Re: <nettime> morlock elloi

[tbyfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

Hmmm.

morlock's style has struck me as problematic at times, but other 
problems concern me much more: the obstinate gender bias, the prevalence 
of a few voices, the lack of experimentation, and sedentary/habitual 
tendencies in subject, style, regional focus. I get that his/her/their 
mail might be a frequent low-level irritant for some people, the kind of 
thing that sparks eruptions. But for me the nature of that eruption 
matters more than the cause: ad-homimen attacks, people ordering each 
other around, and people who've never tired of letting the world 
remember that they 'founded' nettime decades ago leaping to the 
barricades in private mail to un-propose a "permanent ban." If we're 
going to take any drastic action, it'll be to permanently ban anyone who 
proposes permanently banning someone else.

Felix and I have spent twenty years tending to this list, so our views 
are, at the very least, well informed. Felix can speak for himself if he 
wants, but I think the tendencies above are a more serious threat than 
the pace or tone of any contributor. If it's true that one person "is 
killing the list," then this list is dead already. If it's not true, 
then it says a lot that such a claim would go unquestioned. Not about 
the person who said it (more boring ad-hominem stuff, bleh) but about 
deeper shifts — for example, in whether people trust that an 
environment like this can change organically or instead needs draconian 
'leadership.' If it does, it's dead.

A year or two or three ago, I thought the list was pretty much dead. But 
it has a funny habit of rising from the grave and wobbling around for a 
while, and there's been a trickle of people de-lurking or first-posting. 
Nettime needs much more of that, and a much wider range of perspectives, 
styles, and tolerances. But that kind of pious plea that 'we can do 
better' smells like something Zuckerberg would say, doesn't it? So let 
me moderate that: we also need to do worse — much worse. Doing worse 
has always been a sign of life on this list. Some of you will remember 
Paul Garrin, integer/antiorp/nn, and jodi — entities that, in 
different ways, embodied and exploited the list's most extreme 
possibilities. There was a time when infuriating provocations were seen 
as good.

As usual, Jaromil squeezed five interesting ideas into two sentences:

> maybe he passed on his account. The sort of replying-myself thing he 
> is doing shows that some sort of twitter ab-user has taken place and 
> the quantity of activity indicates there may be more people behind the 
> account now.

I like the idea that morlock is a sort of anti-antiorp. I don't think 
it's true, but it doesn't matter: nettime has always actively supported 
a false-names policy. But the idea that morlock is an improper name, a 
nym for a twitterish performance of a cynical old white techie, is much 
more interesting than bourgie pearl-clutching about how this is nettime 
and we...we have standards!

I know this is sort of old-school, but if you don't like something, 
maybe try (a) contacting the person privately with a suggestion and/or 
(b) filtering your mail.

Cheers,
Ted
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