🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Cn85Dq.1IKI@sernews.raleigh.ibm.com>, allegro@mercury.interpath.net (Stephen Durfee) writes:

|> Academics  who  wish  the Internet  was  still  a  protected
|> underground  tunnel  need to see the  light.   The  Shopping
|> Channel on the Net will probably be the order of the day  in
|> the  near  future.  You will be able to pay  your  utilities
|> bill  on  the Net.  Let's allow legitimate entrepreneurs  to
|> advertise  w/o  hassle.   Many are providing great  products
|> and services at great prices.  Furthermore, many need the on-
|> line  community to stay afloat.  The restrictions should  be

I fully agree with providing individuals with as much freedom
as possible.  And I frequently am irritated by the "No commercial
messages" postings.  However, your view fails to address a very
real potential problem:  that without restriction we could face
a situation similar to being deluged with junk mail.  Automated
postings akin to the automatically dialed sales pitches?  Where
to draw the line?  Without some mechanism for the readers of
newsgroups at least to easily filter out commercial postings,
things could become pretty ugly.  If "legitimate entrepreneurs"
started throwing advertising literature on my property, I would
take some pretty serious steps.  If my mailbox were stuffed to
overflowing each day with junk mail, I would do the same.  This
doesn't happen, of course (usually).  But a difference with respect
to the net is that the differential cost of creating n advertisements
(i.e., seen by n potential customers) as opposed to 1 advertisement
is 0.  So the liklihood of serious advertisement overload is
much greater.  For now, the situation is far from serious.  But
there is (and should be) some concern for the future.

-- 
Gary H. Merrill  [Principal Systems Developer, Compiler and Tools Division]
SAS Institute Inc. / SAS Campus Dr. / Cary, NC  27513 / (919) 677-8000
sasghm@theseus.unx.sas.com ... !mcnc!sas!sasghm