🚀 go-pugleaf

On October 21, 1999 in message <380F5C58.7879DA41@medctr.osu.edu> posted to
bit.admin "Mike Holloway" (holloway@concentric.net) wrote:

>   <snip>
> The American University mail to news gateway has been down
> for nearly two years now. Newsguy.com (mike@newsguy.com)
> has very generously volunteered to take it over. However, they
> do not been given admin authority over the bit hierarchy, as had
> been promised over a year ago by AU. I've been trying to make
> some contact with someone at AU, but no e-mail has been 
> answered.
>
> Are you the listowner for RAILROAD? Do you know of any other
> lists still gating to a bit group? Perhaps we need to organize. 
>  <snip>

I urge everyone NOT to support any effort that would place administrative
authority over the bit.* hierarchy in, or near, the hands of Mike Holloway.

Holloway is a co-owner of the TRNSPLNT email list which gates to
bit.listserv.transplant. That list and newsgroup are forums for discussions
related to human organ transplantation.

Currently, contentious policy issues, particularly regarding the
allocation/distribution of scarce organs, divide the transplant community. The
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services is attempting to implement reforms to
correct inequities in the current U.S. transplant system. Those reforms are
being resisted by a faction within the transplant system which benefits from
the "status quo."

Though, theoretically, the TRNSPLNT email list is a forum for patients and
"others interested in the issues," in fact, that email list, moderated by
Holloway, is controlled by a faction of the transplant community which is
resisting change. The bit.listserv.transplant newsgroup, being UNmoderated (at
least for now), has become a "bit" of a problem for those folks.

During my 1.5 years of subscribing to TRNSPLNT, I have observed the
manipulation of the gates between the email list and USENET. The most recent
example occurred approx. 2.5 weeks ago when FEW messages from the list were
gated to bit.listserv.transplant (in mid-1998 that list-to-news gateway was
moved from AU to newsguy.com). I suspected an attempt was being made to "choke
off" the unmoderated newsgroup and to force all interested parties to subscribe
to the moderated/censored email list. Since Holloway does not respond to my
emails, on Oct 7, I posted a message
<19991007212512.05990.00000432@ng-ch1.aol.com>  to that effect on
bit.listserv.transplant and began manually posting all non-gated list messages
to the newsgroup. That continued for several days until Mr. Holloway resumed
gating  messages from the list to the newsgroup.

I believe Holloway's eagerness, at this time, to move administrative authority
for the bit.* hierarchy from AU to newsguy.com may be due to a hope that, after
the move, he will be able to bring bit.listserv.transplant under the same
control he exercises over the TRNSPLNT email list.

This matter is particularly important since patients (I am not a patient) are
at the mercy of transplant centers and transplant physicians both for their
extensive medical needs and for information on the current controversial
issues. Understandably, most patients are  reluctant to question what they are
being told, let alone to offer a critical opinion. That's why keeping the
bit.listserv.transplant newsgroup unmoderated is so important. 

Karen Burton