[news.groups] System administration

cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) (11/22/89)

In article <2931@viper.Lynx.MN.Org> dave@viper.Lynx.MN.Org (David Messer) writes:

			...............................

>Strange.  It seems that you are saying that a system-administrator should
>care whether a non-paying user stays or goes...  What a strange idea!

>On MY system, I make the rules for MY convienience -- if the users don't like
>it, they are free to find someone else to give them access.  As it is,
>they get a lot more than they pay for.

The system OWNER has the right to do this.  A system administrator has an 
important function to perform, namely, to make the system work well for the
USERS.  As administrator, s/he has no business making rules for his convenience
if they degrade the system in the eyes of the owner and/or users.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)

dave@viper.Lynx.MN.Org (David Messer) (11/23/89)

In article <1730@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
 >
 >The system OWNER has the right to do this.  A system administrator has an 
 >important function to perform, namely, to make the system work well for the
 >USERS.  As administrator, s/he has no business making rules for his convenience
 >if they degrade the system in the eyes of the owner and/or users.

The system administrator represents the owner.  His responsibility is to
make the system run as the owner requests -- this may or may not involve
making it work well for the users (especially non-paying users.)


-- 
Remember Tiananmen Square.           | David Messer       dave@Lynx.MN.Org -or-
                                     | Lynx Data Systems  ...!bungia!viper!dave

allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (11/24/89)

As quoted from <1730@l.cc.purdue.edu> by cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin):
+---------------
| The system OWNER has the right to do this.  A system administrator has an 
| important function to perform, namely, to make the system work well for the
| USERS.  As administrator, s/he has no business making rules for his convenience
| if they degrade the system in the eyes of the owner and/or users.
| -- 
+---------------

(1) Often, the system administrator *is* the owner.
(2) When s/he is *not* the owner, s/he is selected *by* the owner in order to
    manage the system for the owner.  In that case, the sysadmin is bound by
    what the users want only insofar as the owner wishes it to be that way; and
    in any disagreement between the owner's wishes and the users' wishes as
    moderated by the sysadmin, the owner's wishes are final.

++Brandon
-- 
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