🚀 go-pugleaf

ccaputo@tofu.alt.net (Chris Caputo) wrote:

>bspaghetti@hotmail.com (Clueless Wombat Cabal) writes:
>>My major complaint is that newsgroup flooding is going on in alt.life.sucks
>>and nothing has been done about it.  I think CC needs to define his nebulous
>>policy against newsgroup flooding, because it would seem that the complaints
>>he has received about it from others have not been listened to.
>
>We believe newsgroup flooding is when a program automatically injects
>posts into one more newsgroups in rapid succession. 
>
>We believe it is impossible for a human to flood a newsgroup by generating
>posts by hand.  
>
>If a human generates the same posts over and over by hand, we may consider
>that to be EMP (excessive multi-posting).  EMPs are actionable. 
>
>Chris Caputo
>President, Altopia Corporation

At last.  Common ground.  We agree on the definition of something
actionable.  Excessive multi-posting.  I was beginning to worry.

Restatement for accentuation:

>If a human generates the same posts over and over by hand, we may consider
>that to be EMP (excessive multi-posting).  EMPs are actionable.

Here's a fragment of the title post of the thread, "Chris Caputo and
Altopia; back to basics" sent in by yours truly.

>(Snip a bunch)
>
>2. Skippy 2-groupers
>
>In this treatment, "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo", a fictional amalgam of
>Demas Nava and Tim Thorne's work (the HalFWits' famous wordsmiths, Big
>Daddy Zeus and DOOM - just ask them), went hopping alphabetically down
>their "Show All Groups" list in the *.alt hierarchy posting a sort of
>form-letter with group-specific modifications.  They began with "A".
>I'm not sure how far along in the alphabet they got, but there were a
>*lot* of these things.  Skippy purported to represent ALS, and each
>post contained an insult to the selected group followed by a threat of
>its imminent invasion and destruction *by* ALS.  In each of these, the
>"newsgroups" line contained only the threatened group and ALS, so in
>this case each offended party was certain where to direct his
>irritation.
>
>(Snip some more)
>
>c) There's always been something about the Skippy posts that kept
>poking at me, a deja vu sort of feeling, as though I had run into
>something very much like them before.  I've got it.  *What* form of
>net abuse has always involved manual "crossposting" of a single
>identical message to hundreds of UseNet newsgroups for the purpose of
>stimulating lots more posting from the groups hit?  Does the number
>"200" jog your memory?  What, O please tell me *what*, is the
>fundamental difference (aside for the lack of experience, hostility
>and intent to harm in the latter), between the Skippy posts and all
>those millions of newbie Ponzi-posts we all used to be neck deep in?
>Was *that* net-abuse?

I got your letter, and I've explained what I meant by "200"  

[For the rest of you, if there is *anyone* who needs the explanation,
200 was the near-universal recommended minimum number of newsgroups to
be hit in the Ponzie-posts.  Chris' boys beat that goal, I believe.]

Your definition of EMP X-rings Skippy's exercise in offensiveness.
One-by-one multi-posting of the same thing to many, many, many more
than 20 (wasn't that the number you used in your letter?) newsgroups.
I expect he easily beat the 200 recommended by the pyramid pukes. 

[You know better than I on that.  Didn't one of us send you copies of
all the original Skippy posts?  If not, I'm sure we can arrange
something.  Or, of course, there's DejaNews.]

There's a big difference, though.  Those guys were mostly just curious
and clueless newbies who didn't know that what they were doing was a
no-no.  Can't really say that about BDZ & DOOM.  They're quite
experienced.  *They* knew what they were doing.

I'm pleased that we've found this common ground.  Now I can hope, no,
I can confidently *expect* that you'll take remedial action against
your errant subscribers BDZ & DOOM, who have finally managed to find
and violate a rule you'll enforce.

The Prof