telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (01/12/91)
A large number of readers -- primarily those who had posted here in recent weeks -- were subjected to a 'bombing run' on Friday. The person simply collected up all the names and sites he could find, by copying the address information in messages here, and sent out a mass mailing. I've received numerous complaints, and although I am really helpless to stop this sort of action I do extend my apologies to those of you who have complained. I knew nothing about it before I began getting copies from several people. I can only suggest that if you do not wish to receive the mailings, you write to the address where they originated and ask to have them stopped. From time to time, the network is misused in this way, with anonymous postings and mass-mailings sent through other than the normal mailing list channels. Thankfully it does not happen all that often. If you were one of the many who wrote me to express your disapproval of the unsolicited mail, please accept this note in place of a personal response. Patrick Townson TELECOM Moderator
gast@cs.ucla.edu (David Gast) (01/14/91)
The Moderator wrote: > A large number of readers -- primarily those who had posted here in > recent weeks -- were subjected to a 'bombing run' on Friday. The > person simply collected up all the names and sites he could find, by > copying the address information in messages here, and sent out a mass > mailing. > From time to time, the network is misused in this way, with anonymous > postings and mass-mailings sent through other than the normal mailing > list channels. I find this posting rather curious because many of us have complained in this forum and elsewhere about corporations buying and selling our names and about information gathered for one purpose being used for another purpose. The Moderator has responded that by voluntarily putting information in the public arena, we should not complain when it is used. He has noted that he has an unlisted telephone number and a PO Box for an address. Now it seems to me that we are not forced to post to the TELECOM Digest, that we do so of our own free will and that by the logic above, we should not complain when it is used by someone else. Why should junk mail or junk phone calls be considered acceptable behavior, but junk e-mail messages be unacceptable behavior? (Cost considerations aside since we can debate all today over who subsidizes whom). In fact, I would argue that his action was less offensive than junk mail or junk phone calls for the following reasons: 1) I have expressed some interest in telecom issues. I have not, for example, expressed any interest in the {Mercury News}. Yet I should be polite to the cretin that calls? 2) Neither the TELECOM Digest nor the sender of the messages recieved any renumeration for selling information about me and no commercial soliciation was done. 3) Only my name and e-mail address was used; there was no attempt to determine income, political affiliation, buying patterns, race, sex, or other demographic data. 4) The sender explicitly stated that anyone who did not wish to receive future mailings from him would be taken off the list. (In fact, the entire list has ceased). The {Mercury News}, for example, refuses to take names off its list even when explicitly requested to do so. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast [Moderator's Note: Well, you raise some good points and I haven't much argument with them except to note that on this net at least, I thought there had always been an implied understanding that that sort of thing was not acceptable. No such understanding or agreement exists with the {Mercury News} that I know of. So it is not so much a matter of using informaiton publicly available (which I still say is basically okay even though I find a lot of it in bad taste myself) as it is violating the so-called 'net etiquette' here. PAT]
osh@jhereg.osa.com (John M. O'Shaughnessy) (01/19/91)
And I thought you were responding to the Middle East Crisis (*grin*) John M. O'Shaughnessy osh@osa.com Open Systems Architects, Inc. Minneapolis, MN [Moderator's Note: *Smile* ... Thanks for your note, and to the several other Digest readers who have offered their thoughts on the events here of earlier this week I extend my thanks for writing. Sometime over the weekend I intend to publish a special issue clarifying some things regarding the autoreply, and posting guidlines here so that everyone will understand what to expect. PAT]