From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,news.admin.policy
Subject: Re: [news.admin.policy]  Re: (repost) Serdar Argic FAQ - everything you didn't want to know, but he replied anyway
Date: 5 Jan 93 09:14:04 GMT
Organization: St. Peter's College, US

In article <1993Jan4.225100.22213@walter.bellcore.com>, cza@troy.cc.bellcore.com writes:
> This case has very unique characteristic and will be
> very problematic repercussion for mn.org in the future.  Because
> the user who is being thrown off from mn.org did not even use
> the mn.org facilities (systems/resources) for the postings.   
> A couple of yahoos traced the path and incited the others willfully to 
> mailbomb the site.  So, what kind of a case that is brought together 
> by people in mn.org to substantiate their act against the user?  Abuse 
> of their facilities.  It might be a good reason to cut someone off but 
> this case does not apply to the user.  Who is abusing mn.org facilities?
> Not the user but the mailbombers.  They are trying to cut this person 
> service because of the mailbombs instigated by the others.  These people
> in mn.org should prepare themselves for the future if one doesn't
> like the posting of their users.  They are wide open
> for mailbombing to silence this unwanted poster.  We all
> know what they done to the mailbombers and the user who
> is subject to these bombs.

  Perhaps the following mail message, which I sent to the mn.org postmaster,
would explain things a bit better. I sent this after the postmaster announced
that they would no longer provide service to the site. Note that the quoted
text appeared in this newsgroup.

[Begin included text]

From: TERRY        "Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr"       2-JAN-1993 21:24:00.87
To:   IN%"clay@haapi.mn.org"
CC:   TERRY       
Subj: Re: MN.Org, umn.edu, and anatolia, was Re: (repost) Serdar Argic FAQ
 
You write:

>What about anatolia.mn.org?  As of the middle of next week, anatolia
>will not longer be part of MN.Org.  From purely a resource standpoint,
>MN.Org cannot provide the class of service necessary to support a site
>that regularly attracts 9-Meg mail bombs.  (May all bombers rot in a
>special level of Hell, with only BITNET access or something.)  From an
>administrative standpoint, actions by or supported by site anatolia
>have brought down universal discord from the Net community and this
>has reflected badly (and unjustly) on Umn.Edu and the rest of the
>sites in MN.Org.  I believe these are reasons enough for expulsion.
>You other Admin folks out there know how difficult it is to go through
>something like this and come out of it with a white hat on.

  I have never commented on this issue before, either in mail or in news.
However, as a sysadmin I applaud your actions. I'd like to make some com-
ments which may make it easier to handle this sort of thing in the future
(should it unfortunately happen again).

1) I have no problem with personal viewpoints being aired in appropriate
   places. What really irritated me was this one-sided "debate" being moved/
   copied to the news.admin groups.

2) Apparently there was no way to reach the poster via email, apparently due
   to a deliberately misconfigured address which was _not_ corrected when it
   was pointed out repeatedly. That changes the messages from "personal view-
   points being aired" to some sort of propaganda system.

3) Apparently mail messages to postmaster@anatolia.mn.org which were quite
   civil received rude and in some cases obscene replies.

  Perhaps your policies could be reworded to define these types of behavior
as "undesirable" and grounds for expulsion if repeated? I am not trying to
stifle honest discussion (which may become heated at times), but I _am_ try-
ing to define grounds for discussion acceptable to the majority.

  You might wish to view various Acceptable Use Policies from various service
providers (consider at least the ones from NSFnet, AlterNet, and BITNET) and
see if there is any material in there that you would like to incorporate in
your own AUP. Some of these may already be included "by default" if you receive
connectivity from an NSFnet regional network provider.

  Please feel free to send me mail if you would like to continue this discuss-
ion.

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	+1 201 915 9381

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Newsgroups: alt.censorship,soc.culture.indian