Xref: utzoo news.admin:3404 alt.flame:2665 Path: utzoo!hoptoad!pacbell!att!chinet!rissa From: rissa@chinet.UUCP (Patricia O Tuama) Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.flame,alt.sex Subject: A SERIOUS DILEMMA FOR THE NET Summary: Something MUST be done about Portal Message-ID: <6629@chinet.UUCP> Date: 19 Sep 88 05:36:18 GMT Organization: Cabal of Fools Lines: 35 To the members of Usenet: Greetings. A large problem has emerged in the past couple of weeks: the net has been plagued with postings from several "entities" at the Portal System (tm) in California. The postings are made from ambiguous accounts such as "Spartan", "Ronie", "Argent", "Ankh" etc. It is my opinion that the Site Administrator's decision to let subscribers use these "handles" (and apparently change them at will) encourages some of them to post irresponsibly. I offer as an example the recent incident of "jj@cup.portal.com" who posted a plea for money across the entire net, cross-posting to numerous newsgroups. This problem might be solved if the management at the Portal System would replace the "XPortal-User-Id:" line with the user's real name. This change would perhaps force a poster to use more discretion prior to posting, knowing that his or her *real* name would be attached to the posting. If the Site Administrators at the Portal System are still uncertain as to whether or not they should implement such action, perhaps those of us who feel this way could help them out by assembling as complete a portfolio of these postings as possible. Then, mail them to postmaster@cup.portal.com along with your comments as to why you feel the postings are inappropriate. This will aid their staff in resolving the problem by presenting them with *complete* first-hand evidence. Netters here in Chicago are entitled to send mutiple copies in the fine old tradition of the Daley Machine. I thank you, Usenet thanks you and Nikola Tesla thanks you. Secret Agent Elsie Dinsmore