Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!rutgers!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!teknowledge-vaxc!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Re: HELP ME!!!
Message-ID: <1036@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 30 May 88 03:47:01 GMT
References: <5813@cup.portal.com> <5500004@uiucdcsm>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 16

In article <5500004@uiucdcsm>, mccaugh@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> What I meant to say was:
> 1) This is not the place for flames;
> 2) The "poor guy" is clearly desperate so why be so callous?

For anyone who hasn't been watching this in the other newsgroups:
the "poor guy" in question was was not mailing from his college, but
from an account he was paying $10/month for (Portal.Com is, as the
name says, a COMmercial outfit) and Portal have now yanked his account.
Also, "JJ" wasn't even his initials.

I believe in giving money to beggars, but I think we *should* be
critical of fakes like this who give begging a bad name.  (I am not
calling him a fake out of cynicism, but because I sent him E-mail
pointing out that his story looked thin and asking for more detail,
and got no reply.  The mail system did not bounce my message...)