Gordon Wright has again used his position to have a pop at this newsgroup. He was apparently "horrified" to read that eight years ago a comment was made to the effect that David Edgington was slow to answer readers' enquiries, and "even more aghast" to learn that this comment is still there eight years later. He finishes by saying "Like the Church of Scotland, reputable Internet News Groups and Forums etc, have 'Moderators' to police them. I do hope the Moderator of the Stationary Engine Internet News Group takes action to remove this comment immediately". What he refers to is a section in DWE's Engine Torque which misquotes a post and also fails to mention that the poster subsequently apologised for any distress his comments may have caused.
All he has done is demonstrate that he doesn't understand the medium - a thread on this NG like a chat you might have at a club evening, with the important differences that; a)everybody can overhear, and b)the conversation is recorded. There is no moderator, Usenet is largely an anarchy in the original - non pejorative - sense of the word. The archived posts - now held by Google - are a matter of historical record and I believe it is generally agreed that attempting to distort history is a bad thing reserved for totalitarian regimes such as Stalinist Russia.
I find GW's negative attitude toward this newsgroup, and in fact the internet in general, rather disturbing. As a long time subscriber and occasional contributor, I would not be without SEM. But I do fear somewhat for it's future if it fails to embrace new technology - Perhaps Kelsey is no longer a suitable vessel for such a precious cargo?
-- NHH