From: rothwell@brahms.udel.edu (James C. Rothwell)
Subject: The An-Tai conspiracy game
Followup-To: 19920ct6.065446.6344@tfs.com
Summary: Execution
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 16:09:53 GMT

Original:
From: ecsd@tfs.com (Eric C. S. Dynamic)
Subject: The An-Tai conspiracy game
Summary: Execution
Organization: The Great Beast 666
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 06:54:46 GMT

tai@ailab.ncsu.edu (Scott A Tai) writes:
>Scott Tai -- tai@ailab.ncsu.edu
>NCSU Artificial Intelligence Lab
>Centennial Campus

-------

The An-Tai conspiracy, a fun game for young and old alike:

I had been informed through private mail as follows:

1. "Scott Tai" is not a student at NCSU, nor is there a Dr. Tai at NCSU.
   I add that he appears to 'spawn' personalities as needed, but 'Tai', 'Mai',
   'Dr. N. O. Tai', et. al. appear to be the same person under guise. Since
   these are his friends & family, I have no doubt they all endorse him
   strongly.
2. The reply address is phony, for all posts from this individual under
   any of his guises.
3. There is no Artificial Intelligence Systems Lab at NCSU. By using NCSU
   and AI as a cover, he is damaging the reputation of NCSU, the AI department
   there, and that of the people there - at least, he is not concerned if such
   results.
4. Tai has reposted the same item without modification in several instances,
   in one case 10 times.
5. Tai has refused offers to meet Mensans, attend Mensa gatherings, and to
   offer personal information about himself.
6. By attacking Mensa, and standardized tests without defending his views,
   he is having some unwarranted effect on the opinion of casual readers of
   rec.org.mensa.
7. He persists in personal attacks without much regard for their effects.
8. His behavior has a long history (since near the inception of the group.)

Perhaps no one of these is a serious offense.
Taken together, I think they make a rude picture.

The conjecture is that he is abusing access to the network - at the very least,
he is not accountable, through using falsified network mail.
It's been offered that he is psychologically disturbed - not a crime, if I
may say so myself. But his behavior is disruptive; we get clusters where I'd
estimate that 30%-50% of the posts are from Tai, or concern Tai, and he is not
making a contribution to the group, unless you consider holding one-way
debates an effective use of your time.

-------

Here is what I think about this:

(1) I have access to a Unix security hack, and I will ask him to help track
    Tai down.
(2) The sysads at NCSU should try to track Tai down.
(3) Do not reply to Tai's messages. This is by far the simplest thing to do.
(4) If you make a reply, keep the reply factual, objective and impersonal.
    Do not make personal attacks on him. Try to keep the reply emotionally
    content-free. Do not respond to personal attacks. Do not discuss the
    content of his writings, unless your observation is objective and
    emotionally neutral. Do not ask him to go away, do not bait him, and
    do not rise to his baiting.
(5) Any new user responding to Tai should receive a copy of this note -
    how this is done without duplication, I haven't determined. (See below.)
(6) Keep these suggestions in force until we can determine who this individual
    is and where he is, and perhaps his background and station in life; and
    until he is aware that we are in possession of this information.

If we follow these guidelines, we may be able to rid ourselves of Tai-as-he-is.
If he "reforms" (submits himself as an actual human being), I have no problem
with his continued presence here.

I am sorry if the proposals sound big-brotherish, but I have been convinced
that this individual should cease and desist from his current behavior.

I know that I would not want to be treated this way, so I feel guilty to
propose such a thing, but I do have "open input channels". From what I have
seen, and from what I have been told, Tai does not. Even the most spoiled of
children can come around after a while.

These are my suggestions alone, but perhaps we can initiate a convergence
whereby we can add 'signatures' to this document over the course of time.
The signatures will demonstrate how collectively these views are held.
All you do is post-with-contents and leave the document at its prior
level of indentation (editing, sorry), and add your signature.
This document can serve as the only reply anyone makes in response to Tai.

The format of the signature is shown below.

Eric C. S. Dynamic (ecsd@tfs.com)
James C. Rothwell  (rothwell@brahms.udel.edu)

-- 
_________________________________________________________________________
James Rothwell             |   There are three types of mathematicians:
rothwell@brahms.udel.edu   |   Those who can count, and those who can't.

Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa