🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2295@ddsw1.MCS.COM> karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM(Karl Denninger) writes:

>If it gets out of hand (only once) I email to the sysadmin of the site which
>originated the mail.  Who knows whether anything was done -- the attacks
>ceased, and that was all that I wanted accomplished.

As a system administrator, I feel this is the most appropriate initial
response to abusive email.  If a user of a system I am responsible
for is sending abusive material, I want to be the first to know about it
so I can protect the reputation of my organization and the 600 or so
other users who make use of our facilities.

Similarly, if a user on one of our systems receives abusive or
threatening email I'd want to be the first to know about it so I
could trace the problem down and deal with it.

Going public and posting the offensive mail breaks more things than
it fixes in that it effectively prevents the authorities from doing
their job.  Further, it stirs already troubled waters to a point where
no productive goals can be realized.

>Can anyone besides myself see an intentional pattern of escalation here,
>rather than an attempt to solve the problem at hand?

Yes, and I think it should be cause for concern on all sides of the
question.  In the name of claiming the moral high ground we are
threatening the thing we're trying to preserve.

--Byron

-- 

Byron C. Howes			    Computer Systems Manager
bch@uncecs.edu			UNC Educational Computing Service