CS@cup.portal.com (06/02/88)
Here is a summary of the JJ incident and the steps we at Portal have taken as a result of it. The JJ incident was a case where a user on Portal went out of control, posting solicitations to many newsgroups on the Usenet conferencing network. This generated a lot of extra network traffic and cost. The nature of the posting (a request for money) also upset much of the Usenet community. After this took place, we at Portal immediately disabled the user's account, making it no longer possible for the user, a Mr. Rob Noha, to use Portal. We then sent out cancel posting to minimize the transmission of the JJ postings. Since the messages he had posted involved a solicitation of funds to be sent through the mail, we immediately contacted the postal inspector for Lincoln, Nebraska. We relayed the content of his messages to the inspector and were unfortuantely informed that there was nothing they could do. If you or anyone you know has information that may be useful in our pursuing Mr. Noha, we would appreciate your contacting us at 408/973-9111 or sending a note to CS@cup.portal.com. Likewise, if anyone requires our participation in taking any action regarding this situation, please advise us how we can help. We made a policy decision no longer allow Mr. Noha to use Portal. We believe Mr. Noha is an unusual case. He apparently knew what he was doing when he posted his last message because we later learned he had a history of posting similar messages to the net over a several month period. Those messages were apparently not sufficiently provocative or widespread enough to be brought to our attention. He had apparently gotten negative feedback from others on the net but chose to ignore it. We believe Mr. Noha is not a rational man. For regular users of Portal we do several things to assure users who particiapte on the net understand how the net works and what are its customs. Our "System Guidebook" is mailed first class to all users and contains descriptive information about Usenet. The Portal Information reference section on the system contains many informative articles from the newsgroup news.announce.newusers. The "help" subsystem of Portal contains both technical and cultural information regarding Usenet. Finally, the Portal gateway to Usenet requires a user who wants to post an article to specify the group and distribution. Because new users do not know how to specify this information, they nd up having to read the introductory material on Usenet before posting articles. As always, we're open to suggestion on how we can improve this aspect of Portal. One thing we're interested in is making available the guidelines for use of other networks such as Bitnet, ARPAnet and others. Our general approach is to provide as much education as possible regarding networks, their use, and customs. Customer Service at Portal Communications
owen@wrs.UUCP (Owen DeLong) (06/07/88)
In article <6135@cup.portal.com> CS@cup.portal.com writes: >After this took place, we at Portal immediately disabled the user's >account, making it no longer possible for the user, a Mr. Rob Noha, to >use Portal. > >We then sent out cancel posting to minimize the transmission of the JJ >postings. Thank you PORTAL. Sorry to post this, but my mailer is broken... Yet another project to fix :-) The steps you outlined in the referenced article were both responsible and appreciated by several (dare I say most, even all?) of the people on the net. I think that public access USENET machines are a good idea. I have seen a number of good things come out of portal, and well. I got my introduction to USENET through well, and managed to make contacts there to get the feeds I was using in my first USENET site. Nobody seemed offended by the fact that I was there, nore have I seen any offensive things comming from public access sites that I haven't seen from Universities and sometimes from private companies. I saw several discussions of SEND $1 to.... on other groups recently. Many of them came from other sites, etc. The place where 'JJ' upset everyone is in the # of groups, and the persistancy of posting. 'JJ' should be drawn and quartered. However, let's not burn down the barn because the horse stinks. SUPPORT PUBLIC ACCESS UNIX. It is a good thing. (I found this job through the net!) Owen
azm@datlog.co.uk ( Anthony Meadley ) (06/09/88)
In article <6135@cup.portal.com> CS@cup.portal.com writes: >The JJ incident was a case where a user on Portal went out of control, >posting solicitations to many newsgroups on the Usenet conferencing >network. This generated a lot of extra network traffic and cost. The >nature of the posting (a request for money) also upset much of the >Usenet community. " A user on Portal went out of control" ??????? What sort of users does Portal have ? Robots ? How can a request for money "upset the Usenet community" ? Are they all such sensitive souls that they cannot handle the concept of cash ? If Mr. Noha should really wish to request money, shouldn't he have the right to ? After all, no one is forced to send him any, now are they ? >We made a policy decision no longer allow Mr. Noha to use Portal. What seems to be the real problem with Mr. Noha's use of Usenet ? >We believe Mr. Noha is not a rational man. Perhaps some people would believe Customer Service at Portal Communications is not entirely rational either ? Eh ? :-) Ant in London (Master of Images, songs cast a light on you) Disclaimer: These are my opinions. Customer Services at Portal Communications aren't the only ones to have opinions !