Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!frodo.JDSSC.DCA.MIL!blknowle
From: blknowle@frodo.JDSSC.DCA.MIL (Brad L. Knowles)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: CWRU student prevented from teaching how to send ethernet packets...
Message-ID: <9102272231.AA04209@frodo.jdssc.dca.mil>
Date: 27 Feb 91 22:31:48 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 55

Look Guys,

    This is getting a little tiresome -- if you want to make general
(non-inflamatory) comments on why a particular decision was made, then do so.
If you want to tell us about a program that you wrote that we might find
useful, then do so.  BUT PLEASE KEEP YOUR FLAME WARS OFF THE MAILING LIST(S)!

    And also please refrain from using all caps to make a point -- I did it
above to point out how inapprorpiate it is, but please do not follow my (or
Chris's) example.

    These mailing lists have been set up for one purpose -- so that people who
have questions about a particular subject (in this case TCP-IP protocols) can
do so and expect that very knowledgeable people might be on the mailing lists
and replay to those questions.  It is also here to let people who have
information on a particular subject can tell others about it, even if there has
not been an explicit Rquest For Information on the subject -- if it has
something to do primarily with TCP-IP protocols and their support under any
particular Operating System, then tell us about it or ask us the question.  If
what you have to say has very little to do with TCP-IP, then make your
statement or ask your question elsewhere.

    Rob & Chris, please do not misinterpret this post -- I'm not flaming you
(yet :-| ), I would just like to make sure that we keep the chaff down to a
minimum on this mailing list, and if someone sees your comments without some
sort of response of the sort I have presented here, then they might get the
wrong idea.

    Chris, you had every right to tell us about the availablility of your
program, and the fact that you had tried to make it publicly available, but
politics kept you from doing so.  Neither you nor Rob have the right to say
whether the Univeristy was correct in their decision to keep it off the
publicly available file-space, as that is a matter of opinion.  Also, neither
of you have the right to take public offense at statements of fact -- they are
a matter of fact, and nothing can change that.

    So long as we keep our statements factual, and police ourselves strongly on
matters of opinion, this mailing list will remain useful.  The moment everyone
(myself included) starts making lots of statements of opinion, no matter
whether or not they say that what they have to say is opinion or fact (unless
specifically asked for their opinions, and then they should make sure that what
they have to say is kept very short and sweet), then this mailing list becomes
a vehicle for junk e-mail -- something I'm sure we can all do without.

    Now, I'll get down off my soapbox!

Please do *not* respond!  We have enough statements of opinion in this post as
it is, and I'll just /dev/null private e-mail on this subject anyway!
 _____________________________________________________________________________
| Brad Knowles                 | email: blknowle@frodo.jdssc.dca.mil          |
| Sun System Administrator     |    or: blknowle@wis-cms.dca.mil              |
| DCA/JDSSC/JNSL               | W Phone: (703) 693-5849  ____________________|
| The Pentagon, Room BE685     | Fax:     (703) 693-7329 |Of course, the usual|
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