[comp.admin.policy] The charter of this group

Paivi.Hyvarinen@hut.fi (Paivi Helena Hyvarinen) (05/24/91)

In article <x5dh_p-@rpi.edu> rodney@sun.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) writes:

   But, I'm curious about the general opinon of people here in this group.
   Is this going to be a place for continuous petty spouting of rules and 
   regulations and rebuttals? ... Is there a charter somewhere?

This is from news.announce.newgroups where all the new USENET
groups are announced:

"The charter of the group is:

The purpose of comp.admin.policy is to provide a forum for the
discussion of site administration policy, including but certainly not
limited to:

	- email privacy (the administration and implementation of it)
	- account contracts .. what should be in them?
	- acceptable use policy for networks, schools, companies, etc
	- what constitutes abuse of a user's account
	- policy on breakings, attempted breakings, etc
	- the ethics and issues involved in the restriction/freedom
	  of accounts
	- the chain of command..who does what at your site?"

So, it seems we are "stuck" with rules and regulations - that and
related issues is what the group was suggested, voted and created
for.  Personally, I find it very interesting, as I am responsible
for enforcing the acceptable use rules at my university as part
of my work. The discussion so far has been very enlightening and
I think we have some work to do in defining with what action
different types of offences should be responded to. In our rules
this is a clearly fuzzy area.

Paivi

--
@ Paivi Hyvarinen, systems analyst (part time)   @ Paivi.Hyvarinen@hut.fi    @
@ User Services Section                          @                           @
@ Computing Centre, Helsinki Univ. of Technology @ Voice: 358 + 0 - 451 4316 @
@ Otakaari 1 M, SF-02150 Espoo, Finland          @ Reception: U133 Thu 10-12 @

rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) (05/25/91)

In article <PAIVI.HYVARINEN.91May24122319@vipunen.hut.fi> Paivi.Hyvarinen@hut.fi writes:
[ ... charter ... ]
>So, it seems we are "stuck" with rules and regulations - that and
>related issues is what the group was suggested, voted and created
>for.  Personally, I find it very interesting, as I am responsible
>for enforcing the acceptable use rules at my university as part
>of my work. The discussion so far has been very enlightening and
>I think we have some work to do in defining with what action
>different types of offences should be responded to. In our rules
>this is a clearly fuzzy area.

fair enough.  I'm in a similar position with regard to policy enforcement.
I can see this as being a place where disgruntled students flame at people
who are simply trying to do their jobs.  It's not a pretty vision.
-- 
Rodney

brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe) (05/27/91)

In article <n4ghm7-@rpi.edu> rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) writes:

   From: rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II)
   Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
   Date: 24 May 91 19:17:52 GMT

   fair enough.  I'm in a similar position with regard to policy enforcement.
   I can see this as being a place where disgruntled students flame at people
   who are simply trying to do their jobs.  It's not a pretty vision.

I certainly hope not---when I came up with the idea for this, I saw it
as a way for admins to vent their frustrations (or lack of same) and
try to get an idea of how other people deal with things.  I've made it
my own personal crusade to mail-fry any twerp that sees this as a way
for him or her to "get back" at their local systems administrator.

This group is meant to help, not turn into the kind of fracas that
happened in news.admin with SBrack vs OSU.

Brendan
--
     Brendan Kehoe - Widener Sun Network Manager - brendan@cs.widener.edu
  Widener University in Chester, PA                A Bloody Sun-Dec War Zone
-- 
     Brendan Kehoe - Widener Sun Network Manager - brendan@cs.widener.edu
  Widener University in Chester, PA                A Bloody Sun-Dec War Zone

lee@wang.com (Lee Story) (05/29/91)

In article <n4ghm7-@rpi.edu> rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) writes:
   fair enough.  I'm in a similar position with regard to policy enforcement.
   I can see this as being a place where disgruntled students flame at people
   who are simply trying to do their jobs.  It's not a pretty vision.

Gee whiz, Rodney, you might be harassed by users displeased at the
policies of the university's communications services?  All you do is try
to do your job as defined by your bosses in the administration?  Maybe you
should try a military career!  Kill, Rodney, kill!  Especially those
pesky students whom you do not under any circumstances want to hear from!
(Worked in China--Bush apparently agrees--that's the whole power
structure, so you're home free.)

Absolutely no :^) intended.
--

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Lee Story (lee@wang.com) Wang Laboratories, Inc.
     (Boston and New Hampshire AMC, and Merrimack Valley Paddlers)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

rodney@sun.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) (05/29/91)

In article <LEE.91May28170435@meercat.wang.com> lee@wang.com (Lee Story) writes:
>In article <n4ghm7-@rpi.edu> rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) writes:
>   fair enough.  I'm in a similar position with regard to policy enforcement.
>   I can see this as being a place where disgruntled students flame at people
>   who are simply trying to do their jobs.  It's not a pretty vision.
>
>Gee whiz, Rodney, you might be harassed by users displeased at the
>policies of the university's communications services?  All you do is try
>to do your job as defined by your bosses in the administration?  Maybe you
>should try a military career!  Kill, Rodney, kill!  Especially those
>pesky students whom you do not under any circumstances want to hear from!
>Absolutely no :^) intended.

um... maybe you would like to go back and read the other things I've posted
in this group before things like this.

You took me out of context in the quote.  Where I mention policy enforcement,
I'm just pointing out to the person that I was replying to that I understand
his interest in discussing these issues with regard to getting the potential
problems worked out before they are needed.

The very next sentence is where I explain why the tone of the group is
unsettling to me.  I'm pretty sure that once classes start back up, this
place will have a s/n approaching zero.

Maybe you should take a few deep breaths and calm down.

add as many ":^)" as necessary.

(PS:  I must be getting good at this job -- nobody's ever called me a fascist
before  ;-)  )

-- 
Rodney

fitz@mml0.meche.rpi.edu (Brian Fitzgerald) (05/29/91)

Lee Story writes:
>In article <n4ghm7-@rpi.edu> rodney@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Rodney Peck II) writes:
>   fair enough.  I'm in a similar position with regard to policy enforcement.
>   I can see this as being a place where disgruntled students flame at people
>   who are simply trying to do their jobs.  It's not a pretty vision.

[ misinterpretation of Rodney's words deleted ]

By "this being a place", I read him to mean "this newsgroup", not "this
university or "this lab".  From what I have observed, Rodney keeps a
good ambiance going over there in the Image Processing Lab.  He cares
about his students and maintains an open atmosphere and a helpful
attitude.

That's typical of what you will find here at RPI.

Brian

gln@cs.arizona.edu (GaRY NEweLl) (05/31/91)

In article <BRENDAN.91May26150833@shirley.cs.widener.edu>, brendan@cs.widener.edu (Brendan Kehoe) writes:
> I certainly hope not---when I came up with the idea for this, I saw it
> as a way for admins to vent their frustrations (or lack of same) and
> try to get an idea of how other people deal with things.  I've made it
> my own personal crusade to mail-fry any twerp that sees this as a way
> for him or her to "get back" at their local systems administrator.

This is truly funny - under the subject of "harrassing mail" we find a sysadmin
who  has a personal crusade to "mail-fry" "twerps" as he sees fit - now tell
me - do you intend to warn yourself that you may lose net-access if such
harrassing continues????


			gln