From: msattler@netcom.com (Michael Sattler)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 22:52:36 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Shocked at my reaction
Message-ID: <9310270517.AA22598@netcom.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


The following has nothing to do with writing code, but hopefully posting
this will get me back on track....  I wrote this several weeks ago and have
been sitting on it ever since.

L. Detweiler's contributions of late have made me re-examine my feelings on
a variety of email- and cyberspace-related issues.

I very strongly believe that everyone has an inaliable right to express
themselves, as long as that expression doesn't harm others or impede their
ability to express *themselves*.

Up to now the amount of trash-mail (as I determine it) has been less than
ten percent of my mail, an amount I equate with the real-world equivalent
of billboards and junk-mail.  L. Detweiler's uncanny ability to craft
flame-bait and get the CypherPunks to respond has increased the trash-mail
percentage to the point where it's entered my awareness.

Torn between respect for someone who has a reputation for having made
contributions, worry about someone who seems to have a slim grasp on the
reality I'm experiencing, and annoyance at getting scores of ranting
incoherent messages, I've made a decision that I've never made before: to
put someone (L. Detweiler) into my kill-file.  This bothers me a great
deal.

But there it is.

----------------
To L. Detweiler:  I'm sorry, but your style, content, and quantity values
have gotten to the point where it seems unrewarding to deal with you.  The
decision to banish you bothers me a great deal, but not as much as reading
your mail does.  If you're sincere about the biblical amount of pain you
are in, I gently suggest (in my capacity as an EMT with some
crisis-intervention experience) that you talk about your pain to a
qualified person, perhaps an MFCC.  If you're doing all this to get a
reaction (for maybe a book) like Don Novello's Lazlo character of the last
three decades (and several books), then congratulations.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael S. Sattler         msattler@netcom.com        +1 (415) 621-2903
Digital Jungle Software    Encrypt now; ask me how.   (finger for PGP key)

               All that is required for evil to triumph is
                for {wo}men of good will to do nothing.