From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 93 12:11:06 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: (fwd) anonymus@charcoal.com is going away
Message-ID: <9308201907.AA26206@netcom5.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Submitted for your consideration....


Message-ID: <Aug201408031993@charcoal.com>
Date: 20 Aug 1993 18:08:05 GMT
From: Karl_Kleinpaste@charcoal.com
Organization: Charcoal Communicators, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Newsgroups: alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.personals,alt.sex.movies,alt.sex.fetish.feet,alt.personals.ads,alt.sex.bondage,alt.personals.bondage,soc.bi
Followup-To: alt.privacy.anon-server
Subject: anonymus@charcoal.com is going away
Reply-To: anonymus+admin@charcoal.com


I got off the phone a while ago with someone who is responsible for
mail at a large southern university.  He called me because he is being
pressed for action regarding anonymous mail sent through charcoal.com.
It seems that there is a dweeb at this university who is sending
anonymous "secret admirer" mail.  Two of the five recipients of this
sort of mail have raised the issue through university channels as
harassment, and at least one of those is in the process of dealing
with the police because it correlates uncomfortably closely with
harassing phone calls and other incidents going down.

This mail admin, having looked through his system's mail logs for
sources of the trouble, observed that one individual has repeatedly
sent mail to anonymus+clear@charcoal.com, and sometime shortly
thereafter mail comes back for these recipients, on the same machine.
(Yes, really.  This person is sending questionable anonymous mail to
people on the same system as himself.  No joke, though I wish it was.
It's a Big Bluish Beastie.)

So while I was unwilling to identify the originator of the mail
myself, the admin identified him for me by login name, and he was (no
surprise) correct.  The individual in question is going to get at
least a stern talking-to by Those Who Matter.  It is hoped that the
police can be kept at bay, and that more of that university's channels
will not be exercised in this process.

This comes on the heels of my having had to chase down incidents in
the last week or two...
        ...someone sending half-Mbyte uuencoded core files via
           anonymus+clear
        ...having had to extinguish a couple of individuals due to,
           e.g., repetitious reposting, and personals posted outside
           alt.personals*
        ...another report of anonymous harassment whose details I
           do not feel I am at liberty to disclose at all.

anonymus@charcoal.com is going away.  My heart is no longer in it,
because I am unwilling to ride herd on this ridiculous minority of
totally cluefree individuals who seem to believe that they are somehow
superior to the rest of the universe and can do things that are
clearly against the requirements I stipulate in the info sheet.  The
potential for repercussions against myself as admin is far too high
when I am informed that police are already involved -- I was much too
close to such a situation 10 months ago.

This server will cease operation on 31 Aug.  It is my belief that
other anon servers operate in all of the groups currently supported
here.  Users have 10 days to make other arrangements.

More and more, I am convinced that life as a hermit is preferable to
life on the network.  It is amazing how far one's attitude will fall
following one phone call.

Please respect Followup-To:.  Feel free (feel encouraged) to
disseminate this notice wherever appropriate.  This note is being
posted to alt.privacy.anon-server and those groups which have received
50+ postings in the life of the current news transfer log, less
alt.sexual.abuse.recovery (which happens to be far and away in the #1
slot of such a list).

--