F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 9 (2 March 1992) The newsletter of the | FidoNet BBS community | Published by: _ | / \ | "FidoNews" BBS /|oo \ | (415)-863-2739 (_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1 _`@/_ \ _ | Internet: | | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org | (*) | \ )) | |__U__| / \// | Editors: _//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings (_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar (jm) | ----------------------------+--------------------------------------- Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews. Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00US Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free! For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ..................................................... 1 Editorial: None of the error(s) was found ..................... 1 2. ARTICLES ...................................................... 2 The Joy of Handles ............................................ 2 Bashing the Beliefs of Others in FidoNews ..................... 15 A Day in the Life of a Different Teenage SysOp ................ 19 3. LATEST VERSIONS ............................................... 23 Software List ................................................. 23 4. FIDONEWS INFORMATION .......................................... 29 FidoNews 9-09 Page 1 2 Mar 1992 ====================================================================== EDITORIAL ====================================================================== Editorial: None of the error(s) was found. by Tom Jennings (1:1/1) Once again, this week's FidoSnooze is being automatically generated. Most likely, you'll get only one copy (I don't often repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. repeat the same painful mistake. This time I'm certain that nothing will go wrong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 9-09 Page 2 2 Mar 1992 ====================================================================== ARTICLES ====================================================================== The Joy of Handles Mahatma Kane Jeeves 101/138.8 David Lescohier 101/138.0 THE JOY OF HANDLES ------------------ or: EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ME (but have no right to ask) -------------------------- * * * * * We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear irresolute and cowardly. But, at the same time, we should avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than which nothing can be more foolish. [Cicero] * * * * * Do you trust me? If you participate in computer conferencing, and you use your real name, then you'd better. "Why?", you ask. "What can you do with my name?" To start with, given that and your origin line, I can probably look you up in your local phone book, and find out where you live. Even if you are unlisted, there are ways to locate you based on your name. If you own any property, or pay any utility bills, your address is a matter of public record. Do you have children in the public schools? It would be easy to find out. But that's just the beginning. Former Chairman of the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission David F. Linowes, in his book "Privacy in America" (1989), writes of New York private investigator Irwin Blye: FidoNews 9-09 Page 3 2 Mar 1992 "Challenged to prove his contention that, given a little time and his usual fee, he could learn all about an individual without even speaking with him, Blye was presented with a subject -- a New Jersey newspaperman.... The result was a five-page, single- spaced, typed report which documented, though not always accurately, a wide sweep of the journalist's past, and was detailed to the point of disclosing his father's income before his retirement." Who am I? If I don't post, you might not even know I exist. I could be on your local Police Department, or an agent working with the IRS, or some federal law-enforcement agency. I could be a member of some fanatical hate group, or criminal organization. I might even be a former Nixon White-House staffer! I could be that pyromaniacal teenager you flamed last weekend, for posting a step-by-step description of how he made plastic explosive in his high-school chem lab. He seemed kind of mad. But you're an upstanding citizen; you have nothing to hide. So why not use your name on the nets? Trust me. There's nothing to worry about. Is there? * * * * * WHAT'S ALL THIS BROUHAHA? ------------------------- Stupidity is evil waiting to happen. [Clay Bond] Not long ago in Fidonet's BCSNET echo (the Boston Computer Society's national conference), the following was posted by the conference moderator to a user calling himself "Captain Kirk": "May we ask dear Captain Kirk that it would be very polite if you could use your real name in an echomail conference? This particular message area is shared with BBS's all across the country and everyone else is using their real name. It is only common courtesy to FidoNews 9-09 Page 4 2 Mar 1992 do so in an echomail conference." One of us (mkj) responded with a post questioning that policy. Soon the conference had erupted into a heated debate! Although mkj had worried that the subject might be dismissed as trivial, it apparently touched a nerve. It brought forth debate over issues and perceptions central to computer communications in general, and it revealed profound disparities in fundamental values and assumptions among participants. This article is a response to that debate, and to the prevailing negative attitudes regarding the use of handles. Handles seem to have a bad reputation. Their use is strangely unpopular, and frequently forbidden by network authorities. Many people seem to feel that handles are rude or dishonest, or that anyone wishing to conceal his or her identity must be up to no good. It is the primary purpose of this article to dispel such prejudices. Let us make one thing perfectly clear here at the outset: We do NOT challenge the need or the right of sysops to know the identities of their users! But we do believe that a sysop who collects user names has a serious responsibility to protect that information. This means making sure that no one has access to the data without a legal warrant, and it certainly means not pressuring users to broadcast their real names in widespread public forums such as conferences. * * * * * SO YOU WANT TO BE A STAR? ------------------------- John Lennon died for our sins. [anonymous] Andy Warhol said that "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes". The computer nets, more than any other medium, lend credibility to this prediction. A network conference may span the globe more completely than even satellite TV, yet be open to anyone who can afford the simplest computer and modem. Through our participation in