Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan.acs.syr.edu!jstewart
From: jstewart@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ace Stewart)
Subject: Re: harassing mail
Message-ID: <1991Jun10.161228.19437@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Organization: Syracuse Univ/Eastman Kodak Co.
References: <scs.674919197@wotan.iti.org> <1991May23.030459.8377@osh3.OSHA.GOV> <scs.675001777@wotan.iti.org>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1991 16:12:28 GMT

In article <scs.675001777@wotan.iti.org> scs@iti.org (Steve Simmons) writes:
[...much deleted...]
>attempts to manage user behaviour in any way, shape or form.  Until
>then, the proper course for him to take is to put complaintants into
>touch with those who have authority.


I will modify this a bit considering my own situation, and I have an
idea that a few more of you are in the same. When you are dealing with
a student population, who exactly, is their authority on such matters
if not the sysadmin for computer in question? We're wrestling with
that very problem right now...their parents? I think not.  :)


>You're actually advocating Eric censor (I hate that word) outgoing mail
>from a user over whom he has no authority.  Brrrrr!  If I found our site
>postmaster doing this, I'd fire the postmaster.


Do sysadmins add and delete the accounts? Do they handle diskspace
requests, do they tell them they did "a bad thing" when they tried to
'su root' 25 times in a row? I believe that sysadmins _do_ have some
authority over the users on that system, and now we have to draw an
infamous line of where that authority stops and starts.

How do you control people who attack others on a listserv for
instance? It is a discussionary medium, and many people can be
offended in one piece of mail. Is it right for those people to be told
"we can't do anything"... which comes close to advocating that attack?
Or, alternatively, do we "speak" to the user and "suggest" that
perhaps he could do better? Is there any harm in that as opposed to
passing the complaint-ant to "someone in charge?"

Though perhaps this is sly, a message from "sysadmin" is usually taken
very seriously by the populus of a machine. If that message contains a
well worded suggestion that "perhaps, due to complaints, it would be
best if messages such as these were toned down or stopped," many users
will take notice and the problem is solved.

And, in all that, we're not censoring until a person force-ably stops
outgoing mail, edits it, etc. It is just a suggestion. I ask hoping
for constructive responses... is this a solution?

--Ace
-- 
    Ace Stewart | Affiliation: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York
jstewart@rodan.acs.syr.edu jstewart@sunrise.bitnet jstewart@mothra.cns.syr.edu
   jstewart@sunspot.cns.syr.edu     ace@suvm.bitnet     rsjns@suvm.bitnet
