🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <45fdho$o9o@giga.bga.com>, David Smith <bladex@bga.com> wrote:
>Chip Rosenthal (chip@unicom.com) wrote:
>: So, now we have an AOL user whining that the utexas email gateway, a
>: service offered to UT users, and with informal and unofficial access
>: granted to the public, whining that they don't like it.
>I narrowed the complaint down to that Fletcher was (1) blocking access to 
>the gateway because of domainism and (2) not notifying AOLers trying to 
>use the service that he was doing this.  Messages that they sent simply 
>never appeared.
>Is your response to this still tough roogies?

I would say yes. The gateway was there as a public convience, not a
service. Just because it is a public University doesn't mean that the
public has use of all, or any, of the services provided. It does mean
that if they meet criteria X they can go to the school at a reasonable
cost. The Unversity can, at it's whim, make things available for public
consumption.

If I were to setup a gateway at ARL:UT, which is associated with the
University of Texas, (mostly because they sign my paycheck and we are
on their property) there would be no need for me to notify anyone but
UT, and specifically ARL:UT personal of any changes of the gateway. If
I decided to be polite I could notify the entire world, but where do I
stop? After posting to a newsgroup? After sending mail to every user who
sends mail to it? After sending mail to every usenet/news account on
every domain in the world? (I'm sick of the listserv/majordomo crawler.)

As far as we know at this point, Fletcher notified the administrators
of the site in question that it would/did occur or even did it at their
request. That in my opinion is above and beyond the call of duty. (Heck,
I think providing the service to anyone not at UT, and specifically in
the CS department, is above and beyond the call of duty and I'm glad
Fletcher provides it, but I don't want to see him continuing to take
flack for being a nice guy.)

Usenet is not a reliable service. Things disappear all the time. If my
newsfeed disk crashes while I have news spooled for a downfeed site,
should I notify the downfeed site? If I do, should I notify the upfeed
site? Should I have them notify all of theres in order for the users who
posted the messages in that batch will find out? I say "No" to all of
these and think any other answer is unreasonable.

Btw, in case you haven't noticed, news never changes, it just cycles
through every few hours. New people, same topics, same BS.

Ciao,

-- 
Richard Bainter          Mundanely     |    System Analyst        - OMG/CSD
Pug                      Generally     |    Applied Research Labs - U.Texas
   pug@arlut.utexas.edu     |     pug@eden.com     |     {any user}@pug.net
Note: The views may not reflect my employers, or even my own for that matter.