Ancient Web: Dave Hayes Wrote the Freedom Knights' Usenet Credo

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Before online arguments were conducted under algorithmically sorted replies, Usenet had people writing lengthy manifestos about who was allowed to filter whose messages.

Visit Dave Hayes's Freedom Knight philosophy page

The Freedom Knights of Usenet were not presented here as a membership organization. Webmaster Dave Hayes called the idea a philosophy and a way of life. His tiny index page links to two enormous plain-text-style documents: An Alternative Primer on Net Abuse, Free Speech, and USENET, and the USENET Site of Virtue FAQ.

The latter's surviving revision history includes changes dated February through April 1996 and December 1997. There is no need to estimate the vintage of this debate from its fonts. The document carries its own dates.

A fight over the meaning of filtering

The primer defines terms such as net abuse, censorship, filtering, responsibility, and honorable Internet service providers. It asks who may refuse to carry a message, when a news administrator's actions amount to control, and whether someone's access to speech requires another person to distribute it.

Hayes takes a fiercely individualist position. In his telling, the right to speak should not depend on reputation or community officials declaring a message abusive. The work also acknowledges internal disagreements and reproduces hostile criticism of Freedom Knights. Its tone ranges from procedural FAQ to personal polemic.

The Site of Virtue FAQ goes into the machinery: Usenet transport, newsreaders including Gnus, administrator policies, and a proposal for servers that tolerate a broad range of discussion. It is full of concerns that make little sense without the decentralized newsgroup system behind them.

This archive should not be mistaken for a neutral history of Usenet moderation, or an endorsement of Hayes's arguments. Some passages use inflammatory examples and sweeping accusations. What the documents actually establish is the language and infrastructure of one participant's side of a real historical disagreement.

That makes them useful Internet archaeology. Moderation controversies did not begin with today's social networks; earlier communities fought over news feeds, server ownership, cancel messages, and whether freedom required someone else's cooperation.

Read the original primer and the 1996–97 Site of Virtue revision log.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.