Xref: utzoo news.admin:1818 alt.flame:1805 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!labrea!agate!ronzoni!silverio From: silverio@ronzoni.berkeley.edu (C J Silverio) Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.flame Subject: Re: Top 25 News Groups for the last 2 weeks (from talk.bizarre) Message-ID: <7891@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 22 Mar 88 04:13:02 GMT References: <7080@uunet.UU.NET> <1918@mind.UUCP> <1156WGRCU@CUNYVM> <7333@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <136@ccd700.UUCP> Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: silverio@brahms.UUCP (C J Silverio) Followup-To: news.admin,alt.flame Distribution: na Organization: Math Dept., UC Berkeley Lines: 75 Keywords: Douglas Adams had the right idea Summary: reply to Sitek In article <136@ccd700.UUCP> jim@ccd700.UUCP (J. Sitek) writes: Aha! See what I find festering in the news... more of Sitek's power-mad ranting. Are you one of those who thinks alt groups aren't good enough for the blue-suited world? I'm sending followups there, if you care to follow, because you belong in alt.flame. >This is a reply to C J Silverio. In the interest of brevity, I have >excluded both my fairly rational presentation of my point of view, and >C J's juvenile, illogical, *insulting* rantings. What's a matter, poor little boy, your *feelings* get hurt? See how open minded I am, that I admit that administrator-types might have feelings. >C J, Nowhere in your posting did you refute even one small point that I >made. Just what, exactly, was *your* point? Do you have a problem with >the way I administer my system? Too bad. *I* am a system administrator. >Are you? I doubt it because if you were, you would realize that there is >more to the job than simply making sure that self centered *users* like >yourself can read the bizarroids. Grow up, kid. If you do, you will >discover that "anarchy, creative thought and ... VOLUME", as you interpret >them, are nothing more than collegiate buzz-words, and there is a big >bad, corporate world out there that doesn't have time for your shit. You can administer your system ANY way you please, if it makes you feel good about yourself and enough of a man to kick the dog when you get home. I had a pleasant, instructive, open-minded chat with a sys admin (yes, Sitek, over the age of 40, if that's it takes to establish legitimacy with you) who told me his views: he loves the idea of the net, of the free flow of information, and the open forum for discussion. He doesn't PRESUME to dictate what does or does not belong there. The USERS do that, not the administrators... which is why votes are held for the establishment of new groups. The USERS support talk.bizarre and other talk/alt groups, which is why they exist. Got it, Sitek? My sys admin friend went on to discuss a possible reason why he might not be able to support talk groups: money. I quote: "In some companies it can come down to either laying someone off or stopping the expense. I would rather do most anything than lay someone off." This is a LEGITIMATE reason for the administrator of a specific site to make that choice. Note that he did NOT rant and rave that the content of a group was inappropriate or otherwise. That's not his position to judge. He worries about what his job is. MY POINT (you listening, Sitek?): you have no right to judge what belongs on the net or not. If the USERS show sufficient interest, then your job is to administer their needs. People like you, if left alone long enough, would eliminate from the net all articles but those that expedite the smooth running of the net. People like you are dangerous to the spirit of the net. >I went to college too, >then I grew up. Didn't learn anything there, though, did you? (And, BTW, what makes you assume I'm still in college? Or unaware of the big bad greedy corporate world? Though I must admit I'm under 30. Does this make me a non-person, Sitek?) >Jim Sitek | C J Silverio | KENT FOR PRESIDENT | ucbvax!brahms!silverio | I can't think of anything. My creativity is all | ucbvax!bosco!silverio | shot. I've got writer's block too. I wanna die.