richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (01/28/88)
In article <1861@epimass.EPI.COM> jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) writes: >Lately, the net has suffered because of a rash of forgeries. >Controversial posters such as Mark Ethan Smith and Matt Weiner have >been the main victims so far, and I know that neither of these people >is wildly popular with news administrators, but the latest incident >-- a forged newgroup message pretending to be from Gene Spafford -- >should give us all pause. If we don't stomp hard on this now, >the net will never be the same again. One of the things I like >about the net is the ability to get the definitive word from somebody >like Dennis Ritchie. If the current trend continues, you'll no >longer have any confidence whether that was the real Dennis Ritchie >or an imposter. And the flame wars will be endless. But does it matter ? Isn't this the Dennis Ritchie Turing test ? If the net is undergoing one of it's periodical 6 months UNIX weenie arguments and a posting from "dmr@alice" comes along and ends the discussion right there, no arguments, does it matter if it REALLY WAS Dennis ? Indeed, how do you know Dennis really wrote 'C' ? Maybe it was Joe Talmadge forging this "Dennis" persons name on everything ? -- "...and before too long I might, see those flashing red lights" richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, philabs!cadovax, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richard