From: aa@iti.org (Aayush Asthana)
Subject: Re: Welcome to SCI....where xenophobia and hypocrisy rule the netwaves
Organization: Industrial Technology Institute
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 16:50:13 GMT

banerjee@hsc.usc.edu (Samit Banerjee) writes:

[ a factually meager account of his clever use of the pen in a constant
one-up, upstaging mode, removed here for brevity]

|>Any comments?

Several carefully reasoned ones on,

Demagoguery: 	Although you do write with a certain flourish, I
		suspect that your lucubrated deluge of words is
		designed to flood unsuspecting by-standers 
		sensibilities and *overcome* and *prevent* simpler
		postings.  Smacks of demagoguery,  a label you apply
		rather casually to others.

Xenophobia:	There is no real `Keep Out' sign in SCI and there
		should not be one for anyone reading/writing
		on SCI.  It can be argued that if useful cultural
		discussion is prevented through waste of bandwidth
		and adroit penmanship, you effectively post such a
		xenophobic sign especially for those who 'are
		foreign' to SCI.

Hypocrisy:	By constant use of metaphors/allegories/analogies
		which are thinly veiled insults and cheap shots in
		reality, something that you admit readily, but aim
		tangentially, you an advocate of no-holds-barred
		free speech mire yourself constantly in hypocrisy.
		Each time you raise the pen and let drip some
		sarcasm, you sink deeper into this miasma.

Etiquette:	While free-speech is not in question, what is in
		question is the inability of several prolific
		net-citizens to understand that every word they
		write goes into some archive somewhere, is read by
		people the world over, and in fact read by one's
		colleagues, ex-students, supervisors to-be, 
		possible soul-mates, and by one's near and dear ones
		which can include the nuclear family as well. 
		As they say the pen can be mightier than the sword,
		and can be instrumental in shaping reality.

Your Rights:	Everyone has a right to a clean in-offensive bboard
		-- there are several others (alt.flame, for one)
		that can accommodate a hasty posting.  Complain to
		a system administrator when cheap shots and insults
		take away from the `culture' of this group -- there
		is nothing wrong with this: it is the system
		administrators job to keep his end of the network
		clean -- leave 'herding cats' to the proper
		authority:  it results only in a rebuke based on the
		system administrators reading of the situation; if
		you abuse (hypothetically speaking) the system, and 
		you know the system administrator personally, then
		you may have extra leeway; abusing this privilege 
		will obviously cause him/her some added
		embarrassment even though you may not know this
		right away.
		
What to Do:	When the concept of free speech becomes a masquerade
		it is in your interest to voice your opinion
		directly to those who can do something about it. 
		And remember it is you who set the etiquette and
		standards on the net.  There is no substitute for
		tact and responsibility. 

Just a few thoughts.  Serious comments welcomed.

[] Regards,   | Industrial    :      _________ ___________ ___________
Aayush Asthana| Technology    :    /___   ___//___    ___//___    ___/
aa@iti.org    | Institute     :   ____/  /___    /  /    ____/  /____ 
(313) 769-4652| Ann Arbor, MI :  /__________/   /__/    /___________/