This is another message on the Cancel Message Generator issue in
news.admin.policy.
In article As I promised yesterday, I emailed each recent anonomous poster
in the "sci" hierarchy a note explaining what may happen this
weekend. Dick
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Dear anonymous poster, You may not be aware of the discussion in news.admin.policy
concerning the propriety of posting anonymously to newsgroups which
have not invited such postings. As someone who has posted anonymously
to the "sci" hierarchy recently, you should read it. I am writing to inform you that if Julf, admin@anon.penet.fi,
does not soon block anonymous postings to the "sci" hierarchy, then
I will activate an "Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation" script
that will cancel postings to this hierarchy from his server. This is
intended to restore the pre-Julf status quo, at least temporarily,
over the weekend. Rest assured that there is nothing personal in this. I have not
read your postings, and I have no reason to believe that they were out
of line in any way other than being anonymous. I have nothing against
anonymous postings to groups that have decided to accept such
postings, nor do I object to any newsgroup deciding to do this. I
*do* object to Julf's permitting his server to post to newsgroups
without any effort to determine whether the readers of those newsgroups
want to permit anonymous postings. You have several possible courses of action if you wish to post
to the "sci" hierarchy while the "Automated Retroactive Minimal
Moderation" is in effect: *1 convince Julf to accept the "Petersen Proposal" for default
settings for different hierarchies. I promise to turn off the
ARMM script as soon as I hear that he will do this (or anything
reasonably responsive). *2 convince the readers of the newsgroup to which you want to post
that anonymous postings should be accepted in that newsgroup.
I can think of several valid reasons that may prompt such a desire,
but the decision should be made by the readers of the newsgroup, not
imposed by a single person such as Julf, or me. I promise to
abide by whatever decision the newsgroup makes. This does not
need to be a formal vote. A straw vote with a clear majority will
suffice. *3 have a friend post for you, use a different anonymous server,
or, if all else fails, post under your own name. People used to
do this, you know. :-) If none of these suit you, then simply be patient, and wait until
Monday. I intend to run ARMM, if I run it at all, for less than 48
hours... this time. This is merely intended to be a demonstration
that an effective enforcement mechanism for blocking postings from a
particular site can work. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.
My argument is with Julf and is about the default setting for entire
hierarchies; it is not with you or your particular postings. Sincerely,
Dick Depew
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--
Richard E. Depew, Munroe Falls, OH red@redpoll.neoucom.edu
"Leap years are a pain; the earth should be stabilised." - Geoff Collyer
and Mark Moraes in getabsdate.3