Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!utastro!werner
From: werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: disgusting slime (was Re: A SERIOUS DILEMMA FOR THE NET)
Message-ID: <3144@utastro.UUCP>
Date: 20 Sep 88 20:46:48 GMT
References: <265@sulaco.UUCP> <5572@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <267@sulaco.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 56

In article <267@sulaco.UUCP>, allen@sulaco.UUCP (Allen Gwinn) writes:
> In <5572@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, loci@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (loci!clb) writes:
> > In article <265@sulaco.UUCP>, allen@sulaco.UUCP (Allen Gwinn) writes:

	[ disgusting slime-throwing contest deleted ]

I consider it a personal offense to be made a witness to a slime-throwing
contest, and posting this kind of crap in news.admin falls into that
category.  if you guys don't like each other, please be assured that
news-admin doesn't want to know about it - so why don't you tell each
other in private e-mail?  and think about it, do you really care that little
about the impression you make on readers of news.admin?!

>       The net has a perfectly good mechanism for dealing with postings
>       that cause aggravation; the reader merely doesn't read whatever
>       they find offensive. If it's too extreme, unsubscribe.

I've seen this argument over and over again, and cannot help but refutiate:

> the reader merely doesn't read whatever they find offensive.

	how do you determine that an article is offensive without
	reading it?

	whereas one can unsubscribe to a group with an "offensive"
	purpose or trend (some consider alt.flames in that category) 
	I do not really accept the concept that some news-groups are
	by definition offensive, and no complaints should be made
	about the contents of any articles posted there.  in the jokes
	groups it has become a custom to use rot13 to encrypt what might
	be considered offensive and it has worked quite well, it seems.
	in other groups, some people have the good sense of indicating
	in the Subject, Keywords, or Summary, that some people might
	be offended;  sometimes that works, but most of the time
	it has me question the good sense of the poster to post the
	article anyway...

> If it's too extreme, unsubscribe.

	that's like giving up the playground to the bullies...

	I will gladly abandon any group that gets voted into existence
	for the purpose to harbor offensive messages;  other groups
	I will refuse to unsubcribe to in response to such a consideration.

	alt.flames?  well, I have better things to do than to correct
	some peoples' lack of education and social graces ...

	I'm glad the group exists, though, to me, "flame" does not imply
	to mean that "offensive" is acceptable ...

-- 
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