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From: ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,news.groups
Subject: Re: JJ's phone number
Message-ID: <1098@micomvax.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jun 88 21:56:31 GMT
References: <5954@cup.portal.com> <2877@palo-alto.DEC.COM> <6013@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn)
Organization: Philips Electronics Ltd. (TDS - Montreal) St. Laurent QC, Canada
Lines: 65

In article <6013@cup.portal.com> Customer_Portal_Service@cup.portal.com writes:
>....  A pseudonym on Portal (such as JJ) is a convenience, not a way
>to hide one's identity.

Huh?  Give me that again?  Other than being a convenient way to hide one's
identity, what other sort of convenience is it?

>It seems ironic that Portal gets flamed for permitting JJ to (in our
>opinion) deliberately abuse the net, then also gets flamed for not
>protecting him from the consequences of his actions.

Last time I looked, two wrongs *still* did not make a right!

Your action was not "not protecting him", it was deliberately throwing a
customer to the wolves.

Now *you* probably think that he should pay the consequences, I know *I*
think that he should pay *some* consequences, and probably *everybody*
thinks that he should ...., but somehow the behaviour of Portal in this
whole affair does not smell too good.

The fact is, JJ took advantage of facilities *you* offered him, and which he
payed for (?), and which you presumably do not monitor too closely.

I even got a Bad Feeling reading all the obviously Low Key specific
responses you posted in all the various newsgroups.  I don't know why,
but I would have felt happier if they had been hands-in-the-air-horror
broadcast far and wide!  There was something contrived there.

Readers:

Frankly I don't think any fraud was involved, the guy was just panhandling.

My reaction when I saw the posting was concern for the amount of flame
traffic it was going to generate, not too much concern over the posting
itself - that was trivial to handle, the 'n' key did it, although several
times were required - a minor irritant, I must admit. 

The sanctimonious outpouring from the net.names lived up to expectations!
We n'd over more *copies* of the posting in the outcry than were originally
posted!

Why are we always so surprised when this sort of inevitability happens?  The
net is *wide open* to such abuses, and sites like Portal's mean that
accountability on the part of their users is about nil.  They just lose
their account - do I hear a faint "Big Deal!" from JJ as he drives away in
his supposed BMW?

So, if as a community we cannot accept jj.behaviour, then perhaps the
accountability should be directed towards the *site*.

I do believe that we should question whether *uncontrolled* access to USENET
should be allowed by general public-access sites, particularly those who
make profits out of that access to USENET.

Portal, by deliberately publishing the guy's name and telephone number, have
attempted to divert attention which was turning towards *them*.

Well, my reaction is - let's take an even closer look at them, and their
ilk, on USENET.

-- 
Ray Dunn.                      |   UUCP: ..!{philabs, mnetor}!micomvax!ray
Philips Electronics Ltd.       |   TEL : (514) 744-8200   Ext: 2347
600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd   |   FAX : (514) 744-6455
St Laurent. Quebec.  H4M 2S9   |   TLX : 05-824090