Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 17:41:03 CST From: dclunie@pax.tpa.com.au (David Clunie) To: Postmaster@ultrix.ramapo.edu Subject: Unacceptable behaviour by ghabrech Cc: root@ultrix.ramapo.edu, ghabrech@ultrix.ramapo.edu, cypherpunks@toad.com
From one of the very popular mailing lists I received the following posting by one of your users. While I can understand his frustration at having difficulties unsubscribing from a relatively high volume list, or his ignorance at not being aware that such requests should be directed to the "x-request" alias not the "x" list, this is no excuse for such a long and unpleasant post that has consumed considerable expensive bandwidth for no good reason ... I am surprised you tolerate students with such a childish attitude on your system and they do no credit to your institution's reputation.
[ abridged quote from metioned user's posting deleted...] Think about this scenario for a moment: dclunie sends mail to the system adiministrator of an institution complaining of the mail sent by a particular user. The system administrator confronts the user, who then explains the situation. He explains that he has sent numerous requests to be unsubscribed from the list, but they continue to send large volumes of mail. Out of frustration, he sends an 80K file to the list hoping it will get someone's attention. The mail continues, and several members of the list makes threats of "dirty tricks" and "mail bombs" against him. Now one of the "cypherpunks" is sending libelous mail to the system administrator. The system administrator now understands the situation; an educational institution on the net is made aware of a rapidly developing campaign of harrassment and vandalism by the cypherpunks. So what happens now? Are the cypherpunks winning? Are you people blind to what you are doing? What fools!!! What upsets me the most about all of this is that I am truly an advocate of net freedom, privacy, and anonymity. But the cypherpunks is setting itself up for a big fall and they threaten to tarnish the whole movement toward net freedom and privacy with their petty, puerile, and vandalous behavior! ----- Michael Brennan - mbrennan@netcom.com