David Garica on Thu, 2 Apr 2015 18:33:24 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> nottime: the end of nettime


Brilliant- I don't for a moment accept that it was a simple April 
Fool. It was deadly serious. But still on April 1st Ted & Felix found 
the only legitimate way to break the golden rule of Nettime: no meta 
discussions!

Alongside skilful and authoritative moderation the no meta-discussion 
rule was one of the principal secrets of Nettime's longevity helping 
to avoid destructive inward spirals that had destroyed many earlier 
on-line forums. So by threatening to pull the plug the meta-discussion 
genie has jumped out of the bottle. So now what ? Will it prove to have 
been the 'suicide pill' or the risky surgical intervention required to 
revive the comatose patient?

The answers to Modsquad's painfully forensic critique (ouch) lie in 
our hands. So lets put some concrete propositions on the table, before 
hastily reinstating the golden rule.

Heres a starting pint; it may just be coincidence but I would say that 
the list was most vibrant when nettime people found ways to get together 
in person, spending days together in inspiring and strange locations. 
Either connecting to festivals or conferences or off its own bat. So for 
at least one more time (and hopefully more) lets revive this lost part 
of the original model? In the original post the Mods referred to a 
Bucharest 20th birthday plan that didn't fly. Well maybe we should put 
some other scenarios on the table. I am sure there are many places that 
would happily host this. I have some thoughts on how this might look but 
as usual they are hopelessly Amsterdam centric... I am happy to report 
(I am sitting there now busily "anthologising") that a new generation 
of uncynical people and possibilities are emerging from the ruins and 
demonstrating the resilience of this culture. But of course thats just 
my historical bias I'd happily travel to pastures new.

One other thought though there is much talk of 'sharing' nettime 
writers used to share (and risk) far more. I may be mistaken but as the 
community (dangerous word) and its discourse has developed it has also 
professionalised and not always in a good way. Where once writers would 
have rehearsed their ideas here in rough form I suspect that the 
pressures around academic/publishing commodification creates a greater a 
reluctance expose the ideas before publication. Could this be why it 
feels a less risky, energetic and generous space or am I (as usual) 
being nostalgic.

Thank you to you Modsquad

David Garcia


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