I don't, however, think the moderation of a mailing list is property
> that can be sold.
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, maybe a mailing list is property
> which can be sold, or maybe it is not ... I do know that several years
> ago -- when a company called 'TOPICA' was quite active (remember them,
> anyone?) Topica management offered me one dollar per each name on my > mailing list...
I wasn't thinking about it that way, but now I think you are right. The list can be sold. As a matter of fact, I knew somebody who did sell an email list. He was producing a rather specialized newsletter that had paid subscribers.
If PT is the only one who can decide who is moderator, then that is
> something that he can decide to sell, should he so choose. Who can > prevent him?
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, some of you newcomers who
> started reading this Digest since 1993 do not recall -- maybe never
> even heard of -- the great battle that year over comp.dcom.telecom.
> There were some people then -- they are still around today -- who do
> not care for my moderation of c.d.t, thus they began c.d.t.t. as a
> work around. They were going to have an election for a new moderator
> and vote for someone else. But one or more of the 'Usenet authorities'
> (at least at that time it was David Lawrence ['tale'] and Gene
> Spafford told them they could not do it; the technical reason is
> because c.d.t. is not actually a Usenet newsgroup. Its origin was as
> an ARPA (Advanced Research Projects) newsgroup which had been split
> off from HumanNets and was merely _ported_ into Usenet each
> day. Therefore the rules which apply to Usenet did not apply to c.d.t.
I think that is what I was forgetting when I made my initial comment. I have pulled TD off Usenet for years, although I was a subscriber before that. Strangely, the main reason I use the Usenet mirror is that I read both groups, and have since the beginnings of cdtt. I don't remember, or was never aware of, the fight, but I do recall they wanted a newsgroup that was more focused on the technology of telecom, which they are. cdt is more focused on the history and sociology of the field. I enjoy both. I don't know who, if anybody moderates cdtt these days, but it has gone quiet enough it could easily be merged back into cdt.