On Wed, 17 Jan 2001, Aaron Malone wrote:
> 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.
hmm, actually we ask that our client do *not* reboot the proxy server,
due to possible loss of error log messages.
>
> > 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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