Re: The Termination of This List

From: THADDEUS BOYD <thad_x_boyd_at_prodigy.com>
Date: Tue Jun 4 00:30:07 1996

> The first event that turned me toward dislike of the management of
>this list is one that could probably be concieved as a nearly inflammatory
>move on the part of Eric, which was to utilize a posting of mine in order
>to set down a new `list rule'. What transpired was that in the beginning
>of my fanfic-writing career, I made it a habit to publish my stories
>on the mailing list directly, and then have Bookshire grep them from his
>mailspool and HTMLize it for fanfic-page consumption. I had not seen a
>single post on said list about anyone disliking my practice of doing this,
>and had, in fact, recieved a few positive comments. This not only
>encouragedme to continue my writings, but it also gave me a mandate to
>continue this practice further. Well, after I had sent one of my stories
>to the list on one fateful afternoon, Eric decided to take the opportunity
>to put down a new list rule. Can anyone tell me what it is? No?
>Well, it was that no further stories were to be sent to the list. He used
>the header of my posting, deleted all of the content of the message (even
>the `On such-and-such day, X said:' line), and said in no uncertain terms >that
>no further fanfic was to be sent to the list. That's all. No `good
>story, Joe', no `awful story, Joe', no `nice paragraphing, Joe', but
>instead a subtle incrimination that it was -MY- fault that this new
>policy was being instituted. Real fucking nice, man. Yet, I kept
>my mouth closed, and instead did what I was instructed to. The deep-rooted
>indignation that I possess now was absent in me then, so I meekly shut up
>and obeyed.

<Shakes head> It wasn't just YOU, man...I had the SAME THING happen to ME.

> However, my ire was rose when people CONTINUED, -TOTALLY- unflamed,
>to post fanfic to the list (and multi-part fanfic, I might add) and were,
>in fact, APPLAUDED by the admins!

<Shrugs> I only saw one story after the rule was made (before getting
kicked-off), and I think that was because the writer wrote in from a BBS
and didn't have any way of knowing about the change in customs...

> The second incident that rose my bile to a frothing cauldron of rage
>was a posting I had made that I thought was not only Sonic-related, but
>dealt with the problem we had at the time with Sega's legal staff regarding
>the `hentai' pics Bookshire had on the page at the time. A posting on
>alt.slack caught my eye during that time period that dealt with a similar
>case that Warner Brothers was placing against a similar collection of
>porno pics of toons. Seeing that this would be a good morale-booster
>for the depressed inhabitants on the list, I chose to grep the article
>from my local NNTP server, edit it a little, and post it onto the list.
>It seemed quite obvious to myself and my close friends that this was
>a completely on-topic post, and it would be, in fact, appreciated by
>all members of the list.
>
> As expected, Ratman (with his utter mastery of the King's English,
>not to mention his totally superior abilities in detecting -CONTEXT-)
>*flamed* me for putting the article on the list, calling it one of the
>most foul, odious, noxious, degrading, and generally Pink things that
>one 'net surfer can call another 'net surfer's transmissions: `spam'.
>Needless to say, it took a far larger expenditure of willpower to not
>utterly blast Ratman off the face of the earth with my verbal gymnastics,
>but I was able to again contain my rage.

No disagreement HERE. *I* certainly thought a BLIND person could've seen
the connection in said incident.

> The third slap in the face that I refused to allow my primal instincts
>to attack was not even directed toward me, but rather toward the
>inhabitantsof the list as a whole. This was an incident best outlined as a
>general`policy' issue, but it was a very sensitive one for me. Now, I know
>operators of mailing lists have the right to say whatever they want on
>the list that they operate. I have no qualms about that right, nor would
>I demand it be removed due to the interests of fair and free speech.
>However, during an otherwise slow time for the list, an interesting,
>but somewhat off-topic thread began; it dealt with the fanfic video game
>(that is still under production, BTW), and the general roles people might
>play in it. I thought it was amusing enough, and didn't feel it took up
>too much of my mail spool with BS. After all, it is a simple thing to
>delete 30 messages a day; any jackass with a decent mail-reader can do
>that in one keystroke. Yet, after a while, Ratman started bitching about
>it because he had obviously lost interest in it. There was a brief
>verbal scuffle, which can be supported by said members of the discussion,
>and I felt that neither side was totally in the right...in fact, if it
>hadn't been for Ratman's creation of a video-game list, I bet this list
>would have finally collapsed a long time ago. But it takes two to tango,
>petit, and this therefore can be seen as yet another reason I am
>unhappy with Ratman's performance.

