Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: News stats to control net abuse Message-ID: <555@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Jul-83 13:12:46 EDT Article-I.D.: watcgl.555 Posted: Mon Jul 4 13:12:46 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 4-Jul-83 23:51:14 EDT References: <1665@utcsrgv.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 17 The problem with Peter's suggestion is that the posting of many articles does not necessarily constitute "abuse". To take an extreme example, compare two net users, one of whom posts a large number of articles about system bugs or enhancements which are of use to a large portion of the machines on the net, and another who posts a single article which is several hundred lines of argument so ridiculous that almost no one reads through it. Now, which of these two is an "offender"? The first has performed a useful service, the second has annoyed a large number of people, and yet it is the first person who will show up in statistics of "net abusers". The practice of human readers sending mail to people who have posted garbage (in the opinion of the reader) at least causes feedback which depends on the content of the articles posted. A scheme of automatic complaining letters based solely on number or length of articles posted does not. Dave Martindale