Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!excelan!unix!maslak
From: maslak@unix.SRI.COM (Valerie Maslak)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Results of sci.aquaria vote
Message-ID: <5971@unix.SRI.COM>
Date: 22 Nov 89 00:22:50 GMT
References: <21910@gryphon.COM> <3329@watale.waterloo.edu> <5805@unix.SRI.COM> <410@sci34hub.UUCP>
Reply-To: maslak@unix.UUCP (Valerie Maslak)
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
Lines: 30

In article <410@sci34hub.UUCP> gary@sci34hub.UUCP (Gary Heston) writes:
>transfer traffic sort of on the sly. Above me are five levels of 
>management, to the chairman of the board. I KNOW the top three 
>levels haven't the slightest idea that I'm pulling down a nearly
>complete news feed nightly. My best defenses are making the calls
>at night, and doing most of the admin stuff at night. Otherwise,
>I'd be in some hot water. I'd hope I could show some way I was
>minimizing the expense....

Gary, all that is well and good, but is what is going on your
hobby, or a benefit for the employees of the place you work?

If it's the former, how is what you're doing any different from
stealing computer time?

If it's the latter, then the benefit has to be perceived as one by
most employees, or maybe you SHOULDN'T be providing it at company
expense. Also, if your exercise of privilege as SA ends up being 
discriminatory, or even severely unfair, don't you think other
employees should have the right to some recourse, without the threat
(express or implied) that they will harm USENET?

At some point, folks, USENET is either going to join the real
world and come out of the shadows and play by real rules, or
it's going to stay a hackers heaven and be useless to most people.

The "it's just our little secret" policy imposes some limits, you
know....

Valerie Maslak