efforts will yield the desired
results. (Hasn't *anybody* around here read J.S. Mills' writings on
censorship? It never produces the intended results, folks.) There must
have been at least fifty posts (Henry?) dedicated to nothing but
admonishments to ignore Yesdick. That's fifty posts *focusing* on
Yesdick while encouraging others not to. I guess it's easy to see why
he does in fact rule the place at present. Which, if anyone recalls,
is *exactly* what he said he would do upon his arrival. He knows
precisely what he is doing and what the score is on this ng, but a
whole lot of others around here haven't a clue. And I keep hearing
that he is an idiot. Idiocy is reigning in AMY, but *Yesdick* isn't
wearing the fool's cap.

Fred