Re: Bombardier Beetles [was Re: Problem mail

Brian D. Harper (harper.10@osu.edu)
Fri, 31 Jan 1997 20:35:07 -0500

At 08:35 AM 1/31/97 -0500, I wrote:
>At 10:43 PM 1/30/97 -0500, I wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>>
>>Now let me turn to another question. What recourse do we have when
>>an un moderated group is abused in this fashion? Of course, there may
>>be some or even many who don't view this as an abuse. To check out
>>how people feel I'd like to conduct a little straw poll. Send me a private
>>e-mail giving your opinion on whether Steve is abusing the group with
>>this policy. No need to give your reasons, a simple yes or no will do.
>>I am particularly interested in hearing what lurkers think about this.
>>All replies will be held in confidence, though I will post the overall
>>results back to the group.
>>
>
>It was indicated to me privately that a better approach might be
>to give the results to Steve privately rather posting them to
>the group. I agree, so that is what I plan to do. I guess public
>hangings are no longer politically correct :). Actually, its not
>too clear whether the vote will come out as I anticipated.
>Right now its split 50/50, but the sample size is rather
>small {2} :).
>

In view of concerns expressed to me privately I want to clarify
another point. I obviously cannot speak for everyone who is
concerned about the mail bomber but I can say that I have
absolutely no intention of trying to drive Steve off the group with
this. I think this would be very deleterious to this group. My
hope was that if there is some type of consensus, especially
among lurkers or others who Steve would not consider an
adversary, then perhaps Steve would change his practice voluntarily.
If he chooses not to, that's fine. He can continue on his merry
way.

Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
Ohio State University