Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!UOFT01.BITNET!ASPDMM
From: ASPDMM@UOFT01.BITNET
Newsgroups: mod.legal
Subject: BITNET mail follows
Message-ID: <8610030932.aa05281@SEM.BRL.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 3-Oct-86 09:22:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: SEM.8610030932.aa05281
Posted: Fri Oct  3 09:22:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 07:03:18 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 46
Approved: info-law@brl.arpa

Dear Paul,

   My goodness, how could I have  been so presumptuous as to
prevail  upon your  invaluable  time?!    I guess  I  didn't
realize that every note on the NET was mandatory reading for
everyone who  received it.   I  certainly wasn't  aware that
replies were mandatory as well.

   Why would anyone care....?  Strange as it may seem, there
are those  of us who  do not  simply and passively  read the
notes  we  get  from  INFO-LAW.    In  the  past,    I  have
established  off-NET  communications   with  persons  having
similar interests  as my own  for purposes of,   among other
things,  writing law review  articles,  publishing scholarly
papers,   refining my  seminar  presentations and  generally
furthering my knowledge of the law.  I was under the perhaps
mistaken impression that  THAT was the purpose  of this NET,
not a social club, nor simply a party line for idle chatter.

   You may  be surprised  to know that  there are  those who
cared enough that some guy  named Dave Massey....   was here
to  contact me  off-NET  through BITNET  and  even the  U.S.
Postal Service  ("snail-mail").   And  so the  introductions
were not a waste of time.   Speaking of which,  I hardly see
how that  could have been a  waste of anything since  we are
not competing for  finite resources here,   nobody  told you
you had to  introduce yourself and nobody even  told you you
had to read that note.  You could have just purged it like I
do with many of the notes I receive from the NET and which I
should have done with yours.

   I think  maybe you miss  the real  utility of a  NET.   I
would    much   rather    establish   communications    with
knowledgeable,  mature  people  with  whom  I  can  exchange
information  in a  manner beneficial  to us  all than  throw
random  comments to  the wind,     not knowing  if there  is
anyone out there who has any idea what I'm talking about.

   In short, I am indeed sorry that I wasted your time,  and
even  more so  that  I wasted  my own  in  replying to  your
ridiculous note.   However,  I do  hope that this reply will
serve to point out some values  of the NET that other people
might have missed.

   Dave Massey