Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!necntc!ima!minya!jc
From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Net userid forgery
Message-ID: <424@minya.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 22:29:43 EST
Article-I.D.: minya.424
Posted: Thu Dec  3 22:29:43 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Dec-87 05:19:02 EST
References: <1574@bsu-cs.UUCP> <7535@elsie.UUCP> <8030@ism780c.UUCP>
Organization: home
Lines: 42
Summary: A traditional usage of "fake" identification...
Xref: mnetor news.admin:1485 news.sysadmin:516

> < > . . .the ability to add an arbitrary From: field is useful because it
> < > allows a guest user to post under his or her own name.

> < Nope.  If a user is going to be on a system for such a short time that they
> < don't warrant their own account, they're not going to have the time to
> < read the netiquette document and learn when it is and isn't appropriate to
> < post articles.

> Often, they will have read the document on another machine.  For instance,
> I have sometimes found myself at a terminal at Caltech reading news over
> the shoulder of a friend.  If I want to respond to an article, I get him
> to respond, and diddle the header ...

Among all the flames about fake postings, I've yet to see recognition
that there is a very traditional use of "fake" mailings.  Most people
in the business world consider it totally normal (and not the least bit
dishonest) for a secretary to heavily edit a boss's mailings, often
to the extreme of writing the entire document from penciled notes,
and putting the boss's name on the whole thing.

So what, you say?  That's business letters; this is Usenet.  Well, that
just shows how little the netters have appreciated what it takes to get
into the business world.  If Usenet is ever to be used outside the hacker
community (and I'm not saying it should, just that it deserves thought),
then the software MUST support this sort of fake posting.  Most executives
can't and won't ever read their own mail.  It always has been and always
will be intercepted and filtered by secretaries; that's why people hire
them.  The busy (you know, three-hour martini luncheons, etc.) executives
won't do more than sketch out responses which the secretaries will type
and post.  But the posting, if it is to be credible, must have the boss's
name on it, with possibly an extra header line with the secretary's id.

I've long suspected that Usenet has serious commercial possibilities.
But currently the design is hacker-friendly, not secretary-friendly.
And some of the moral outrage is targeted against some very common
(and not at all dishonest) business practices.  Posting on behalf of
another is just one of them.

Does version C news support anything like this?

-- 
John Chambers <{adelie,ima,maynard,mit-eddie}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)