🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <707@xanth.UUCP> [I wrote]:
>
>I would like to register an objection to BBS, Inc. conducting their for-profit
>business over this publicly funded network.  With the present tension over the
>rising costs of net usage, such abuse of the purpose of the net is especially
>unwelcome now.  My tax and tuition money can be put to better use.

There have been enough intemperate responses by mail, questioning my intellect,
professionalism, or good sense, in response to my objection to use of this
newsgroup for commercial purposes, that it seems there are several people using
this group who have not yet bothered to read the rules.  I didn't make these
rules up, I am not the authority on them, and complaining to me won't do a bit
of good.  I have a very quick hand for the delete command in my mail system ;-)

I quote at length:

-> How to Use USENET Effectively
   [...]
   [written by:]
-> Matt Bishop
   [...]
-> Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science
-> Mail Stop 230-5
-> NASA Ames Research Center
-> Moffett Field, CA  94035
   [...]
-> In one sense it has become worse;
-> as more articles are posted to the network,
-> phone costs and system loads averages increase,
-> and system administrators require USENET administrators to cut back
-> or eliminate newsgroups and
-> to transmit news only at night
-> (which means long propagation delays).
-> In short,
-> everyone who has anything to do with administering any USENET site
-> is very concerned about the future of USENET,
-> both in general
-> and at his own site.
   [...]
-> Many of the rules you will read address this concern.
-> The fear that USENET may collapse is not a bogeyman,
-> but very real.
-> We hope it will not collapse,
-> and the rules below outline some ways to prevent problems
-> and increase the likelihood
-> that enough sites will remain on USENET to keep it alive.
-> There is no central authority that can force you to follow them,
-> but by doing so you will help keep USENET a valuable resource
-> to the computer community.
   [...]
-> Reposting announcements of products or services is flatly forbidden.
  [^^^^^^^^^                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ]
-> Doing so may convince other sites to turn off your USENET access.

Now I have been overwhelmed with repeated announcements of offers of
publication of commentaries by BBS, a for-profit publication.  A single
announcement is within the rules, but what has been going on here is
quite explicitly covered by the above, and the penalties to the malefactors,
and to the rest of us, are spelled out in simple English.

Please DO NOT complain to me about this.  I can't do anything about it, I
wouldn't if I could, and I completely agree with these rules, anyway.  Talk
to the folks whose efforts make the net work, if you think that this way
to make a buck using the net deserves sanctification because it serves some
good end.  I don't agree.  I think it clutters the net, and I know it annoys
me.
--
Kent Paul Dolan, "The Contradictor", 25 years as a programmer, CS MS Student
at ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, to find out how I was supposed to be doing this
stuff all these years.  3D dynamic motion graphics a specialty.  Work wanted.

Unemployment is soooo nice though...I never have to disclaim anything!

UUCP  :  kent@xanth.UUCP   or    ...seismo!decuac!edison!xanth!kent
CSNET :  kent@odu.csnet    ARPA  :  kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu
Voice :  (804) 587-7760    USnail:  P.O. Box 1559, Norfolk, Va 23501-1559
Wisdom:  "Peace in mankind's lifetime.  Why leave a whole universe unexplored?"