Noise-to-signal ratio

[Sauron]

> >honestly, the original post wasn't all that
> >serious either...
> 
> Actually it was meant utterly literally and with full seriousness.

that's part my fault. i interpreted the message as mostly humorous due
to the cross-pollination of ideas in a rarely useable format. though on
a note, flaming me simply because i made a humorous comment IMHO isn't
justified either (you weren't out of line as list owner). it doesn't
help to respond w/ "What was the point?" or "This looks like noise." all
that does is add to the noise. this is a point i feel very strongly
about. it's similiar to trying to induce quiet by yelling at ppl to be
quiet or to stop violence by beating those who commit violent acts (this
is also my reason for my viewpoint that cities employing mages to
enforce non-violent magic is hypocritical). i'm going to leave the point
at that for now because if no one is interested i don't want to write a
20 page paper on it :)

> >.. making fun of earlier threads by applying the guard idea
> >to them.
> 
> No, that seemed an obvious and linear extension of an earlier concept to
> an area where it could be profitably applied.  FWLIW I find the hive mind
> idea for guards to actually be very interesting.  I currently support
> swarm-type bodies for players, and also support multiple bodies per
> character (ie a single character can simultaneously control multiple
> bodies at different places in the world).  This application of hive-minds
> seems a fairly rational extension of that concept as well.

this i agree fully to except i believe that if such a security force had
a hive mind (unless strong safeguards which of course are doomed to fail
were in place) they would eventually become more powerful than their
superiors and would create a very strong imbalance, which if you are
using an original theme may become a natural and useful extension,
however if you are basing your mu* on someone else's work, it may be
unacceptable.

> You are new to the list, and haven't followed traffic for long.  Such
> cross-pollinations and other developments which are far what is commonly
> done in current MUDs are both common and very welcome on the list.  Its
> part of pushing the boundaries of the current technology and status quo.
> We run much deeper than Usenet.

the usenet comparison is a bit weak, yay especially in the
rec.games.mud.* groups there are some ppl who do nothing but flame
thereby scaring many ppl off, but i have managed to have some deep and
interesting correspondances in those threads and have also managed to
find useful resources (this list for example) and interesting projects. 

[end of responses, beginning of general comments]

i personally have found that many interesting ideas come from simply
"joking around" or light-hearted ideas can lead to more serious things.
i personally don't see a problem w/ someone posting a funny response
every once in a while. i do appreciate in your (list owner's) the
comment that it "seems to be noise" rather than out of hand condemning
it as noise. i'll admit it was border line and to some may be noise, but
it was simply something i thought of out of hand that i believed was
ammusing. 

-Sauron