Privatization of the commons considered harmful.

["Jeremy H. Griffith" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 04 Feb 2002 13:40:13 -0500, Brad Anderson <brad@FrameUsers.com> 
wrote:

>FrameUsers.com is "commercializing" the site and the list.  We will be
>offering advertisement space on the website and on the email lists.
 ...
>Just as yahoogroups and other email forums have done.  We will start running
>2 text ads at the bottom of the Framers messages starting in a week or two.
>
>Please send your feedback and comments directly to me and don't clutter the
>list with your thoughts about the site.

I won't "clutter" the list; I will only say this once.  This new
privatization of a *community* resource, the Framers list itself,
is wrong.  It is a violation of the agreement you made when you 
took over this list from the previous admin, Brad, and I cannot 
and will not support it in any way.  Sorry.

It is one thing to put up ads on a Web site that you are paying
for; I have no problem with that.  It is quite another to inflict
ads upon all those who subscribe to a list that predates your
administration by many, many years.  I know; I was on it long
before you were, perhaps before you graduated from high school.
Many of the current list members were.  You did not create this
list, and you do not own it.  If you want to offer a *commercial*
list, fine, go ahead and do so.  But Framers isn't it.

This will increase the bandwidth for everyone.  Many subscribers,
especially those outside the US, pay per minute for their email
downloads.  This will cost them money, money that you won't even
get, but whose expenditure you compelled.  That just isn't right.

You mention Yahoogroups, but you didn't mention that for $15
a year, any listowner can terminate the appearance of ads, and
most do that.  That's $15 per list, not per member.  If I send
you $15, will you remove the ads?  If so, the check will go in
the mail today.  ;-)

Anyone who would like to continue receiving ad-free support for
FrameMaker issues is more than welcome to subscribe to Free
Framers, where you will never, ever, be subjected to advertising.
Or to censorship, for that matter.  You may do so by sending a
message to <majordomo@omsys.com> with any subject and a body
consisting *only* of
  subscribe framers
with no sig, no HTML, etc.  Hundreds have already done so.

I deeply regret this decision, and hope that you will reconsider.
Framers has always been an important community resource; please
don't force us all to look at your ads to continue receiving
what is already our own property.  It is like charging us for 
the air we breathe.

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  (jeremy@omsys.com)  http://www.omsys.com/

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