Xref: utzoo news.admin:3550 news.sysadmin:1003 alt.flame:2749 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!unido!pcsbst!jkh From: jkh@pcsbst.UUCP (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,alt.flame Subject: Re: A SERIOUS DILEMMA FOR THE NET Message-ID: <359@pcsbst.UUCP> Date: 26 Sep 88 13:56:15 GMT References: <265@sulaco.UUCP> <1891@spdcc.COM> <593@ardent.UUCP> Reply-To: pcsbst!jkh@pcsbst.UUCP (Jordan K. Hubbard) Organization: PCS GmbH, Pfaelzer-Wald-Str. 36, 8000 Muenchen; West-Germany Lines: 23 I must agree with Ken. It certainly is a problem when an entire organization [Portal] practically encourages net.abuse and gives voice to those who would probably be better off standing on a folding chair at Speakers Corner. This form letter, however, seems to be little more than a page torn from the same book. Granted, it's better written than the average portal prose and was probably actually run through spell before posting [grin], but it's still pretty dry reading after the 5th incarnation. Who are you trying to punish, the portal people or the rest of the net? Something most Americans don't realize (and I speak from experience) is that a lot of this stuff goes all over the world. Us expatriate American folks living abroad get a real kick out of being able to read the alt.stuff and would be very unhappy if it got yanked because of a far-too-low SNR. Once someone downstream yanks something, it's pretty hard to convince them to put it back. The Germans are stubborn that way. So, please, flame where flaming is due, but realize that every byte costs significant bucks over-all. Why not send those form letters to postmaster@portal? It seems to me that's where they'd do the most good. Better yet, talk to the sites that feed them. Perhaps the possibility of total isolation would serve as a more effective deterrent. Jordan