A History of BoyChat by Alexis (Anti-Committee Sentiment)

Anti-Committee Sentiment Posted by Alexis on June 23, 1997 at 01:16:06: Man, I am posting a lot lately. I promise I'll try to keep it down. Tristan is not the only one feeling anti-committee sentiment. Check out this link, starting about halfway down (search for the word "politics", then read down from there...posts are in reverse chronological order). I know that many of you may consider these guys somewhat fringe, but I don't. I think they're central to BC. The fact is, the Internet has a deep distrust of organization and committees and rules. BoyChat is an expression of Internet community at its finest, mostly 'cause it's a community that creates itself. True, this is partly an illusion, but it was one that helped community flourish under Sean's invisible guidance. A "committee" is a much more intrusive and disturbing affair. I'm looking at my own post on BC headed "First BC Steering Committee Report", and I don't like the look of it. It looks ugly and pseudo-official and un-BoyChat. Never mind that the end is good. The means is somehow off. I'm not suggesting dissolving the committee, but I do think we should low-key it. Let's keep the status report in a link at the top of the page, but not make any more posts under the name of the committee. Let's definitely stop making references to being able to discover people's IP addresses. I was thinking this was making people feel paranoid and disempowered, and I was right: "Ok, not to fan flames or anything, but when I first started posting, I was assured only Sean had access to the logs, and then it was you and Sean, and now its a an entire board of overseers or somthing....Perhaps its time to know *exactly* who's hands I'm entrusting my privacy....." And this was LAKESIDE -- one of our most rational, mainstream posters! And one who has corresponded with me via email, and probably others here as well. What must other regulars, who are less stable or who don't know us, be thinking? Let's face it, committees and authority are scary. They're especially scary to boylovers and they're especially scary to Net-denizens. We've got to play this down in future, or we risk injuring a lot of what makes BoyChat great. ***It doesn't matter that what the committee is doing is good. We are presenting ourselves in a bad way.*** I suggest the following guidelines for future committee activity on BC: 1. No posts under the committee's name 2. No references to any committee activity except in the status report 3. No references to being able to find IP addresses 4. The person administering the board at any given time should remain above the fray on flames, fights and so on. These can be discussed via email. There are doubtless other things we should be watching out for too. Maybe the committee should have an email address or something. Maybe we should just all resign. I'm about ready. Preserving BC is one thing, but if it's going to be an empty shell of its former self, than I don't want to be involved. Alexis, about ready to sink into a hole in the ground after making that committee post... Back to History of BoyChat