<Nods> My reaction to that was what got me kicked-off...

> Fourth was perpetrated by Ratman just hours ago, when he had the
>sheer gonads to dare speak afoul of one of the most brilliant,
>skilled, and generally superior human beings I have had the pleasure of
>reviewing the work of, Dan Drazen. He is probably one of the nicest
>people I have ever read the work of, and does more for Sonic fandom
>in general than most people could ever concieve of. His writings about
>the Sonic comic are insightful and fair, and his fanfic is probably
>several million times better than anything I could ever dream of writing.
>In fact, I'd dare say that he could write `Nanny nanny boo boo' a million
>times, post it, and I'd -still- like the guy.
>
> But, as Ratman was totally expected to do (I was tempted to start
>a pool when I saw Drazen's alledgedly `irritating' post), he went off
>on this great man like he was a common spammer, dissing him far too
>strongly in front of the entire list for acknoledging a quite...interesting
>comment written by an obvious nutcase. He should have been commended for
>adding even a spittle of thought toward that individual, not crucified and
>chastised by the hominid rodentia for making a minor `fluff' post. It's
>not like the list was overloaded with spam at the time, anyway.

I know...he probably was in a bad mood, or he would've let it pass. I
agree wholly, except I don't think his writing's several million times
better than MINE...just a couple hundred. ;)

> And now, the fifth reason is Ratman's actual shutting down of the
>list for reasons that have allegedly stretched back into the past. He
>says that the system load for him is too much (sure, pal...and I suppose
>the ten billon Mortal Kombat wankers that hit your site every time another
>edition of that blasted game is released doesn't put an infinitesimally
>higher amount of strain on that ISP of yours than some < 50 K mail messages
>that are in-and-out in less than 2 minutes), and that the signal-to-noise
>ratio is too low (one jerk spams us with 5 messages, and two other people
>are learning how to use their mail programs...meanwhile, meaningful
>discussion continues unabated), or that alt.fan.sonic-hedgehog would
>be a better place, anyway (and he -admits- it's more difficult than he
>initially said to get your average po'bucker admin to add a newsgroup to
>your local NNTP spool, especially if it's an alt.* group...also, Quozl
>himself could tell you that the average sysop is probably already wary
>of the alt.fan.sonic-hedgehog group because it was allegedly created by
>Tom Servo-ish methods...you think getting alt.tv.k-t-e is hard to
>cajole your sysop into, just wait until he sees your request for a
>group that was allegedly made by Tom Servo!)
>
> Now, in my opinion, this action was taken strictly as a tantrumish
>lashing-out at those of us who may have offended his sensitive
>sensibilities once too often, or that one was less articulate than he would
>prefer, or even just because he'd stubbed his toe that morning. Who
>frigging knows? All I know is that this action is totally uncalled for,
>and that any human being with a sense of justice left within them would
>stand up and -say- something about it. His current rationale does not
>wash well with me, and I'm sure that I am not alone.

Yeah, but what can you do? It's HIS server, and if he wants to clear US
off it, there's nothin' WE can rightfully do to STOP him.

> In closing, I will be sure to tell others about the actions of
>Ratman, sysop of rat.org, throughout my various peer groups of furries,
>cyberpunks, and Wired devotees; and also see to it that a new list is
>createdon a different server to serve those of us still devoted to the Blue
>Guy; with a more lenient sysadmin and fairer policies toward the fanfic
>writer. Mark my words, fellow Freedom Fighters, I shall not rest until we
>have a new list again. I refuse to allow such a hard-core group fall apart
>at the seams due to the actions of one misguided individual.

I'D start up a list, only that can't be done on Prodigy (YET...they might
soon; as of yesterday they started reworking the whole service). Of
course, that might prove a TEENSE maddening for some of you out there, as
my policies are the total OPPOSITE of Rat's -- hideously liberal rather
than hideously conservative -- and I'd probably let people post whatever
they wanted, regardless of Sonic content.

In any case, what Rat's doing seems a bit outta line, but we haven't much
right to be angry, as this IS, after all, HIS turf that he's donating us.
I'd do differently in his position, but I've little room to talk as I'm not
there.



><

Somebody's got to do it!

Received on Tue Jun 04 1996 - 00:30:07 PDT