Lloyd,
Just to be clear:
If you object to how the midcom elist is operating you need to take that
up with the midcom-admin and the relevant AD.
done. on cc. On open IETF lists, I have the right to post what you
deem to be rubbish, and you have the right to choose to ignore me (and
the satisfaction of doing so). midcom's policy limits those rights a
priori without consensus or even persistent complaints from list
members.
Are you asserting that you (and anyone else for that matter) have the
right to spam an IETF mailing list and that filtering/moderating such
messages is inappropriate? I would be surprised if there is widespread
support for such a view.
What complicates the overall issue is that in all the cases I'm aware
of where "moderating" goes on, it is to reduce spam. I suspect few
people would argue that spam filtering is an unacceptable "censorship"
in practice. However, because spam filters can make mistakes, it is
highly desirable (as a sanity check/second opinion) for a human to
double check automatic rejections. Unfortunately, having a human look
at a message and decide whether to forward it on will always be viewed
as moderation/censorship by some regardless of the reasons for doing
so.
Consider the two extremes: automatic spam filters in which no human
has chance to overrule an automatic rejection, and completely open
mailing lists with no anti-spam filters. Neither of these seems to be
desired in the majority of cases, and any in-betweens would appear to
require some level of human "moderation".
Thomas