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From: fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Usenet account "termination with extreme prejudice"
Message-ID: <20931@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 24-Sep-87 07:24:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.20931
Posted: Thu Sep 24 07:24:45 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Sep-87 13:57:36 EDT
References: <18322@amdcad.AMD.COM> <4550@ncoast.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: USENET Protocol Police, Western Gateway Division
Lines: 42
Summary: some thoughts on the Maroney/Wiener "thing"

Grossly simplified, computers come in two flavors at Berkeley:
Research (mostly EE and CS) and Computer Center. I can't even guess
how many computers there are on campus now, but I do know exactly
how many machines run netnews:

	ucbvax	- Computer Science
	ucbcad	- CAD Research Group
	zen	- CAD Research Group
	cartan	- Mathematics & Statistics
	jade	- Computer Center

All other systems read and post news using the "rrn/NNTP" software
for remote news access (that is, a user fires up "rrn" which contacts
one of these servers to get the news articles across the ethernet
in real-time to display for him). I'm responsible for netnews on
ucbvax (and ONLY netnews!), and I assist and coordinate with the
other netnews admins as necessary.

My interactions with Matthew Wiener and Gene Ward Smith have been
completely polite and cordial, and with very few exceptions, strictly
technical. I am also acquainted with Tim Maroney and he has been
nothing but polite and genial to me. I never got any of the complaint
letters that Tim sent about Matthew, because they weren't directed
to me (and wisely so, since Matthew's news system is not my "turf").

At this point, I don't care about this whole mess, since it appears
to me to be a personal feud that has simply escalated beyond the
bounds of reason. If there ever was a time when I could have defused
the situation, it has long since passed, and all I can do now is
watch the fireworks. I do find some irony to this, because I've
been on the network long enough to recall Tim's experiences at UNC.

Since the USENET is a big network, I expect that Matthew Wiener
will find another system where he is welcome to read and post, as
did Tim Maroney (and more recently, Mark Ethan Smith). Getting
someone kicked off the network is a temporary remedy at best;
ultimately, Tim and Matthew will have to come to some kind of
accomodation or forever be locked in mortal network combat.
Personally, I hope for the former, and hope that cooler heads carry
the day.

	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu