From: gcrick@tpoint.net (Gene Crick) Subject: Re: USENET mail gateway retires - SUMMARY ARTICLE Followup-To: gcrick@sqi.utexas.edu Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 04:56:31 GMT * Contains a lengthy summary of the cs.uetxas.edu gateway closing in response to requests from latecomers to this now-declining thread. This article forwarded courtesy of Cox Communications/Austin A-S. Hypertext links necessarily omitted in this ASCII Usenet version. - gc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- re: UTEXAS INTERNET NEWS GATEWAY CLOSES Current Score: AOL 1; UT 0; Usenet -1 During the past couple of weeks, the closing of Fletcher Mattox's UT mail-to-news gateway (cs.utexas.utexas) has generated *hundreds* of emotional messages online. This flood of thoughtful and often angry posts initiated several threads through local and national newsgroups. The troubling story of how one America OnLine customer affected the UT gateway has even become international news, at least in HyperSpace. (NetSurfer Digest, 10/19/95, "Of Gifts and Flames: Public News Gateway Folds After a Decade" <>) Since much of this unusual episode unfolded on austin.internet, a few people who haven't followed the multiple threads asked for a condensed version. So... with permission from Interactive Design Works(*), the summary below is excerpted from my column for their online publication. (*) Don't worry that you don't recognize IDW, a new online project alliance of Cox Communications and the Austin American-Statesman. The following was written for a new Austin-based Internet webzine. (I'm not supposed to say the name until the very last lawyer signs off, but we're currently in beta for a mid-November release.) And, despite recent talk of a new political sin - "domainism", this article is not intended as a general indictment of AOL or its many users. My main concern is directed at the rising level of destructive behavior on the net and consideration of possible ways to control it. AOL - PUTTING YUGOS ON THE INFOBAHN by Gene Crick Where do you suppose America OnLine finds so many genetic factory seconds? Like Castro dumping Marielitos, AOL has apparently perfected some technique of Un-Natural Selection as they continue to recruit idiots for the Internet; nowadays the only requirement for a free AOL account seems to be the opposed thumb needed to grip a diskette. Don't misunderstand. I believe absolutely that the Internet should be open to anyone, without requirement of great technical sophistication or the "right viewpoints". And we all know perfectly wonderful, smart and admirable people who use America OnLine accounts. But it seems amazing how many online trouble-makers turn out to have AOL accounts. Just my opinion? Unfortunately, no. Recent events painfully illustrate how one of AOL's half-baked cornflakes can cost everyone on the Internet... -|- The Distressing Saga of CyberHarpy and the UT Gateway -|- As you probably know, Mail-to-News gateways allow people across the Infohighway to share millions of messages daily. Displaced Austinites and others around the globe, for example, have kept up with local online news for years by using a free mail gateway maintained privately at UT. It was also used by groups and clubs around the world to keep in touch with members and activities. Not an official part of the University's computer operation, the gateway was offered strictly as a volunteer service of the UT site administrator. But this popular service is no more. And the people who used it are now out of luck. They've been "shrewed" - by one bitter AOL user. The problems began when Fletcher Mattox, respected UT computer site administrator, observed serious and continuing news group abuse from AOL-originated messages. (One day the UT mail-to-news gateway was crippled by a single AOL spam to more than 1,000 newsgroups.) So Mattox, at the suggestion of AOL officials, regretfully excluded the AOL domain from the UT gateway. He explained: "... our gateway has been the target of so much abuse (forgeries, spam, multi-level marketing scams, advertising, and just plain clueless posts to inappropriate newsgroups) by AOL users that I have blocked all mail from that domain." In later online discussion Mattox's policy decision was endorsed by Steve Blair, another veteran Austin site administrator, who observes: "Most of us running net.sites for more than 10 years have all had multiple abusive sessions with users from some of the public providers. AOL by and far continues to be the worst! " During the course of this thread, a number of other site admins also bemoaned the low general quality of users AOL brings to the Internet. Enter: A Poster Child for Prozac Unfortunately the reasons for Mattox's reluctant decision were soon confirmed by the response of one AOL user. In shrill (but inaccurate) public messages to as many as thirteen Usenet groups, she accused Mattox and UT of multiple offenses, primarily curtailing her rights to access of his unadvertised volunteer resource. Her charges bristled with "legalese" demands and thinly-veiled threats to get him fired. Spouting hell and spamnation, the Clueless Crusader demanded immediate details of UT computer operations, names of supervisors and policy makers, plus detailed local, state, and federal funding information. She charged discrimination and vowed merciless retaliation on Mattox and the University of Texas, including a dire threat: "Change your policy or read about yourself in the Austin Chroncicle (sic) -- and all over the net." Finally, her closing call to arms urged all 3,500,000 AOL subscribers, plus everyone else on the planet, to use email for attacking Mattox personally. With copies to her. Now I'm sure there are reasons for people to act like this. Maybe they feel psycho-socially shortchanged, perhaps by toilet training problems or insensitive counselors at summer camp. But I wish they would keep it off the Internet... So what's the harm? In this case, a significant loss for Internet users around the world. After nearly a decade of voluntary gateway development and operation, Fletcher Mattox has reluctantly decided to retire the cs.utexas.edu mail-to-news gateway, at least from general Internet availability. Mattox clearly states this recent AOL-delivered grief was by no means the sole reason for his decision - just the latest. And the last. He has decided enough is enough: maintaining a volunteer Internet gateway just isn't worth the aggravation anymore. The Villagers are Angry This announcement evoked even stronger reactions from a telecommunity already angered by the attack on a popular leader. Messages have been pouring in from netizens around the globe expressing: widespread gratitude for Mattox's years of contribution; sadness for the loss of the popular gateway; and disappointment that yet another worthwhile service is lost to abuse. [An added irritation stems from resentment of AOL marketing policy. Many charge that AOL sells access TO the Internet, yet gives little in return FOR the Internet.] Trying To Be Fair... The person who started all this did offer an apology (sorta), but she only distributed it to one or two of up to thirteen news groups where her accusations were originally posted. And most who commented termed her note insincere and unconvincing; their anger has not abated, both at this woman and at AOL for providing her access. Obviously, we can't truly blame America OnLine for the actions of one customer among their millions of responsible users. And Mattox reminds that AOL is only one source of Usenet abuse. He also reports AOL administrators have become much more responsive to these problems within the past year. We can only hope AOL will find better ways to deal with the problems. However, if AOL leaders can't come up with a successful plan, here are a few suggestions... AOL might add a question in the login string that asks: "Do your Mommy and Daddy know you're using the computer?" Or the InfoHighway might follow the student driver model and require AOL-origin message headers to warn: "Caution, Internet Trainee". (Some claim this would just be redundant for AOL domain addresses.) Better yet, they might try a solution proposed by Austin Usenet guru Bob Izenberg: "AOL should have a kiddie pool mini-Usenet, supervised, where new net citizens can learn what they need to know to play well with others, without spattering the neighbors with baby food as often as they do now." OTOH - Who knows? America OnLine may have a good reason for recruiting so many dufoids. After all, we've always heard that if you gave a million chimps a million typewriters, they would eventually write the perfect novel. Perhaps we should just be patient; AOL may be trying a similar tactic to build a better Internet.