>                I did not mean to propose such a stringent view of the
>                internet. The EARN documents are little more than a
>                guide to good manners in a civilized society of
>                scholars.
 
For most of the Internet, you can stop right there.  (unfortunately)
 
The days of this medium as a "society of scholars" is gone; in all
likelihood, this change is relatively irreversible.  We now see, as
a routine matter, 8- and 10-year-old participants in our discussions.
We're adding hundreds of thousands of first-year college students
each fall; few of them are 'scholars,' in the sense with which we
use the word.
 
Those of you familiar with American culture may remember Citizens'
Band (CB) radio.  It was once a calm, effective means of communi-
cation, primarily used in the transportation industy; as the cost
of transmitters/receivers dropped, it became a 'plaything for the
masses' and lost a great deal of its effectiveness.  Unfortunately,
online communication seems, in America at least, to be the CB radio
of the 1990s.
 
Since the implementation of some universal code of conduct is vir-
tually impossible (given the breadth of governments, cultures, and
societies traversed by the Net), what can we do?  If I may borrow
an analogy from the 1800s, it's time to circle our wagons.
 
Quite frankly, I foresee that the more scholarly online resources,
including mailing lists, will "go private."  I already belong to
several invitation-only lists, and the lists I manage are not open
to the general public.
 
The highway may be public, but our individual lists/resources are
ours; maintaining their quality is our responsibility - and no one
else's.
 
--Wes