Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!peed
From: peed@cell.mot.COM (Andrew Peed)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: The Ease of Forgery
Summary: Welll, yes... and no.
Message-ID: <314@grape1.UUCP>
Date: 26 Oct 89 02:32:44 GMT
References: <306@grape1.UUCP> <313@zircon.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 56

In article <313@zircon.UUCP>, meadley@cell.mot.COM (A. Meadley) writes:
> Unless I misunderstand the situation, we already do "see a whole bunch of usenet
> neophytes [your words] rushing right out ....".  I thought that *that* was at
> least half of the problem.
> 
> And what exactly do "the great majority" end up doing ?  I'm sure that there
> are not that many people of evil intent on the UseNet (or am I being naive?).
> 
> 
> Ant in Chicago

	Welll, yes and no. Here at Motorola we only get technical groups, so
you're not likely to see any of the real JERKS who hold forth in the some of
the rec.*, talk.* and alt.* hierarchies.

	(If any of you out there take offense at the term JERK, please do not
waste bandwith by posting your flames. Why prove yourself worthy of the title
that you object to? If you must flame, flame by E-mail. I assure you any flames
recieved will be utterly ignored.)

	In any case, if you have the time, patience, and a modem at home (and a
few bucks - I don't remember what fees average), you might want to look into
some of the public access UNIX boards around Chicago that carry nearly every
newsgroup that's ever been thought of. You'll see quite a lot of infantile
screaming - in alt.flame (where it's expected, I suppose), in talk.bizarre 
(where some attempt to call it "wit"); also, to a lesser extent in soc.singles
(where it's called "intercourse".) and soc.women or wherever MES, bless her
poor little persecuted hide (insert snort of derision here), presides. Some of
these screaming fests get so blown out of proportion that people's mailboxes
get inundated with garbage, people forge inflammatory attacks on other people,
people actually track down other people's phone numbers and make obscene phone
calls, and so on, and so forth. In all fairness, I have to admit that there
are not many people abuse Usenet in this manner... but the ones who do are SO
tenaciously vapid that it sours one very quickly. (I used to work at AT&T where
they got the full news feed. I pretty much limited myself to rec.arts.startrek
and and rec.humor.funny, and looked in on alt.flame and talk.bizarre
periodically, but I had to prove my identity and the reality of my last name on
at least two occasions. -- Hi to Matthew Wiener, if you're looking in - drop me
a line!) 

	I dunno. I don't think posting a "HOW TO FORGE ARTICLES IN THREE EASY
STEPS!" would be a good idea. We may be having a minor rash now, but I could
almost guarantee you that it would become a conflagration if this sort of
article became available. Call me cynical... 

	(I've got a list of public-access Unix boards at home if you're 
interested.)

			Cheers - and all that rot...
				Andy

-- 
             I wouldn't know how to act if I weren't in trouble.

Motorola, Inc.							Andrew B. Peed
Cellular Infrastructure Division			  ..!uunet!motcid!peed