Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!mailrus!iuvax!bionet!kristoff From: kristoff@genbank.BIO.NET (David Kristofferson) Newsgroups: bionet.general Subject: Re: Mad junk mail disease Message-ID: Date: 31 May 90 18:47:32 GMT References: <9005311622.AA02465@genbank.bio.net> Organization: GenBank Online Service Lines: 43 > With mad cow disease hitting the NET, and the cascade of UNSUBSCRIBE > messages that will probably follow in its wake: > > It's days like this that make it hard to persuade people that the BBs are > such a good idea after all. > > (Just a moan really...) There is an easy solution to this problem if it becomes a major annoyance. We can at any time convert the BIOSCI newsgroups into a moderated forum. Thus all of this kind of thing can be screened out. In response to another incident on the newsgroups (not the above and so infantile that I almost did not want to reply) I should comment that it is a bit sad when people abuse what is really a free and open forum for communication. In the last four years now we have had very few really annoying incidents, and the great majority of the postings have been serious in intent. However, if someone wanted to discredit BIOSCI it would be very easy for them to do so precisely because we are so free and open. We can preserve our "seriousness" by moderating the groups, but this comes at a cost in freedom. I, for one, believe that our readers appreciate this openness, but, if I am incorrect in this assumption, please let us, the BIOSCI managers, know otherwise. The address at each particular BIOSCI node is: Address Location Network ------- -------- ------- biosci@irlearn.ucd.ie Ireland EARN/BITNET biosci@uk.ac.daresbury U.K. JANET biosci@bmc.uu.se Sweden Internet biosci@genbank.bio.net U.S.A. Internet/BITNET -- Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank On-line Service Manager kristoff@genbank.bio.net