
The Twit Filter: The Retroactive Architect
by Dave Bealer

Public e-mail networks have been around for about a decade now.
Literally hundreds of networks exist, ranging from two-node networks
out in the cybersticks to the mother of all networks, the Internet.
Although most networks, and most network users, get their start with
private e-mail, topical public conferences (or echoes) are what
really make the online world go round.  

If ideas are the currency of cyberspace, then everyone online is
wealthy.  The exchange, discussion, refutation and mutilation of
these ideas are what generate the hundreds of megabytes of
information bouncing around the planet through dial-up sessions and
leased lines every single day.  In short, the data goes round and
round and it comes out everywhere.

Many of these ideas are controversial, and some are downright silly.
But few ideas cause as much grief online as those of the retroactive
architect (retroarch).  These creatures join a new network, or a new
conference.  They look around for a least a few nanoseconds, then
loudly announce that the network (conference) was not designed
properly.  Said announcement is inevitably followed by a litany of
modifications that must be implemented immediately.  

The wisdom and long experience of the retroarch makes the absolute
acceptance of these commandments a certainty, at least in the mind of
the retroarch.  The mere fact that hundreds or thousands of people
have been using and benefiting from the current network (conference)
structure for years has no bearing on the matter.  True retroarchs
can never be convinced that their plans are not a vast improvement
over the shoddy existing design.

After the retroarch is thrown out of the target network or conference
for being an utter nuisance, the redesign campaign will be continued
from another available network or conference.  The usual choice is a
network or conference frequented by users of the network/conference
the architect "needs" to modify.  Since this particular affliction
can rarely be cured, the best thing way to handle retroarchs is to
place them in your twit filter.                                 {RAH}

