Xref: utzoo news.admin:3410 alt.flame:2671 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!pollux!dalsqnt!rpp386!jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US From: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (John F. Haugh II) Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.flame Subject: A Serious Dilemma for the Net Summary: Something MUST be done about Portal Message-ID: <6817@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> Date: 19 Sep 88 01:35:00 GMT Sender: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US Followup-To: alt.flame Organization: River Parishes Programming, Dallas, TX Lines: 34 to all you USENETTER's - greetings. a very large problem has emerged on the net. for several weeks, the net has been beseiged with postings from many users at the portal system in california. these postings are made from pseudo- accounts with names such as "spartan", "hijacker", "publisher", and so on without bound. it is my considered opinion that the site administrator's decision to allow users to use these "c.b. handles" (and to apparently change them on a moments notice) encourages them to post irresponsibly. as an example, let us not forget the ta-do with jj@cup.portal.com [ not to be confused with the real jj@alice ] who posted a plea for money across most of the newsgroups on the net. this problem might be solved if the management at portal replaced the portal-id field with the user's real name. the users might then consider acting with more discretion prior to posting, knowing that their name would be attached for all to see. if the administrators at portal remain uncertain as to the need for this action, perhaps we could help them out by compiling a compendium of articles showing the content of the articles emanating from that system. perhaps neighboring sites could be persuaded to disassociate themselves with portal until such time as portal ceases to be a negative factor in the usenet community. to aid other site administrators in removing portal system postings, i have created a shell script which will cancel all postings coming from that system. I thank you, and Usenet thanks you... Sincerly, John F. Haugh II