karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (03/12/90)
I am getting really, seriously irritated with the children out there. At the moment, the species of child with which I find myself at odds is that which feels that my anonymous FTP areas are its personal playground, and that dropping dungheaps in my backyard is its God-given right. In recent memory, one of the abject morons who had the "Dave Rhodes" ponzi scheme files left copies on my systems. Just now, I was informed that someone left a file "sex-bbs.doc" lying around, two copies no less. This file (included below; read 'em and weep, CalTech) purports to describe a BBS system known as "SEXY"; it seems not actually to exist, but hell, what do I know about it anyway. There have been a half dozen or so similar little "gifts" left in my FTP areas between those two. Most have not irritated/offended me quite so much. To any and all who have, or support, this tendency: Get the hell out of my systems, you insignificant dirtbag. My systems' FTP areas exist as a favor to a huge mass of otherwise- gracious users out there who find the stuff available on my discs to be useful, productive, valuable items. If you've got something you want to put here for access by others, the very LEAST you can do is TELL ME what you've left here. Far preferably, you can damn well ASK ME whether I think your intended gift to humanity is suitable for inclusion in my archives. I don't give a fat hairy damn whether YOU think it's suitable; these are MY systems, MY discs, _I_ am responsible for how this space is used, _I_ am accountable to my superiors for that use, and I'll not suffer any inconsequential jackass to unload his garbage truck in my driveway without my permission. Shove off, fools. Grow up. Learn some respect. Goddamnably angry, --karl "sex-bbs.doc": ---------------- | I'm going to let you all in on a secret which will undoubtedly |provide all of you network rovers with hours of enjoyment. There is a FREE |bulletin board service called SEXY which exists at Caltech (that's the |California Institute of Technology), and until now, has been used almost |exclusively by Caltech undergrads. SEXY is available to EVERYBODY who has |access to the Internet. This BBS is devoted primarily to SEX, with |categories such as "Cross Dressing", "S&M", "Oral Sex", "Bestiality", etc. |Anybody can read from or write to any of the categories, and anybody is |also welcome to create their own categories. SEXY has been in existence for |more than a year, and it contains serious as well as humorous discussions |of almost any sex topic imaginable. In addition, SEXY will provide the |outsider with an insiders view of the perverted workings of Caltech |undergraduate life, including major scandals that were censored from the |press. Feel free to add your own comments on the subjects discussed. | |INSTRUCTIONS: First, you must get into CITNET, which is the local network | at Caltech. To do this, type: | telnet 131.215.139.98 | | When connected, nothing will happen on your screen until you | hit ctrl-V. At this point you will be prompted to enter | NET1 commands. At this point, to connect to SEXY, | type: | c sexy | | You will then be connected to SEXY. Type <RETURN> and you should | get the SEXY prompt. From here you're on your own. HELP will give | you a list of commands; they are very straightforward. | | When you are finished, type QUIT. You will get back to the NET1 | prompt. Type QUIT again and you will be logged out. Enjoy. | |By the way, SEXY was created, and is to this day operated, by an |undergraduate male who wears a pair of fake breasts. ----------------
steve@wattres.UUCP (Steve Watt) (03/12/90)
In article <KARL.90Mar11180312@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu> karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: >I am getting really, seriously irritated with the children out there. >At the moment, the species of child with which I find myself at odds >is that which feels that my anonymous FTP areas are its personal >playground, and that dropping dungheaps in my backyard is its >God-given right. Had it occurred to you to make the each directory in the entire hierarchy read-only? I agree that it takes an immature .* (fill in your own regexp) for this kind of behavior, but leaving write-access available to anonymous FTP directories seems hazardous. -- Steve Watt ...!claris!wattres!steve wattres!steve@claris.com also works If you torture your data long enough, it'll eventually confess.
karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (03/12/90)
steve@wattres.UUCP writes:
Had it occurred to you to make the each directory in the entire hierarchy
read-only? I agree that it takes an immature .* (fill in your own regexp)
for this kind of behavior, but leaving write-access available to anonymous
FTP directories seems hazardous.
You miss the point. People _do_ leave legitimate, valuable, useful
things in my FTP areas from time to time. Then they usually have the
common decency to tell me so that I can do appropriate things with
them, e.g., move things to another part of the archive, update
GNU.how-to-get, create symlinks into osu-cis!~/, etc ad nauseum. I
want it writable; but I don't want the privilege abused.
--karlsean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (03/13/90)
karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) rants and raves: [Stop leaving stuff in my FTP directory!] Stop yelling at us and protect the directory! Sean -- *** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet, ukma!sean *** "Well, heck's farr, Jim, it gives mah computer sumthin' to do when *** Ah'm out brandin' capacitors." -DM
tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) (03/13/90)
One approach, frequently used by bulletin board operators, is to make the 'upload' area write-only for the public. Stuff is moved into public download visibility only at the admin's discretion. This way, you may still get 'SEXY BBS' notices uploaded, but you don't have to worry about your reputation suffering as colleagues notice them before you do. Nor does the uploader get the satisfaction of seeing his 'contribution' added to your collection. I'm not sure whether FTP supports this approach directly, but at worst you could have a 2-minute daemon that moves new files from /ftp/tmp to somewhere private.
emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (03/13/90)
Karl, Not meaning to criticize or anything, but if you leave a world-writable anon FTP area available for just anyone to drop things into & immediately retreive, you're asking for whatever you get. I believe I've seen modifications to ftpd (somewhere) that make the writable area unreadable, i.e. submissions get dropped in blind and there's no way to retreive them until they get moved into the public area. --Ed