Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site phri.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!timeinc!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: To: persons offended by ucla-cs!alex
Message-ID: <283@phri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 15:06:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: phri.283
Posted: Tue Jun 25 15:06:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 05:12:01 EDT
References: <1666@amdahl.UUCP> <131@ucla-cime.UUCP> <2896@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 37

>> 	Well I'm glad to see that someone out there is stupid enough to
>> start giving out system administrator's addresses.

	If anybody at phri does something to offend you, write to me
(address below) and I'll look into it; that's my job!

> [...] take the groups with the lowest volume of useful information and
> highest volume [of trash?] and send them into the great bit bucket in
> the sky.

	Consider what an SA has to deal with.  On the one hand, his users
scream and yell that they want more disk space.  On the other hand, they
bitch and moan that they want N Mbytes of news every day.  I've pushed our
expiration time from 14 to 10 and now to 7 days, but I seem to be just
barely keeping even.

	I agree, censorship is a terrible thing.  If I had a newspaper
that I paid to have printed and distributed I would scream like a stuck
pig if someone told me what I could or couldn't print.  Problem is, the
people who want to read 20 articles a day on toilet paper aren't the ones
paying for it.  Granted, the *thing* length survey was pretty amusing, but
does it justify all the other swill?

	People on my system are trying to do real work.  Why should they
have to contend with toilet paper for disk space, CPU time, and dial-in
lines (not to mention phone bills), when THEY are the ones footing the
bill?  I couldn't justify keeping rogue on my system; I may not be able to
justify news either if it comes to that.

	The comp center where I went to college doesn't get news because
the director says most of it is just computerized CB radio (he's a ham, so
I guess this is about as insulting as you can get).  Contrary to his
advice, I started getting news when I got my own site to run.  It's
starting to look like he is still making wiser decisions than I am.
-- 
allegra!phri!roy (Roy Smith)
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute