[news.misc] Portal style reminiscent of some BBS's, form letters not much better

pmech@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Paul J. Mech) (09/20/88)

	First and foremost, I most certainly decry the fact that some people
on Portal do not behave maturely on the net. However, I've seen enough of
these form letters to more than annoy me. If all these people wanted to
express such an opinion, why not compose the letter and "sign" it with a
list of the people involved? By sending large volumes of duplicated text,
you are operating in a manner analogous to the threatened flooding of the
net with flames. Likewise what you appear to want to do is flood Portal with
mail, as each of you not only send objections, but examples of text, to the
portal administrator. Assuming that the administrators of Portal use the
product that they purvey they will have more than ample notice of the problem.
If they are so irresponsible as to fail to look into the problem with this
notice, then they are irresponsible enough to ignore any volume of mail that
comes in. Hence, a flood of such mail appears to be another form of terror
tactic.

	I sincerely hope that the people who think that the net is just a
Kiddie-Hacker BBS, will either straighten up, or leave us. Likewise, with
the general notice of the problem, I hope that Portal's administrators
aggressively help to remedy the problem. Perhaps we can give these people
a little time to get their house in order before we start serious discussion
of amputating them at the neck?

pjm

Disclaimer:
	I'm illiterate and have absolutely no idea where these words came from.