Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!krypton.arc.nasa.gov!hettinger
From: hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov (Lawrence J. Hettinger)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re:  What constitutes abuse of the net?
Message-ID: <38133@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 14 Dec 89 21:58:18 GMT
Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: Aeroflightdynamics Directorate
Lines: 42


	Several days ago I addressed a question to the net
concerning the appropriateness of an action I had taken 
against an individual who had posted what I considered to be
unusually offensive jokes on rec.humor.  The actions I took
were to flame him via e-mail, and to file a protest with the
sysad at his university.

	The response to my question has led me to conclude
that I was indeed wrong to take both of these actions.  At the
most I should have confined myself to flaming the person by
e-mail.  Contacting his sysad was clearly out of the line, and
for that I apologize to the net - I have already apologized to
the original poster as well as to the sysad.

	There were a couple of things I learned from all this.
The one that hit home the most was how easy it is to become a
censor - especially when you read something that you find
deeply offensive.  I don't feel that simply ignoring things
that offend is necessarily always the best thing to do, but
the reaction should be toward the individual involved and not
to another outside authority.

	The comments of the people on the net, although
largely critical of me and the actions I took, were well-reasoned
and thought provoking.  I have taken steps to resolve the 
situation and encourage others who filed protests to do the same.


	I would like to say, however, that I don't think that
someone who reads a joke about child abuse is going to run out
and commit child abuse (as one poster suggested), nor do I 
equate words concerning child abuse with the activity itself
(as another suggested).  I understand that it was probably difficult
to derive that from my first posting.


Larry Hettinger  NASA Ames Research Center  Moffett Field, CA
hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov


Somebody pass me a big slice of humble pie...