conferencing, each of us becomes, if only briefly, a public figure of sorts -- often without realizing it, and without any contemplation of the implications and possible consequences. FidoNews 9-09 Page 5 2 Mar 1992 Brian Reid (reid@decwrl.DEC.COM) conducts and distributes periodic surveys of Usenet conference readership. His statistical results for the end of 1991 show that of the 1,459 conferences which currently make up Usenet, more than fifty percent have over 20,000 readers apiece; the most popular conferences are each seen by about 200,000 readers! Mr. Reid's estimate of total Usenet readership is nearly TWO MILLION people. Note that Mr. Reid's numbers are for Usenet only; they do not include any information on other large public nets such as RIME (PC-Relaynet), Fido, or dozens of others, nor do they take into account thousands of private networks which may have indirect public network connections. The total number of users with access to public networks is unknown, but informed estimates range to the tens of millions, and the number keeps growing at an amazing pace -- in fact, the rate of growth of this medium may be greater than any other communications medium in history. The special problems and risks which arise when one deals with a large public audience are something about which most computer users have little or no experience or understanding. Until recently, those of us involved in computer conferencing have comprised a small and rather elite community. The explosion in network participation is catching us all a little unprepared. Among media professionals and celebrities, on the other hand, the risks of conducting one's business in front of a public audience are all too familiar. If the size of one's audience becomes sufficiently large, one must assume that examples of virtually every personality type will be included: police and other agents of various governments, terrorists, murderers, rapists, religious fanatics, the mentally ill, robbers and con artists, et al ad infinitum. It must also be assumed that almost anything you do, no matter how innocuous, could inspire at least one person, somewhere, to harbor ill will toward you. The near-fatal stabbing of actress Theresa Saldana is a case in point. As she was walking to her car one morning near her West Hollywood apartment, a voice behind her asked, "Are you Theresa Saldana?"; when she turned to answer, a man she had never seen before pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed her repeatedly. After her lengthy and painful recovery, she wrote a book on the experience ("Beyond Survival", 1986). In that book she wrote: FidoNews 9-09 Page 6 2 Mar 1992 [pg 12] "... Detective Kalas informed me that the assailant, whom he described as a Scottish drifter, had fixated upon me after seeing me in films." [pg 28] "... it was through my work as an actress that the attacker had fixated on me. Naturally, this made me consider getting out of show business ..." [pg 34] "For security, I adopted an alias and became 'Alicia Michaels.' ... during the months that followed I grew so accustomed to it that, to this day, I still answer reflexively when someone calls the name Alicia!" Or consider the fate of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg, who in 1984 died outside his home in a hail of gunfire. Police believe he was the victim of a local neo- nazi group who didn't like his politics. We are reminded of the murders of John Lennon and Rebecca Shaffer; the Reagan/Hinckley/Foster incident; and a long string of other "celebrity attacks" of all sorts, including such bizarre events as the occupation of David Letterman's home by a strange woman who claimed to be his wife! There is probably no one in public life who doesn't receive at least the occassional threatening letter. Of course, ordinary participants in network conferencing may never attract quite the attention that other types of celebrities attract. But consider the following, rather less apocalyptic scenarios: -- On Friday night you post a message to a public conference defending an unpopular or controversial viewpoint. On Monday morning your biggest client cancels a major contract. Or you are kept up all night by repeated telephone calls from someone demanding that you "stop killing babies"! -- You buy your teenage son or daughter a computer and modem. Sometime later you find your lawn littered with beer bottles and dug up with tire marks, or your home vandalized or burglarized. -- One day you are nominated to the Supreme Court. Who are all these strange people on TV claiming to be your friends? How did that fellow know your position on abortion? Your taste in GIFs? Celebrities and other professional media personalities accept the risks and sacrifices of notoriety, along with the benefits, as part of their chosen careers. Should computer conference participants be expected to do the same? And who should be making these decisions? FidoNews 9-09 Page 7 2 Mar 1992 * * * * * OTHER MEDIA ----------- When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome [Cervantes] Older media seem to address the problems of privacy very differently than computer media, at least so far. We are not aware of ANY medium or publication, apart from computer conferencing, where amateur or even most professional participants are required to expose their true names against their will. Even celebrities frequently use "stage names", and protect their addresses and phone numbers as best they can. When a medium caters specifically to the general public, participants are typically given even greater opportunities to protect their privacy. Television talk shows have been known to go so far as to employ silhouetting and electronic alteration of voices to protect the identities of guests, and audience members who participate are certainly not required to state their full names before speaking. The traditional medium most analogous to computer conferencing may be talk radio. Like conferencing, talk radio is a group discussion and debate medium oriented toward controversy, where emotions can run high. Programs often center around a specific topic, and are always run by a "host" whose role seems analogous in many respects to that of a conference moderator. It is therefore worth noting that in talk radio generally, policy seems to be that callers are identified on the air only by their first names (unless of course they volunteer more). Finally, of course, authors have published under "pen names" since the dawn of publishing, and newspapers and magazines frequently publish letters to the editor with "name and address withheld by request" as the signature line. Even founding fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, in authoring the seminal Federalist Papers in 1787 for publication in the Letters columns of various New York City newspapers, concealed