From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (andy)
Subject: Re: Things
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
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Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 23:25:12 GMT

<prefaced and followed by a chorus of applause and shouts of Bravo>

In article <1992Oct13.192231.4691@tic.com> erikb@tic.com (Chris
Goggans) writes: 

|You know, how many of you people have talked to any of the people
|you like to talk about and make comparisons about?
|
|I have known just about everyone who tends to make the news in
|the "underground" and it really chaps my ass when people 
|just up and spout off about people they have never even TYPED AT!
|
|What prompted this little outburst was several posts back
|that alluded to the lack of moral fiber of a person known
|as Pengo.  Until you have talked to a person, don't judge him or her.
|
|If everyone only believes what they read on here, then my faith in
|all of you is lost.  Almost nothing you read is true.  (But don't believe
|me when I say that.  :)  )

Sadly, I think this newsgroup has long since been confined to a couple
of dry sticks.  With my KILL file, well over 90% of the articles here
are marked as read - most of what I kill are x-posts to particular
groups, posts from particular people that are inevitably little more
than bureaucratic charcoal, etc.

As far as the statement regarding Pengo is concerned, I couldn't agree
more.  When I searched for his email address and garnered some
surprisingly valuable results, I sent him mail basically asking, "are
you Pengo" (I only had his real name at the time) ...After that, I got
into an e-conversation lasting only about 10 messages or so, but in
that 10 messages I asked him a plethora of questions concering his
activities and his general views on hacking and the computer
underground and I must say that I did not see him as an amoral person
- far from it...In fact, I would say that portrayals (uninformed, mind
you) on this newsgroup of him being practically a psychopath without a
conscious are about as far from the truth as one could possibly get...
I did the same thing awhile back with other people from
all perspectives of the subject, including Dorothy Denning, John Perry
Barlow, Peter Neumann (who was more than kind in sending me
[snail-mail] a great paper on RISKS and such), and I even mailed Mitch
Kapor the same questions and got a great reply, as well as prominent
people in the computer underground...

The point being, in the few years I've been on the net, the one thing
that has jumped out at me is just how helpful these "famous" people
are, whether they be from the computer underground, civil
libertarians, authors, magazine editors, scientists, whatever....So,
basically, get to them before you talk about them so at least your
point of view is balanced and unbiased - how difficult is it to go
into Elm and press 'm' and then 'mkapor@eff.org' (or whoever) and say
"Hi there....i was wondering if you ould possibly tell me......"

|->ME

<-not ME.
(but I'm the me-ist me there ever was).
--
 ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu   FutureCulture E-List: [future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu]
 andy (hawkeye)         new edge, technoculture, cyberpunk, virtual reality,
                        raves, etc. Home of the famous :) FutureCulture FAQ!