ADMIN: f.rat, etc.

[f. rat]

Dear Mr Cohen,

I do appreciate (sincerely) your comments on list behaviour, and while there is
much, much more I could say regarding others' misinterpretation (deliberate?) of
my words of humour and inspiration I would just add that ratcheting emotions is a
painful and soul-destroying affair, and whilst I will attempt to keep my heartfelt
ramblings under some sort of control, I find my own ways of dealing with my own
emotional needs work best for me. Any misinformation or misrepresentation of
activities by yourself as "criminal" without an excuse for me to respond with a
reasoned and moderate explanation and interpretation in a rational and informed
light of my own "words" would be frowned upon by many in the world of karma and
light which exists in a world where mutual co-operation may be seen as expedient
and necessary to someone in your position, sir.

Cheers

F Rat

P.S. In a world where free speech and emotional entanglement are a) a hard-won
commodity and b) an apparently inescapable reality I would be grateful if you
could put this mail forward too as part of my campaign to put right previous
wrongs and have restored my full and uncensored inclusion in the group.

Ben Cohen wrote:

> For f.rat (and others), here's the deal:
>
> Some of the messages that he sent were, to put it nicely, somewhat
> inflammatory. If I were being less nice, I would say that they were at least
> deranged. In any event, as I've warned previously, my response was swift and
> harsh - I forcibly unsubscribed him. He then resubscribed.
>
> Since I was unwilling to allow him to continue to rant while I was not
> continually monitoring the list, I immediately placed him on "REVIEW". This
> means that all of his attempted postings to the list would be sent to me first
> for moderator review. Once I approve them (provided that I do, in fact,
> release them), I can tell LISTSERV to allow them to be posted to the list.
>
> To be honest, his actions / reactions following this have not prompted me to
> particularly want to even continue viewing his messages. As far as I can
> determine, he has: 1) accused me of stifling free speech; 2) misrepresented
> someone else's character; 3) forged email.
>
> In response to (1) - yes, there is free speech in the US. However, this is not
> a forum which is, of necessity, protected by it. This is a mailing list run
> for the benefit of the subscribers at the whim of the moderator. If you don't
> like it, please feel free to start up another mailing list where you can say
> anything you'd like to and everyone who subscribes needs to listen to it.
> Free speech protection says that I can't shut down your own mailing list; it
> doesn't give you the right to crap on mine.
>
> I won't deal with (2) since that's up to the injured party to decide how he
> wishes to proceed, however I will say that failing to apologize for it is
> unlikely to make me want to restore your mailing list privileges here and may
> serve to further reduce them.
>
> As for (3), if you continue forging email (and I now have evidence of at least
> 2 instances, 1 of which I received), I will have no compunction whatsoever
> about turning the information (including mail logs and other evidence) to the
> proper authorities. Given the current climate, I'm sure they will be ecstatic
> to chase down anyone who has committed any form of computer crime.
>
> f.rat - if you wish to discuss this reasonably, you are more than welcome to
> contact me directly at <ben at tmk.com>. If you wish to be unreasonable, I will
> remove your posting and reading rights from the mailing list and contact your
> ISP since I would believe that there is a possibility you are in violation of
> their Appropriate Use Policy. If you wish to continue perpetrating criminal
> activity, the appropriate authorities will be informed. Consider this a clear
> message that you would best be served by ratcheting down your emotions and
> attempting to be a civilized being.
>
> Ben Cohen
> moderator, BOC-L