Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!gatech!rayssd!galaxia!dave
From: dave@galaxia.Newport.RI.US (David H. Brierley)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: posting privileges
Keywords: undergraduates, posting, restriction, patronizing
Message-ID: <650@galaxia.Newport.RI.US>
Date: 12 Mar 89 18:41:05 GMT
References: <7502@pyr.gatech.EDU> <21338@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: dave@galaxia.Newport.RI.US (David H. Brierley)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Dave's Very Own Personal System
Lines: 31

Let me add my two cents worth to this.  I administer a moderately sized
collection of UNIX machines, maybe 15 machines with a total user base of
about 2,000.  Anybody on any of those machines is allowed to post news
articles at any time but I have taken certain steps that allow me to
sleep easy at night.  First, the default distribution of news articles
is "local" and second, every news article that is posted on any of those
machines is mailed to me.  The first time I see a news article from a
particular user I read it carefully to make sure they are not making
themselves, or the company, look like a bonehead.  When I see a stupid
article I call the person up and have a chat with him (or her).  After I
have seen enough articles by a particular user to know that they know
what they are doing I tell my mail filter to stop forwarding the news
postings from that user.

This may sound like a monumental task for someplace as large as a big
university but I think you will find that the vast majority of the users
will never post a news article and the ones that do post generally only
have to be spoken to once.  If you should find a user that requires
repeated talkings to then maybe you should consider cutting off their
usenet access until they clean up their act.  As long as you apply the
same policy to all users then nobody can claim that you were picking on
them.

Make sure your manager supports you if you want to be able to deny
access to anybody.  Without that support all they have to do is complain
to your manager but with support you can do anything that is within
reason.
-- 
David H. Brierley
Home: dave@galaxia.Newport.RI.US   {rayssd,xanth,lazlo,jclyde}!galaxia!dave
Work: dhb@rayssd.ray.com           {sun,decuac,gatech,necntc,ukma}!rayssd!dhb