On Wed, Jan 17, 2001 at 02:40:40PM -0800, Jen Hamilton wrote:
> Yes, I believe you have made incorrect statements about N2H2 and are
> misunderstanding N2H2's philosophy altogether.
Sorry if what I've said was misunderstood -- it was not my intention to
make statements about any of N2H2's philosophies. I should explain that
some of what I've said about your company is colored by problems I've had
unrelated to the general issue; most specifically a repeated issue where
the proxy denies everyone access to anything. AFAIK (I don't deal with
the proxy anymore), the best answer we've received from N2H2 tech support
is to reboot the box when that happens.
> A useful solution to what problem? I believe the problem we are discussing
> is 'how much control should the government have on what information enters
> schools and libraries'. In relation to internet media, filtering companies
> get all blame, and these companies understand that.
Again, I don't mean to blame any filtering company for any of these
issues. Well, no; I take that back. I do blame certain companies for
blocking pages critical of them, and hiding their block lists. But in
general, I think it's absurd to hold any such company responsible for
censorship in libraries or schools -- the blame there lies squarely with
the legislators and administrators who make such filtering mandatory. I
know that for the most part, filtering companies mean well and do their
best -- I just don't think it's a job that anyone can do well enough to
make it useful.
> But if filtering is not the most useful solution, then what is?
I don't have an answer to that. I don't think mandatory filtering is it,
though.
> With the emergence of the internet, schools are now faced with a problem
> that was never there before. If a school wanted to sell Playboys in their
> snack bar, how many parents would have a problem with that?
Not me (if I were a parent), but that's more than I want to get into on
company time. :)
> At some point,
> there has to be a way to control what information enters a school or
> library, and that choice must be made by the individual school or
> library. The filtering technology of which I am defending allows the
> control to stay at that level.
I disagree. Having experience with one of your servers, I don't think
it's feasible to implement a solution where the control truly stays at
that level, without reliance on the opinions of a third party, and in
which the librarians still have any time left to, well, run a library.
But somehow I doubt that either one of us is going to manage to convince
the other. :)
By the way, there's no need to CC me; I'm on the list.
--
Aaron Malone ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
System Administrator "Of course I'm crazy, but that
Poplar Bluff Internet, Inc. doesn't mean I'm wrong."
http://www.semo.net -- Robert Anton Wilson
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