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From: spaf@gatech.CSNET (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: How do we cope with irresponsible news administrators?
Message-ID: <1725@gatech.CSNET>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 08:30:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.1725
Posted: Fri Oct 25 08:30:24 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 23:53:50 EDT
References: <309@kepler.UUCP>
Reply-To: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford)
Organization: The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech
Lines: 30

WHoa!  Before you go calling someone a jerk or suggesting that they
have their feed cut off because their site sent out a "newgroup" for
net.misc.coke, you might find out WHY he did that.  The admin of that
site (Jim Scardelis) has already posted an apology and explanation.  It
seems that he was using a shell file that came across net.sources a
while back named "mvjunk" and it ended up sending out the "newgroup"
message without him knowing about it.

Not only has he apologized, he even fixed the script and reposted the
fixed version to net.sources (article <837@wcom.UUCP>)!

Maybe he was less than wizardly to use that shell script without being
aware of the possible consequences, but I hardly think he is deserving
of abuse -- that kind of problem could easily happen to lots of other
site admins (and may, if they don't snarf the fixed version of the
shell file).  His apology and subsequent actual efforts to patch the
offending program show a higher level of responsibility than is usually
demonstrated on the net.

Please folks, don't automatically attribute things to malice or abject
stupidity when they can be explained by Murphy.  *ASK* before you
flame.  If the response shows that the person involved is a turkey,
then I'll join you with unloading both barrels.  However, as the
recipient  of a number of hasty flames, I am reluctant to just dump on
someone who may well not deserve it.
-- 
Gene "sometime in 1986" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Spaf @ GATech		ARPA:	Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp:	...!{akgua,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf