commercial advertisements on the mycology discussion group

[Clifford Brian Odom]

Eric Robb Siegel (esiegel at UNIX1.SNCC.LSU.EDU) wrote:
: On 28 May 1996, Jack Murphy wrote:

: >         It seems that there has been an increase in the number of commercial
: > advertisements that have found their way into our group lately.  I may be
: > overreacting, but I'm bombarded enough with advertisements and would like to
: > do what I can to discourage this practice.  My first inclination is to send
: > numerous long messages back to these advertisers, as a way to fill up their
: > RAM or hard drive or modem or whatever and waste as much of their time as
: > they have ours.  Is this a bad idea?  Does anyone more internet-literate
: > than I have any suggestions how we as a community can discourage this 
: > behavior?> 

: It is an interesting idea.  The most effective way to apply it, however, 
: is as *individuals*, not as a community.  I would assume that any action
: taken by a central (or other) authority in the name of this user group 
: would generate just one dissuasive response.  The same action, taken 
: instead by individuals, could generate potentially hundreds of dissuasive 
: responses.  

: And when we as individuals take this action, we avoid whatever 
: complications might arise from designating, or being saddled with, 
: an authority to act in our name.

: How to act?  One can quickly generate a candidate "dissuasive response" 
: by appending to a Reply a long, yet non-hostile file such as the 
: <biosci at net.bio.net> FAQ sheet on how to subscribe, how many groups to 
: subscribe to, etc.

: Eric Siegel

May I suggest another "posting". I like to send people a copy of the 
UNABRIDGED "Moby Dick" by Melville. I got it from project Gutenberg as a 
single file. They have literally hundreds of other great works available 
for download and forwarding.

Just my humble $00.02.

Brian
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