Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!bu-cs!ckd From: ckd@bu-pub.bu.edu (Christopher Davis) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: What constitutes abuse ... Message-ID: <45062@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: 22 Dec 89 02:54:41 GMT References: <7312@ficc.uu.net> <3507@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> Sender: daemon@bu-cs.BU.EDU Reply-To: ckd@bu-pub.bu.edu (Christopher Davis) Organization: Boston University School of Management Lines: 56 In-reply-to: pk2@ukc.ac.uk's message of 15 Dec 89 21:05:05 GMT >>>>> On 15 Dec 89 21:05:05 GMT, pk2@ukc.ac.uk (P.Kathuria) said: > I think hettinger@krypton did right, even to mailing the administrator. > I don't know why everyone has thrown their hands up in horror saying > "He's going to lose his job now" since all that has been done is to > provide the administrator with information and it's up to her/him to > follow it up. A reasonable course of action would to be take the Offensive > Poster aside and say "hey, you're pissing people off, watch it". Why can't hettinger, or anyone, just do that in the first place? If enough people email the person telling them they're being a twit, it'll usually get through. > Freedom of speech, eh? What the frog is rec.humor.funny if not > censorship? That's what rec.humor is for--it's *somewhere else to go*. r.h.f (or any moderated group) *cannot* censor a person completely--the Nature of the Net is such that said person will probably start posting in alt.flame, news.groups, and any other groups that come to mind complaining of censorship (real or imagined). [WARNING: parody follows, sarcasm alert, etc] I have an issue that I've been dealing with for the past couple days that may merit discussion. My apologies if this is an old, tired topic. In news.newusers.questions I read a particularly brutal series of sadistic messages dealing with attempts to censor a poster because they posted offensive material by an individual who will go unnamed. I have spent a little bit of time yesterday and today blasting this person via e-mail, and I wrote to the system administrator at the University where the posting originated. I basically just lodged a protest with the sysad, but also asked that consideration be made of terminating this individual's access to the net, much as this person is attempting to do to others. [Abraham Lincoln said something to the effect of "For those people who would support slavery, I wish them only to become slaves to see that side of things."] Am I right or wrong? What constitutes abuse of the net? I have no wish to infringe an individual's rights but on the other hand I feel compelled to take action, particularly when dealing with self-appointed censors. What would you do? Any opinions, guidance, discussion, etc. would be most appreciated. [See my point, folks? Removal of posting is something I feel should be reserved for chronically *illegal* postings, such as if someone started that damned pyramid-scheme every month despite warnings to stop.] -- Christopher Davis, BU SMG '90 "Many verbal attacks are part of someone's aim to establish their rank in a dominance hierarchy, the same sort of behavior common among nesting fowl." --Daniel Mocsny