Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!dogie!uwmcsd1!marque!introl!dworld!nic From: nic@dworld.UUCP (Nic Bernstein) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Braindamaged test messages clogging the net Summary: Appropriate punishment Message-ID: <495@dworld.UUCP> Date: 11 May 88 18:16:15 GMT References: <255@comdesign.UUCP> <1218@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <22716@pyramid.pyramid.com> <3266@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> Reply-To: nic@dworld.UUCP (Nic Bernstein) Distribution: na Organization: Discovery World: Museum of Science, Economics and Technology inc. Lines: 40 In article <3266@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) writes: >So, can anyone think of a suitable punishment for these two >ignoramuses? After getting three of these replies (so far) at 68K each, and growing with each new header, I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out why. (I don't read the test groups, or talk.bizarre, so I didn't see the original postings). Needless to say, some examination of the headers revealed the reason. By this time, I have had five copies of this beast on my machine; three in my mail box, one in misc. test, and one in alt.test. 5 x 68,000 = 340,000 of space eaten up on my already overburdened 3B1, it also equals 47.2 minutes of connect time at 1200 baud with my neighbor, 340,000 of space on each system down the line, etc. My first inclination was to flame the idiots that started this, but that would only waste more space/time/money. So, instead I suggest that perhaps the best punishment would be to make these people PAY FOR IT!! Now I know that this is not a realistic suggestion, but the thought of an unknown number of servant repliers sending two replies to each of 109 people throughout the net boggles the imagination. What these foolish posters have done, stupid as it was, is to show us a very effective form of usenet virus. Much scarier than the cost of their stupidity is the prospect of someone else doing this maliciously. I can only hope that enough sysadmins are aware of this, and doing what they can to fix their auto ACK systems to prevent something like this bringing usenet to it's knees. >> All in all, I've boo boo'ed big-time. I'd say!!!!! >> Paul S. Traina arpa: @pyramid.com:pst@comdesign.uucp -- "You can't spend your history!" Nic Bernstein Melinda Briggerty Discovery World Museum "... but you can sell it!" 818 W. Wisconsin av. Me Milwaukee, WI 53233 ____________________________________________________________________________ {uunet|uwmcsd1|gryphon}!marque{!introl}!dworld!nic ____________________________________________________________________________