Xref: utzoo news.admin:3402 alt.flame:2663
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!pacbell!att!cbnews!wbt
From: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.flame
Subject: A SERIOUS DILEMMA FOR THE NET
Keywords: handles, Portal, problem
Message-ID: <1219@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 19 Sep 88 02:29:46 GMT
Reply-To: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Followup-To: alt.flame
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 39


To the Powers that Be on Usenet;

Recently, there has occurred on the net what I feel to be the 
beginnings of a big problem.  For several weeks, postings from several 
individuals at the Portal System have been plaguing the net. The posters
use "anonymous" logins such as "Hijacker", "Spartan", "Ankh" etc.  It 
is my opinion that the Portal Administrator's decision to let subscribers 
use these "handles" has encouraged some of them to post irresponsibly,
I offer as a "for instance" the fairly recent incident of 
"jj@cup.portal.com" who posted a plea for money across the entire net, 
cross-posting to most of the newsgroups. Many of the posters from
Portal do not seem to realize the tremendous expense this sort of
"prank" causes. 

This problem might be solved if the management at the Portal System would
simply force users to use their real names. This would perhaps force these
posters to use more discretion.
It is my opinion that the Portal System itself is not really at 
fault; this problem could not easily have been forseen by them. I do
hope, however, that they take some action to correct what could be
a tremendous problem for the net. If, however, the Portal administrators
are reluctant to do so, perhaps those of us who feel strongly about the
issue could help them out by assembling as complete a portfolio of these 
postings as possible, then mailing them to 'root@cup.portal.com' along 
with comments as to why we feel the postings are inappropriate.  
This will, no doubt,  aid their staff in resolving the problem by 
presenting them with a body of first-hand data.

My thanks, and wishes that we can resolve this issue quickly to 
everyone's satisfaction.


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Bill Thacker						cbosgd!cbema!wbt
	"C" combines the power of assembly language with the
	 flexibility of assembly language.
Disclaimer: Farg 'em if they can't take a joke !
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