From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 18:56:30 PST
To: jamesd@netcom.com
Subject: Re: Scientologys Attempts
Message-ID: <9501190254.AA07887@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> > > who has the authority to remove alt. groups?

jamesd writes:
> Anybody has the power.  Nobody has the authority.

More precisely, anybody has the power to send a rmgroup message,
just like anybody has the power to send a cancel message.
Aside from ettiquette and ethics, the question is 
whether most of the news servers out there will respond to them,
which is a local decision.

The last time I ran a news server was in B News days, so your mileage
may vary, but responses to newgroup and rmgroup messages can be
turned on and off.  I used to leave them turned on; not only did
new groups appear on my system without manual intervention,
but the Great Renaming took care of itself automatically on my box.

> [...] This is a classic case of net abuse.
Yep.  rmgroup wars happen occasionally on the net,
usually about alt.joe.newuser.die.die.die and other spam groups
run by (or about) people with more spare time than taste.
The difference here is that it's part of an organized group-sponsored
censorship attempt, rather than an individual squabble,
so it retains some degree of classicity.

		Bill