What is so bad with ThirdVoice?

Third Voice or Third Vice?

Well, Third Voice is a new PlugIn for some browsers.

With this PlugIn you can add comments / notes to every webpage, where-ever you want. These notes are visible for all other ThirdVoice Users.

The owner of the WebSite is not informed about the addition of the notes, and the notes are stored on the ThirdVoice-Server.

ThirdVoice claims that their tool is adding freedom for speech to the web because now everybody can express his opinion, everybody can be heard.

What I say:

• Why ThirdVoice? Whose's is the First Voice, whose's is the Second Voice?
  
  
• Freedom means responsibility for your opinion, for what you say. With Third Voice, you express your opinion behind the back of the site-owner. In my eyes this is very unpolite and un-educated.
  
  
• The Web allows (nearly) all of us to express our opinion, to publish what we want to publish. As I admitted many times already, I think the Web offers us freedom in political and economical way: publishers can publish for small money and without the permission of editors, driven by profit-orientated criterias. The idea of the Web is to be a medium for everybody. The Web was planned as a basis-democratic media. Everybody can write his own webpages, can discuss his thoughts with others... we can avoid censorship and economic pressure..
  
  
• This does not mean that everybody should use the web as a graffiti wall, where everybody can smear his statements clandestine. The tool to add notes to someone else's pages is no mean for freedom, it is a tool for coward and ugly results.
  
  
• I regard ThirdVoice as an intrusion to intellectual property. What remains of a painting where everybody can add foils with smudge?
  The motive for that is mostly a weak ego. Stand to your opinion, do your own work, write your own webpage and paint your own paintings!
  
  
• How many percent of the graffiti which are on every wall now, are of artistic value?
  99,99% are primitive and stupid, boring and molesting.
  
  The same with ThirdVoiceNotes: 99,99% show primitive texts or stupid expressions, and the rest could discuss in public. Why not use the guestbook, why not contribute to a forum or write eMail, why not open your own page?
  
  
• There are many more reasons why this PlugIn is stupid. And one important reason why I think it is dangerous:
  
  People are encouraged to express their opinion clandestinely, to act in the dark, to disregard the rights of others, to be intolerant..... and tolerance and respect are the basis for freedom and democracy

So I ask everybody to express his thoughts publicly, not clandestine. And I ask everybody to respect my thoughts, to respect my freedom of expression, of keeping my webpages the way I want it...

Some links:



Say No To Third Voice: an Organisation, arguing against that stupid tool

The Clearinghouse for ThirdVoice Combat Techniques

funk_thirdvoice: a javascript to redirect ThirdVoice-Users to a another page, and informing them why they cannot see the content of the original page. Check it out!
Ed Zahurak shows a nice StyleSheet-Definition to make the notes invisible at this page as well...

Please forgive me that I do not use the original logo of Say NO to Third Voice at my starting page. But it does not fit so well to my pages. So I made my own gif's. If they want me to stop the use of these pics, I will do that when they stop to distribute ThirdVoice...

If you have any comments to my opinion: send me eMail or use my guestbook!
Connie Müller-Gödecke, July 1999