Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ho95e!wcs
From: wcs@ho95e.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,alt.flame
Subject: Re: Defending Eric Mading
Message-ID: <1864@ho95e.ATT.COM>
Date: Sun, 15-Nov-87 23:38:15 EST
Article-I.D.: ho95e.1864
Posted: Sun Nov 15 23:38:15 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Nov-87 02:42:49 EST
References: <1043@pbhyd.UUCP> <25092COK@PSUVMA> <6851@ut-ngp.UUCP> <25141COK@PSUVMA>
Reply-To: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (46133-Bill.Stewart,2G218,x0705,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs 46323, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 42
Xref: mnetor news.admin:1379 news.sysadmin:454 alt.flame:588

Free speech on a network such as this is a delicate balance; while most
of us believe it's a good thing, we've also seen various offensive
people who we wish would not speak so freely.  Aside from being
offensive, they risk the existence of the network.  There have been
large corporate sites which have lost netnews service because of racist
or sexist postings that were seen by management.  The net in general
exists because the people who own the resources (phone bill $$, disk
space,..) value the useful newsgroups, and the goodwill of the users,
enough to tolerate the open quasi-anarchy that we have here.  From a
purely selfish standpoint, this net can only survive if it's relatively
civilized.

The net's grown a lot in the six or seven years I've been reading it.
Offensive people have come and gone, all the newsgroups have been
renamed several times, people have predicted the death of the net from
too much traffic (that was back when we averaged 1/2 Meg/day; it's now
about 2 Meg.)  It's been able to keep going mainly because a lot of
people have worked hard to keep it alive.

While I'm offended by people like Eric Mading, I'm more offended by
people who want(ed) him evicted from the net.  If you don't want to
read his offensive drivel, it's easy to avoid.  Those of you with good
news-reader software have KILL files, and the rest of you could either
'n' past his articles or send him hate mail.  If you advocate evicting
people from the net, where do you draw the line?  While Eric is the
most obnoxious person I've seen in a while, other people have also lost
their privileges; the Brahms Gang were obnoxious but mainly silly;
Tim Maroney's main offense was being a vocal Pagan in the South.
Who's next?  Me?  (After all, most of my postings are requests for
information; clearly I'm a parasite :-).  You?  (Isn't posting to
soc.singles or talk.bizarre rather a waste of your company/university's
money?  Can you still use the ARPAnet after posting to alt.drugs?)

I would hope that Eric's computer administrators will let him back on;
he's presumably at UMich to get an education, and he can benefit a lot
from the technical groups (if he takes the time to read them), from
exposure to a lot of ideas he's obviously never seen before; maybe
he'll mature some before he gets out into the real world.  If not, I've
got a KILL file that's just waiting for him :-).
-- 
#				Thanks;
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G218, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!pt p