[net.news.group] A Flame? - Goodbye

jrc@ritcv.UUCP (James R Carbin) (10/13/83)

I waited ten days for someone to respond to the following dialogue, but since
there were no takers, I feel that a response is in order.

>From rochester!seismo!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!zeppo!wheps!vrv Sat Oct  1 13:04:27 1983
>Subject: What management thinks of USENET
>Newsgroups: net.news.group
>
>----------------
>       I get the distinct impression from the submissions that I read in here
>       regarding net.gay that 50+% of USENET ...
>
>       USENET administrators: If I called your supervisor (whomever he/she/it
>       is), and asked if they were aware of USENET traffic on certain of the
>       computer systems under his/her/its supervision, would he/she/it say,
>
>               "Really? That's news to me."    [ :-) ]
>               "Yes, I know and I support it fully"
>               "So what?"
>
>               Erik E. Fair    {ucbvax,amd70,zehntel,unisoft}!dual!fair
>                               Dual Systems Corporation
>
>       P.S.    My supervisor at Dual would probably say, "So what?"
>----------------
>
>My supervisor continuously says:  
>                        "Yes, I know and support it as long as
>                        nothing controversial comes along.  If
>                        something does and slips through to
>                        our system, the plug gets pulled as fast
>                        as I can log on."
>
>Not everyone has management like your Erik.
>
>V. R. Vaillancourt (Vince)
>Room 6D-110
>Bell Labs
>Whippany, N.J. 07981
>
>(harpo!wheps!vrv)
>(research!wheps!vrv)
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gee Vince, its too bad that it looks like we are going to have to say goodbye
to Whippany (harpo!wheps!%s) on USENET.

A quick perusal of recent articles that were potentially controversial came up
with:

    net.singles:        Interracial Dating
                        How to find the "g-spot"
    net.politics:       The Resignation of James Watt
                        Israel and the PLO
                        Nicaragura
                        El Salvador
                        Supreme Court - Morton Grove Handgun Decision
                        Chile
                        The Policies of Margaret Thatcher             
                        Socialism
    net.misc            Which is Best?  East or West? 
                        What features do you want on your phone?
    net.religion        Secular Humanism vs. Life in a Judeo-Christian State
                        Mormon Theology
                        Polygamy - Recent Legal Developments
    net.med             Macrobiotic Diet Cures Cancer
    net.followup        Capital Punishment
                        Handgun Ownership
                        Posting the Same Article to Several Newsgroups
                            (I personally know the mail that one created)
                        What is Cybernet?  (Couldn't even agree on that one!)
    net.lang            Opinions on the faults of Modula-2
                        Enhancing C-Portability
    net.micro           Views on Product Support
                        Whether a BYTE Magazine Article was Valid
                        Differing Opinions on Modem Reliability

Need I go on?  When you speak of "nothing controversial,"  what fits
that definition?  Or was this a veiled threat that if something as evil(?)
as net.gay got on the net, you would be forced off?  Why wasn't the 
appearance of discussions in net.singles involving "MOTSS" sufficient
motivation?

Perhaps your site doesn't subscribe to any of the above groups or maybe
(just perhaps maybe) your supervisor is not as concerned as either he
(or you) would lead us to believe.

I hope Whippany does stay on the net.  The more the merrier.  It makes
life that much more interesting and provides that much larger potential
pool of information.

Looking forward to continuing to see (harpo!wheps!%s) on the net, I remain

as ever,

j.r.        (I'll add a  :-)  in an attempt to promote cordiality!)