Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!sgi!decwrl!palo-alto!vixie
From: vixie@palo-alto.DEC.COM (Paul Vixie)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: this might be getting out of hand...
Message-ID: <3746@palo-alto.DEC.COM>
Date: 9 Aug 88 22:37:48 GMT
References: <676@bacchus.DEC.COM> <881@vsi1.UUCP> <340@ateng.UUCP> <1966@stpstn.UUCP>
Organization: DEC Western Research Lab
Lines: 48

I saw this today, and it occurs to be that we're bashing benefactors:

In article <1966@stpstn.UUCP> aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri) writes:
# >Amen!  Both rutgers and harvard are marked as "dead" in my local adjustments
# >file, which is automatically included by my pathalias wrapper script.
# 
# I can echo the sentiment on harvard.  Much of what I sent anywhere near
# them gets thrown to husc6 for some unknown reason, and as far as I can
# tell husc6's mailer doesn't even look at the address, it just bounces [...]

Sun, Rutgers, and Harvard are fairly well-connected sites that pass a lot of
mail without charging for it.  Sometimes they do the "wrong" thing in
various details, where "wrong" seems to depend on who you ask, but these
facts remain:

	1. network connectivity would be more chaotic without them
	  to act as collection points for local geographic areas;

	2. they are doing it all for free, which is a burden on their
	  machines and on their administrators;

	3. their machines and their administrators are forever on the
	  edge of overload;

	4. those of us who explicitly route around them because of
	  supposed "wrongness" or "rudeness" are actually doing them
	  a small favor by removing some of their network load.

So, while I am one of those who rags on various sites for doing "wrong"
things, I still recognize that these sites are still essentially bene-
ficial to the network and that "their hearts are in the right place."

I'm deluged in mail and news articles arguing for and against the details
I've presented; lots of people agree with me; lots of people disagree.
I will try to respond cogently when I can pick the out the juicy stuff.
But in the mean time, I want to offer Sun, Rutgers, Harvard, and other
sites that are getting blasted this week a big

			T H A N K   Y O U 

for all the GOOD things you do for all us ungrateful wretches.

Flame fest to resume tomorrow, same time, same news group :-).
-- 
Paul Vixie
Digital Equipment Corporation	Work:  vixie@dec.com	Play:  paul@vixie.UUCP
Western Research Laboratory	 uunet!decwrl!vixie	   uunet!vixie!paul
Palo Alto, California, USA	  +1 415 853 6600	   +1 415 864 7013