From: balloo@mhm15x1.acmewidgets.dot.com.dot.com.com.dot (sir balloo)
Newsgroups:alt.fan.karl-malden.nose,alt.flame,news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,
           news.admin.net-abuse.misc,alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk
Subject: Re: Stan Kalisch III can go take a flying fuck
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 19:36:16 GMT


Aardvarkk  escribio en articulo:

>Jamey "Quacky" Powell wrote:
>> 
>> Stan Kalisch III wrote:
>> > On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, John Rear Admiral McKeon wrote:
>> 
>> [...]
>> 
>> > Well, maybe there's no connection between this kid and Monsta Mack--but it
>> > is indeed beginning to look like Monsta Mack is a loser...  Or he's just
>> > trying to look funny [...]
>> 
>> Both, actually.
>> 
>> > If you have a better, still objective way to quantify spam that excludes
>> > fuckhead cascades from getting cancelled, I'm sure we'd all love to hear
>> > it.
>> 
>> Any repeated post or cascade that is unwelcome by the majority of
>> posters in each group that it is x-posted to is spam. If one group's
>> majority disapproves of it, then the offending cascade/post must
>> stop appearing in that group or it is technically spam and therefore
>> may be cancelled.
>> 
>> There. Happy?
>
>Can't speak for Stanny-boy, but *I* am certainly happy with that.  I'd
>suspect most meowers and other cascade-types would be happy with that
>situation as well.

And yet you'd be completely wrong.

The entire concept behind Usenet is the free exchange of ideas.  True,
the various newsgroups were created to allow the posting of common
interest articles, but cross posts are acceptable forms of spreading
mutually beneficial information to a wide and diverse audience.  The
fact that most people have different opinions as to what is beneficial
for them leads us to our current predicament.

Those members of the Usenet community who view their literary efforts
as an artform desire to see the effect of their efforts on an eclectic
audience.  The fact that the audience is not always appreciative is
essential:  It is their participation that makes Usenet Performance
Art the living wonder of the internet age.  Fawning obsequiousness
from their intended audience is fine for News Admins, but it gets a
little sickening to anyone seeking to inspire more cognitive
responses.  

Our situation at present leaves us with a bit of a conundrum.  There's
only so much bandwidth to go around, and storage space is always at a
premium.  Those admins who cancel posts are necessary for the survival
of Usenet.  I appreciate what Stan does.  But from his writings, I
don't believe he has one miniscule clue as to what _we_ do.  He and
Chris talk about filters, the tools of their necessary trade, but
never about _content_, because they can't.  Down that path lies
madness.  (Yes, I've read the posts where they've offered to look at
any 'bot or script that could discern aesthetic values.  But because
no script can be written for such that would work in our present
environment, accepting aesthetics as a disqualifying attribute to spam
would be accepting a burden so heavy it would crush the system.)  So
we're stuck with a system that declares anything >20 bi as spam,
regardless of intrinsic worth.  (An aside here, Chris Lewis said that
MMF articles are automatically spam, as they are essentially the same
article, with but a few names varying from one post to the next.
Don't Bill Palmer's posts all fall under this category?)  I just feel
that there should be some ombudsman between the performance artists of
Usenet and the news administrators who cancel spam.  I'm not sure what
kind of human lemming would volunteer for the job, but I believe it to
be necessary.

There is a difference between those who steal the internet resources
of others to turn a profit and those who neurotically seek the
attention of large crowds of strangers.  To tar Raoul Xemblinosky in
the same batch as Sanford Wallace is unjust.  As long as this is being
done there will be protest.

--
coochie coo                            alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk
ben capoeman       mhm 15x1      wsd10       balloo at acmewidgets dot com
director of unnecessary surgery            institute for punitive medicine
jelliebun's dainty ursine of delight                                  meow