anon@drux.UUCP (11/08/83)
Netnews is being blindly hacked away at Denver AT&T Information Systems Labs,
the "communications company".
First, here is a recently posted article (posted by the supervisor
of the UNIX support group). The letter he is posting was written by
a department head.
From drux3!druxy!ken Wed Dec 31 17:00:00 1969
From: ken@druxy.UUCP (Ken Herman)
Newsgroups: dr.general
Subject: NET.NEWS and ARG logins at DR
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
I have received the following statement concerning
recent NET.NEWS and ARG activity.
Ken Herman
____________________________________________________________________
Although we recognize the value of open and uninhibited
communications in our work environment such as can be provided
by NET.NEWS, we continue to experience abuses with NET.NEWS and with
the anonymous login for ARG.NEWS.
In order to cope with these problems in the short term, and until long
term solutions are found, the following actions have been taken:
Effective Friday Nov 4, non-project related news groups have been
turned off. Effective Monday Nov 7, the anonymous login for ARG.NEWS
has been eliminated.
In the near future we will be exploring new policies and ways to
implement improved communication mechanisms. The above subjects
will be discussed at the 11/15 ARG meeting.
A. Mizrahi
Things to note:
management doesn't even know the name of the system ("NET.NEWS"?)
"ARG" stands for "Action Research Group" - it is the official gripe
system. For several months, there has been a "dr.arg"
newsgroup which could be posted to annonomously (via
a public login).
Their definition of "non-project related news groups" includes
all netnews from outside of our Denver location:
att.all, btl.all, bell.all, and net.all.
The "abuses" referred to include (I suppose) several complaints
about the recent elimination of net.jokes from our
machines (because of the unusually offensive joke from
Shell Oil Co). Some of these complaints were anonomyous
and expressed the sentiment "Affirmative Action, get
off my back!". The most recent "offenses" were two
articles which objected to the fact that the local
United Way campaign says you can designate that your
contribution go to a designated agency, but if you do
so the total amount given to that agency does not change,
because other "non-designated" funds are channeled away
from that agency.
TWO EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN SEVERLY REPRIMANDED for those United
Way articles (which were signed).
THIS IS FRIGHTENING!
FOR THE FIRST TIME I'M WORRIED ABOUT SIGNING MY NAME!