🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <MPG.ece819beb6f6cf998a122@news.alt.net>, xyzzy@ponyexpress.net
wrote:

> My glass typewriter shows Bill Stewart-Cole saying...
> > Altopia isn't treating you like a responsible adult, they are making it
> > clear that they don't care whether you act like a responsible adult or
> > whether you act like a spoiled toddler. 
> 
>         We'll just have to differ then.  As far as I am concerned, Altopia 
> will land on me hard if I abuse Usenet.  As they should on anyone who 
> abuses the 'net.

Their policy as posted specifically says that they will NOT do so. 


>         And that, to me, is the difference.  I am treated like an adult 
> because it is assumed that I know what I am doing.  After all, I had to 
> search out Altopia, which implies some knowledge of the 'net, beyond 
> what the typical ISP customer would now.
> 
>         To me, the whole parent-child analogy is particularly odious.  Only 
> children need to be told how to behave before they do something.  Adults 
> find out for themselves, if they don't already know, and accept the 
> consequences of their actions if they do something wrong.

There is no way for there to be direct-to-the-user consequences for abuse
of Usenet.  For the overwhelming majority of users, 'self-approved' posts
to moderated groups result in quick loss of access. Altopia is a way to
protect yourself from that, because let you use your own judgement. It
works just foine for their adult customers who act like adults, but they
have also attracted almost all the spoiled brat kooks because of the fact
that this policy is analogous to the sort of parenting that generates
spoiled brats. 

I know the 'parent' analogy rubs a lot of people the wrong way because it
implies that end users are children, but get past that for a bit and
consider the similar problems. I cannot discipline someone else's
dependent, whether its an Altopia user or the vicious little brat up the
street. The only thing I can do is go to the provider upon whom that
person is dependent and ask them to control the problem. Altopia refuses
to control their problem users, and as a result there are a dozen groups
where the proportionally small number of Altopia users who persist in
acting in anti-social and childish ways have made things intolerable. 


> 
>         If I want help, let _me_ ask, instead of telling me what to do.  If 
> I don't ask, and abuse the 'net, then nail me as hard as anyone else.  
> Ignorance of the mores of the 'net is no excuse.  (Kind of like dealing 
> with the law in Real Life (tm) <grin>).

I agree completely, and if Altopia did not *explcitly* tell users that
certain forms of abuse will NOT result in any consequences, I would not
view them as the  'lax parent of spoiled brats' in the neighborhood of
Usenet. 

I really need to go fix my feed config now. Goodbye.

-- 
Bill Stewart-Cole                             bill@scconsult.com        
I'm not spam-blocked because I like playing the hardass net-fascist.