Re: General reply to all on everything!

[nathan@cco.caltech.edu]

From: nathan@cco.caltech.edu (Nathan Mates)
Subject: Re: General reply to all on everything!
Date: 25 Jul 1996 19:37:24 GMT

In article <4t86h2$euh@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>,
Jeffrey Robertson <jeffr@bnr.ca> wrote:
>Can someone tell Joe Kohn, et al that it is safe to come back?

   The internet is not "safe." The dork whose flame caused Joe Kohn to
leave was the first time he had posted to anywhere from that account,
according to www.dejanews.com.  When you can get a trial account for
pretty much nothing (AOL hands out those disks like crack dealers and
'free samples'... and that analogy is pretty darn good at most
levels), you can start an account under some assumed name in a
different city, flame somebody to death, and cancel it. All without
having to forge a single piece of news.

   Usenet is very vulnerable to arsonists like that. Is there an easy
solution? Not without moderation. If these flaming dorks spouted their
shit to someone in person, they'd get their lights punched out, and
with good reason. Unfortunately, the internet provides no such way of
making people accountable for their words.

Nathan Mates
-- 
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
# And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
# Kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in 
# parables" Mark 4:11, NRSV


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