Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan.acs.syr.edu!jstewart From: jstewart@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ace Stewart) Subject: Re: harassing mail Message-ID: <1991Jun10.161228.19437@rodan.acs.syr.edu> Organization: Syracuse Univ/Eastman Kodak Co. References: <1991May23.030459.8377@osh3.OSHA.GOV> Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1991 16:12:28 GMT In article scs@iti.org (Steve Simmons) writes: [...much deleted...] >attempts to manage user behaviour in any way, shape or form. Until >then, the proper course for him to take is to put complaintants into >touch with those who have authority. I will modify this a bit considering my own situation, and I have an idea that a few more of you are in the same. When you are dealing with a student population, who exactly, is their authority on such matters if not the sysadmin for computer in question? We're wrestling with that very problem right now...their parents? I think not. :) >You're actually advocating Eric censor (I hate that word) outgoing mail >from a user over whom he has no authority. Brrrrr! If I found our site >postmaster doing this, I'd fire the postmaster. Do sysadmins add and delete the accounts? Do they handle diskspace requests, do they tell them they did "a bad thing" when they tried to 'su root' 25 times in a row? I believe that sysadmins _do_ have some authority over the users on that system, and now we have to draw an infamous line of where that authority stops and starts. How do you control people who attack others on a listserv for instance? It is a discussionary medium, and many people can be offended in one piece of mail. Is it right for those people to be told "we can't do anything"... which comes close to advocating that attack? Or, alternatively, do we "speak" to the user and "suggest" that perhaps he could do better? Is there any harm in that as opposed to passing the complaint-ant to "someone in charge?" Though perhaps this is sly, a message from "sysadmin" is usually taken very seriously by the populus of a machine. If that message contains a well worded suggestion that "perhaps, due to complaints, it would be best if messages such as these were toned down or stopped," many users will take notice and the problem is solved. And, in all that, we're not censoring until a person force-ably stops outgoing mail, edits it, etc. It is just a suggestion. I ask hoping for constructive responses... is this a solution? --Ace -- Ace Stewart | Affiliation: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York jstewart@rodan.acs.syr.edu jstewart@sunrise.bitnet jstewart@mothra.cns.syr.edu jstewart@sunspot.cns.syr.edu ace@suvm.bitnet rsjns@suvm.bitnet