harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) (11/19/86)
Someone using the name and institution "rathmann@brahms.berkeley.EDU (Really Michael Ellis) Organization: 2-3:30PM, tuesdays and thursdays" writes: > you have shit-for-brains... This is all horse manure... > you are blowing your hot air out the wrong orifice... > Paperboy wanted to handle Fecal Heights and surrounding vicinity... > get her ass up here... don't waste your foul breath telling me... > male chauvinist pricks... but THEY sure as hell left THEIR crap all > over the place... go shove where the sun doesn't shine... Utter crap. I find it astonishing that such an obviously disturbed individual has access to an account at brahms.berkeley.EDU, let alone the news net. If the net is to evolve into the respectable forum many of us hope it will become, there must be a way of blocking this sort of misuse. Not all groups can be moderated, but the unmoderated ones should still ensure that serious consequences overtake this sort of abuse. A copy of this will be sent to the system administrator at berkeley.EDU. I hope other net news users will also bring some collective pressure to bear on this sort of behavior. (Apologies to any of the above-named if someone else has been clandestinely misusing their names and accounts, but then they will no doubt want to be alerted so they can change passwords.) -- Stevan Harnad (609) - 921 7771 {allegra, bellcore, seismo, rutgers, packard} !princeton!mind!harnad harnad%mind@princeton.csnet
anderson@uwmacc.UUCP (Jess Anderson) (11/20/86)
In article <223@mind.UUCP>, harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) writes: > Someone using the name and institution > "rathmann@brahms.berkeley.EDU (Really Michael Ellis) > writes: [list of coprophilic references deleted] > I find it astonishing that such an obviously disturbed individual has > access to an account at brahms.berkeley.EDU, let alone the news net. > If the net is to evolve into the respectable forum many of us hope it > will become, there must be a way of blocking this sort of misuse. Not > all groups can be moderated, but the unmoderated ones should still > ensure that serious consequences overtake this sort of abuse. A copy of this > will be sent to the system administrator at berkeley.EDU. I hope > other net news users will also bring some collective pressure to bear > on this sort of behavior. (Apologies to any of the above-named if For the first time I find myself disagreeing with Stevan Harnad, although I will do so with more restrained rhetoric than Matthew Wiener did a few postings later. When I saw the posting Stevan objects to, I was put off approximately the same amount as he is. I sent e-mail to the poster, for I had largely agreed with the *content* of the post, despite its style. However, the style was *so* excessive (Stevan is certainly right about that!), I concluded it was a conscious attempt to *have* style. Well, it isn't my style -- it's so sort of gratuitously macho -- but in the cosmic scheme of things, it's not all that injurious. I conclude that Stevan is overreacting, is perhaps embarrassed on behalf of the net for such highly colored language, knowing that many will be outraged by it. In my view, it's only outrageous to use such language to attack persons. Matthew, I think, was objecting to Stevan's calling down the net.police on the poster's head. In sum, though this kind of thing is less than ideal, and I am one of many self-appointed Guardians of Being Nice (:-), my own view is the net should be flexible enough to remain intact and to function smoothly in the presence of highly charged styles. -- ==ARPA:====================anderson@unix.macc.wisc.edu===Jess Anderson====== | UUCP: {harvard,seismo,topaz, 1210 W. Dayton | | akgua,allegra,ihnp4,usbvax}!uwvax!uwmacc!anderson Madison, WI 53706 | ==BITNET:============================anderson@wiscmacc===608/263-6988=======