Re: nettime: The Real Deal

[Steve Cisler <sac@apple.com>]

I'd like to just make one comment about Bruce Sterling and the
Goofy Leftists discussion, in answer to Mark Stahlman.  The person
who may feel they have some ownership or control over a conference
is the host; they usually exercise that control over individual topics
within their conference.  I have never felt that by starting a topic,
as Sterling did, that I am all that responsible for it.  I may be
interested in it, and I may not want ad hominem attacks to sidetrack
a discussion, but one of the unfortunate things about parts of the
WELL is that many people do like the fights that take place ("Let's
pull up a lawn chair" is one catch phrase frequently used) and so they
let them go on.

Some hosts will tolerate a lot more unruly exchanges than others, but
some conferences are really quite civil.  I would agree strongly that
Mark (and others) went through a lot in that discussion that most other
people would not care to experience.

Steve Cisler
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