Xref: utzoo news.groups:5344 news.misc:1744
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!brahms.berkeley.edu!silverio
From: silverio@brahms.berkeley.edu (C J Silverio)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.misc
Subject: Re: Dropping alt groups
Message-ID: <14077@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 9 Sep 88 19:03:39 GMT
References: <9536@tness7.UUCP> <6300@gryphon.CTS.COM> <1179@bellboy.UUCP> <2335@alliant.Alliant.COM> <9754@tness7.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: silverio@brahms.berkeley.edu.UUCP (C J Silverio)
Followup-To: news.misc
Distribution: na
Organization: Math Department, UC Berkeley
Lines: 40

[followups to news.misc]

In article <9754@tness7.UUCP> mechjgh@tness7.UUCP (Greg Hackney (214+464-2771)) writes:
>In article <2335@alliant.Alliant.COM> cook@alliant.Alliant.COM (Dale C. Cook) writes:
>>What you're doing is censorship of the worst kind
>>You choose to damn the entire tree.  Sad.

 [ cable TV illustration ]

>Likewise, we are distributing netnews, and reserve the freedom to
>carry the news groups we choose. It would be sad if we we told what
>news groups we had to carry. (This brings to mind foreign tv stations
>who are told what they have to carry.) We reserve the right to carry
>the newsgroups we please, and you have no grounds to challange that.
>You can challenge the logic behind the decision, and you have, but
>you have done so without knowing all the particular facts in our case.
>You do not know me, or the all of the story.

The application of the cable TV illustration is more like this:
you subscribed to the basic service, and got the HBO package too,
which included other channels as well.  One of those channels
transmitted material you found offensive.  So you dropped the
entire HBO package.  Of course it's your right to do so.

The point people have made is that you don't have to drop the whole
alt package if you don't want alt.{sex,drugs,flame}.  You can pick 
and choose, because the software makes it easy.  You're at the controls
of the cable transmitter.

Or, since we're all so keen on illustrations here, take Dale's: you
chopped down the whole tree when all you had to do was prune.

People are pointing out that your solution seems extreme, given
the nature of the problem.  They suggest alternatives.  Since
you announced your action here in this noisy and argumentative
forum, you have to expect comments.
---
ucbvax!brahms!silverio     C J Silverio/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720
"He must be an oddity, I think," said she.  "I cannot make him out.  
There is something very pompous in his style.  Can he be a sensible 
man, sir?"  --Pride & Prejudice.