Virus Thread Question

I was away on vacation for the past two weeks. I was browsing through past Rhizome messages (I use the web board rather than email list), and I came across a weird thread that started with the subject "Clarification", and included an interesting collection of articles (http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?threadH27&text&866#26866) profiling virus programmers. I was going to add my own thoughts, but the thread degenerated into odd rantings, and no "post a reply" button appeared on the page I wanted to reply to. Given the strangeness and context of these posts, I was hesitant to reply, feeling as though I was being intellectually ambushed, or something. Does anyone know what is up with this? Was this misunderstood playfulness on my part, some sort of dada-like free expression, an innocent bug, a mixup with the list or deliberate naughtiness? is it possible for Rhizome staff to turn off the "post a reply" button - or is that a bug?

Jason Van Anden
www.smileproject.com )

Comments

, Steve Kudlak

You could reject replies with a certain subject like.
But this is getting awfully fascist and authoritarian
so I don't think that is what happened.

Of course the "raw" version of Rhizome is pretty free form
and unless one puts effort into replying to get things on
track they might drift off of it. So if one posts a message
and goes on a vacation strange things might have happened.

The best thing right now as far as I think is you can post
your replies with this subject. My basic grumble was I thought
the common image of a virus programmer trotted out about the
sort of twisted lonely hyper adolescent or emotionally malformed
young male is kind of shopworn boilerplate that tech writers
use rather than thinking with an inquisitive and open mind.
I would like to see a more interesting discussion on this.
If you want to start again go ahead.

Have Fun,
Sends Steve


> I was away on vacation for the past two weeks. I was browsing through
> past Rhizome messages (I use the web board rather than email list), and I
> came across a weird thread that started with the subject "Clarification",
> and included an interesting collection of articles
> (http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?threadH27&text&866#26866) profiling
> virus programmers. I was going to add my own thoughts, but the thread
> degenerated into odd rantings, and no "post a reply" button appeared on
> the page I wanted to reply to. Given the strangeness and context of these
> posts, I was hesitant to reply, feeling as though I was being
> intellectually ambushed, or something. Does anyone know what is up with
> this? Was this misunderstood playfulness on my part, some sort of
> dada-like free expression, an innocent bug, a mixup with the list or
> deliberate naughtiness? is it possible for Rhizome staff to turn off the
> "post a reply" button - or is that a bug?
>
> Jason Van Anden
> www.smileproject.com )
> +
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, Jason Van Anden

Hi Steve,

Your grumble was not where I got confused. It was #13+: "The bikini can be a garment inflected with a certain amount of feminist concern: who is wearing it?…" by Ana Buigues - the poster of the articles that I wanted to respond to.

While I was away, I had the pleasure of reading "Protocol" by Alex Galloway (really enjoyed it, more in a later post, unaffected by jet lag). On my first pass, I understood Alex's view of hackers as the misunderstood artists of the virtual world, nobily pushing the boundaries of their universe (protocol), thereby exposing possibilities overlooked by most, in the pursuit of some sort of truth. I find this a wonderfully heroic ideal. It brings the romantic ideals of the Dada movement to mind. In this light, I consider virus writer in the name of Hacker as repugnant as an artist actually shooting into a crowd at random, in the name of Dada.

Jason Van Anden
www.smileproject.com

Steve Kudlak wrote:

>My basic grumble was I thought
> the common image of a virus programmer trotted out about the
> sort of twisted lonely hyper adolescent or emotionally malformed
> young male is kind of shopworn boilerplate that tech writers
> use rather than thinking with an inquisitive and open mind.