werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (09/21/88)
I had noticed quite a while ago, that all the mail (sometimes large files) I receive from PORTAL comes through SUN, even replies to mail I had sent there (mostly through UUNET). I did not feel that this was right as PORTAL is a $-site and I felt that they should be using UUNET and pay for it. I felt net-ethically bound to inform the SUN-postmaster of what (might be going on without his knowledge) could be a large burden on his site, but he does not seem to care (is my impression); he never responded nor seems to have done anything about it, best that I can tell (but I made sure that the information reached someone at SUN), so I must assume that the traffic is ok with SUN (if they are willing to be MX-forwarder, let's assume they thought about it and, probably, are monitoring the situation). Personally, I approve of public access sites and have no particular problem with their existence, and even defend them on social grounds; I even consider admiring SUN for helping to make PORTAL a viable enterprise... However, I also think that site-news-administrators have a duty to worry about both volume and contents of news-articles (as well as volume of mail-traffic) they pass on to the sites down-stream, and, if you feel that you have questions or complaints to make, they should be responsive to these - but do remember, that comments, requests, or complaints made in an "unfriendly" tone are not likely to achieve the desired result. Personally, I am inclined to assume that the administrators at both SUN and PORTAL are as hard-working and conderned about the net as anyone; so why not take the matter up with them? -- --------------------> PREFERED-RETURN-ADDRESS-FOLLOWS <--------------------- (ARPA) werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Internet: 128.83.144.1) (INTERNET) werner%rascal.ics.utexas.edu@cs.utexas.edu (UUCP) ..!utastro!werner or ..!uunet!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!werner