In fact, there are two such lists. One has around 4,000 Valued Readers, who have stuck with me for years, though thick and thin -- quite a bit of both, actually. The other list goes out to several dozen carefully selected individuals. The manner of their selection involves first identifying those highly influential and well positioned people in the online scene today, such as it is, whose criticism (snarkiness, verbal sneering, certain types of jokes, etc.) could seriously hurt me, or at least make me feel really really bad. I then defuse such potential embarrassments by spamming these people so relentlessly that none will give me the satisfaction of saying anything at all. It's a strategy that has cost me in terms of what Robert Putnam calls "social capital" (a term he lifted from someone else, possibly Angelina Jolie), but all in all, I feel it's just so much cheaper than having to pay Mafia protection rates. At any rate, Donna Wentworth is on the latter list -- as well as being listed in the left column here under "partners in crime"; we're still working out the plan -- and this patent-pending overlong overture will explain, I hope, the hijacking reference. I almost met Donna several years ago, and we've only spoken once or twice, briefly, by telephone, but I am nonetheless confident that she doesn't even have a pilot's license. Or so much as a box cutter, for that matter.

I suppose I should also explain that, while my list has been very effective in keeping these folks from talking to me, they will, on occasion, strike up a conversation among themselves, as if I weren't even there. As if I were, in point of fact, chopped liver. Not that I mind, mind you. Not that I hold any grudge, or anything like that. What do you take me for? I comfort myself that in Days of Olde they used to shoot the messenger. Now they just ignore the bastard. It's possible I've said too much already. Here's Donna's letter, forthwith, with embedded URLs. If you made it through all this blather, I hope you have the energy left to read on...

Subject: Another list hijacking
Hi all,

My deepest apologies -- I haven't participated in
this list for *quite some time,* being mired in
things Copyfight-related, so I've slipped into
obscure lurker-dom, alas.  But I wanted to let you
know about a website I've been working on that
many of you may be interested in: EFF's new 
Legal Guide for Bloggers. It's a collection of
FAQs aimed at helping the average blogger
understand her rights in the face of legal threats
that most people don't even understand. We don't
want people submitting to these threats (like
cease-and-desist letters from trademark holders)
without recognizing that they have a protected
right to speak.

Check it out and pass the word along if you think
it may suit any of your respective readerships.

Best,
D
 -- 
Donna Wentworth
Web Writer/Activist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org

click me, click me! DO IT TODAY!

from: San Jose Mercury News, Dan Gillmor Column
source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, 25 August 2002
via: HighBeam™ Research

Several weeks ago I said here that you need to get active, if you are concerned about the way the cartel is trying to take over the flow of information. You don't have to be a weblogger or political candidate to make a difference.

Several organizations are already working on your behalf. I urge you to visit their Web sites and then, if you agree with what they're saying and doing, consider supporting them with your contributions, time and energy.

Two of the more prominent such organizations are the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) has been at this for more than a decade, and the much newer DigitalConsumer.org (www.digitalconsumer.org). I'm going to create a Web page listing every such group I can find -- let me know of the ones you're familiar with.