Xref: utzoo news.admin:2561 news.sysadmin:744 news.groups:4497
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
From: doug-merritt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,news.groups
Subject: Re: JJ's phone number
Message-ID: <6455@cup.portal.com>
Date: 12 Jun 88 18:47:50 GMT
References: <5954@cup.portal.com> <2877@palo-alto.DEC.COM> <6013@cup.portal
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 40
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4407

Ray Dunn writes:
>Read it again!  I only questioned, and still do, Portal's assertion that a
>pseudonym is some sort of convenience *other* than to hide one's identity
>(on *their* system, on *my* system, on *any* system!)

I'm on Portal (because it's cheaper than long distance phone calls I
used to rely on). Portal provides pseudonym's as a tool. Some users may
use them to hide their identity. Others do not. What other purpose could
they possibly serve? Well, for brain-damaged reasons, they require me
to give them a middle name for my account logon. So by default my
name in my postings would be "doug-rands-merritt", which I don't care
for. So I'm pleased to use psuedonyms to change it to "doug-merritt".

Yep, hiding my identity...until now, no one knew my middle name!!!

Other people on the system (most of whom do not use Usenet) use psuedonyms
to be "cute", a popular pastime on BBS's. Like "BornBlonde" and "Wizard"
and "IBMtoTheEnd" etc etc. In the world of bulletin boards, this use
of psuedonyms is more the rule than the exception. It's just part of the
culture. A few people misuse it, most do not. A very few, like me, buck
the trend on BBS's, and get a reputation for being no fun, or uncreative,
for using our real names.

I'm sorry to be so negative, but it seems to me that to judge Portal
by JJ's postings is naive, narrow minded, and rude. JJ is a fradulent
asshole who accomplishes his devious ends on many systems other than
Portal. What's that got to do with everyone else???

Maybe the problem is simply lack of clarification: unlike many Usenet
sites, Portal is a commercial *bulletin board*, which just happens to
be connected to Usenet. It is based on a network of Suns running Unix,
but the Unix layer is 100% unavailable to customers. So as far as
what is reasonable to provide to their customers, the answer is: BBS-oriented
services. And that creates a very different context than the Usenet sites,
commercial or not, which provide a Unix interface.
	Doug
--
      Doug Merritt        ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
                      or  ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
                      or  ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug