Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!pyramid!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Mark Ethan Smith: For real?
Message-ID: <1535@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: Wed, 30-Sep-87 20:43:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: epimass.1535
Posted: Wed Sep 30 20:43:09 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Oct-87 05:03:30 EDT
References: <378d6016.b8ab@apollo.uucp> <5261@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <2050@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Followup-To: alt.flame
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 46
Summary: The personal life of MES (or other users) is none of your business

In article <2050@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>	No Usenet site should have anonymous users.  Usenet is not (or
>SHOULD not) be conducted as a juvenile BBS.

MES is not an anonymous user.  Mark Ethan Smith is, in fact, MES's
legal name.  There is no anonymity and no deception in his postings,
and they are very serious, not whimsical.  He has an unusual point
of view (I use "he", though MES is a woman, because that is his
preference -- if you want to get into a battle about the
appropriateness of pronouns please check out soc.women and not this
group) which he argues vigorously, just like many well-known posters.
He has never made the top 25 or even come close; most of the volume
has come from the MES-haters.

>	I view the presence of anonymous and deceptive posters as a cancer
>which seriously undermines the quality and integrity of Usenet.  I call upon
>any system administrator having "Smith" accounts to:
>
>1.	Post to the Net any identifying information in their possession
>	about "Smith".

Only after Larry Lippman's administrator posts all personal
information in his or her possession about Larry Lippman.  MES has
posted quite a lot of accurate information about his unusual life and
experiences.  The very first message he ever posted to the net explained,
in detail, who he was and why he had his name legally changed, along
with a lot of personal history.  Everything since then has been consistent
with that.  I haven't seen Larry do the same.  

Yes, MES's attack against Berkeley news administrators was
unjustified.  But he has been booted from two systems in the past
and treated unfairly at others.  A little paranoia is not surprising
given the history.  And given that he is charged money for use of
violet.berkeley.edu and his only use of the system is for news and
mail, it seems reasonable for him to expect that they will be
maintained.

I do not agree with many things MES says, but I STRONGLY defend
his right to say it.

This group is not for discussion of personalities, and no action
is called for on the part of news administrators.  Followups
to alt.flame.
-- 
- Joe Buck  {uunet,ucbvax,sun,decwrl,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck
	    Old internet mailers: jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net