Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!sdcsvax!ucsd!nosc!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!mailrus!wmich!peirce
From: peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard J. Peirce)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Restricting posting privileges
Message-ID: <662@gumby.cc.wmich.edu>
Date: 10 Mar 89 15:29:59 GMT
References: <21422@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard J. Peirce)
Organization: Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Lines: 35

In article <21422@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> nj@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Narciso Jaramillo) writes:
>
>The logic of this proposal seems slightly skewed.  Why limit the
>restrictions to undergraduates?  If the S/N ratio is becoming
>unacceptably low, then _all_ sysadmins--whether of university,
>professional, or public-access sites--should consider restricting new
>users to read-only access for some reasonable period of time.  However,
>I don't agree that the S/N ratio among undergraduates is much worse
>than the S/N ratio among other posters.  If Mr Baird has some specific
>examples in mind, or statistics to support his assertion that immature
>undergrads are drowning out the useful contributions of other undergrads,
>perhaps he could share them with us.
>

While the argument that not all undergraduates are immature is valid, it
is important to note that the few problem posters that a university is
bound to have can, with just a few keystrokes, use up resources at thousands
of sites.  Acting like a child in a local BBS is bad enough, but I don't
think that access to a university's computers gives them the right to
injudiciously waste resources elsewhere.

For myself, I would rather initially restrict posting and deal with the
problem HERE, seeing to it that users know what they are doing, rather than
turn the hordes loose on the net and spread the problem to other sites.
As for the problem of discriminating against one group such as undergraduates,
simple:  restrict posting initially for EVERYONE.  Some people will still
complain but no one group feels singled out.

If users are so mature, they they should also be mature enough to
understand the rationale behind the posting restrictions.
-- 
Leonard J. Peirce               Internet:  peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu
Western Michigan University                peirce@gw.wmich.edu
Academic Computer Center        Voice:     (616) 387-5430
Kalamazoo, MI  49008