Re: [projectvrm] "I am not a brand."

[Alec Muffett < >]

On 23 Jun 2010, at 20:03, Alan Patrick wrote:

> On 23/06/2010 19:01, Alec Muffett wrote:
> 
>> 1) people who can be focused, make profit in spite of pissing off 
>> disorganised hordes of folk
>> 2) the "network effect" has a downside as well as an upside, and
>> 3) what the net needs is an effective way to pillory the bad guys [ED: But 
>> that has a whole host of other issues]
> 
> Glad to see you are using my word for the "thing that is bigger than just 
> the Web" - aka net - after all, Alec ;-)

Yes, that _is_ what you're saying, hence the "dream on"; the Net is not 
merely the inappropriate medium for censorship of bad guys, but also the 
concept of censorship at any level above that medium is impractical - or 
rather incomplete when implemented by any practical means.

I reject the whole statement.

> Anyway, my point 3 was not about pillorying bad guys, the point was 
> actually that any group action (pillorying among others) won't work unless 
> it ensures that the transaction costs of hosebagging are raised higher than 
> the benefits it confers, for eg via:
> 
> - negative social capital that has consequences - eg limiting access
> - filters (eg spam filtering)
> - blockers (eg with some websites)
> - user bypasses (which is where VRM et al come in)

I don't know what hosebagging is - sounds to me like some public school 
activity - but to repeat myself: censorship ("regulation") will not work, and 
even if you kill one bad guy another will arise in his place.

This should not be hard for even someone with your experience of business 
leadership to understand, Alan: the only defence against the evil is that the 
users are equipped with a clue, and ideally with communications so they can 
share notes with each other - call _that_ what you will.

> Joe also made a useful point, ie services that don't do this scummy stuff 
> may prove to be more effective and thus hosebaggng dies a darwinian death

...and, following the Darwinian model, each time a new niche pops up, 
something will arise to take advantage of it once more, and then you and Joe 
Mk II can rant about it all over again.

        -a

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