Yes professional courtesy would be a good idea. However, it seems that not all were courteous to Art when he made his comments about the nature of capitalism. Many responses refused to deal with hios proposition fairly and might even be said to have rubbished it. If people don't want to discuss something, then you don't have to. If, however, attempts are made to belittle a discussion because it is frowned upon to bite the teets that feed us, then this is clearly uncivic.

===== Original Message From air-l@aoir.org ===== I have been holding my anger back, but I am getting tired of AoIR becoming a listserve of inflated egos and the most egregious forms of rudeness. I would humbly request that from now on, we make some sort of "civic pledge" to not dismiss people who disagree with us as "clowns" and try to keep the list on topic.

Art McGee says:

...

I'm so glad those folks are all gone now. That was a truly sad time in cyberspace history. I hope they were able to get some help. A mind is terrible thing to waste, you know.

Art

Yes, it is a terrible thing to have a listserve where not everyone agrees with your own construction of reality. Much better to dismiss everyone who disagrees you as a "clown" (Art's description of Barry Wellman), and get them off our mailing lists.

Randolph Kluver School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University 31 Nanyang Link Singapore, 637718 (65) 6790-5770 Fax (65) 6792-4329 "Aude aliquid dignum."

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