Greg Burch: Time to Act

Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:06:21 -0700

Dear Mr. Burch:

Everyone who has been reading the list for the last month knows of the flamewar which culminated in your posted announcement of Thu, 10 Jun 1999 10:57:23 EDT, to wit:

>PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY:
>
>As a temporary measure in response to the extreme number of postings that
have been generated
>by a small number of posters on a single topic, the subject of "guns" will
be considered
>off-topic for the list for a period of two weeks beginning on Saturday,
June 12, 1999 at 12:01
>am PST. Again as a temporary measure, any posters continuing existing
"gun" threads, starting
>new ones or raising the subject of "guns" in existing threads during this
two-week period will be
>unsubscribed from the list for a period of three months. Please note that
this prohibition will go
>into effect in a little over 24 hours. Accordingly, there is plenty of
time to draft a civil, reasoned
>summation of whatever views any subscriber may wish to express and post
them to the list.
>
>Because this is a temporary measure intended to restore balance and
civility to the list, I will be
>the sole judge of whether a post during the period is in violation of the
prohibition on posts
>concerning "guns". If you have any doubt regarding whether a message you
are considering
>posting to the list may be in violation of this temporary prohibition, it
probably is: Hold your
>breath, count to ten and let whatever you have to say wait until we work
out some way to
>accommodate this discussion in a way that does not flood the list.
Substituting discussion of
>some weapon other than a hand-held chemically-powered projectile device
for "gun" will not
>make a post acceptable during this brief cooling-off period. Everyone with
enough intelligence
>and emotional maturity to be a welcome poster to this list should know
what subjects will be
>considered temporarily off-topic.

Below is a list of posts/authors which I believe to be in violation of the prohibition on posts concerning "guns".

I therefore formally request that, as stated above, and subject to your discretion, the offending parties be unsubscribed from the list for the specified three months.

In some cases it may be that the offending parties were unaware of the prohibition, which fact should bear on the action taken. In other cases it is clear that the offending parties were and are fully aware of the prohibition, and chose to ignore it.

If whatever action you choose to take does not cure the problem, I recommend that repeat offenders be prohibited from posting altogether.

Respectfully, Jeff Davis

List follows:

>Re: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns
>EvMick@aol.com
>Sun, 13 Jun 1999 01:13:42 EDT

>Re: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns
>Eric Ruud (ejruud@ucdavis.edu)
>Sat, 12 Jun 1999 23:13:25 -0700

>Re: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns
>Timothy Bates (tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au)
>Sun, 13 Jun 1999 16:42:45 +1000

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Timothy Bates (tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au)
>Sun, 13 Jun 1999 19:16:20 +1000

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Raymond G. Van De Walker (rgvandewalker@juno.com)
>Sat, 12 Jun 1999 00:46:12 PDT

>Re: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
>Sun, 13 Jun 1999 20:22:48 -0500

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)

>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:31:47 -0500

>Re: G*n cam (Was Re: High-tech weaponry)
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 19:10:21 -0500

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 22:49:06 -0500

NOTE: Though the above post was in a prohibited thread, it had no "gun" content.

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 23:04:40 -0500

NOTE: Content specifically acknowledges prohibited nature of this post

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 10:49:59 -0700 (PDT)

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:39:26 -0400

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>CountZero (count_zero@bigfoot.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 17:23:58 -0400

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>EWyatt794@aol.com
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 17:36:34 EDT

NOTE: Though the above post was in a prohibited thread, it had no "gun" content.

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 15:15:41 -0700 (PDT)

NOTE: Though the above post was in a prohibited thread, it had no "gun" content.

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 15:55:30 -0700

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:14:21 -0700

>Re: Yeah, guns and guns (especially directed to Joe and Mike)
>Mark Phillips (clay8@hotmail.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 17:53:29 CDT

>G*n cam (Was Re: High-tech weaponry)
>den Otter (neosapient@geocities.com)
>Tue, 15 Jun 1999 01:39:57 +0200

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 20:37:07 -0500

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 20:11:21 -0700 (PDT)

NOTE: Though the above post was in a prohibited thread, it had no "gun" content, nevertheless, Gene should know better.

>Isher (was Re: High-tech weaponry)
>Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 21:12:00 -0700

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 22:45:58 -0700

NOTE: Though the above post was in a prohibited thread, it had no "gun" content.

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Doug Jones (random@qnet.com)
>Mon, 14 Jun 1999 22:19:36 -0700

NOTE: Content is non-guns, and suggests that Doug is not aware of the "guns" prohibition.

>Re: High-tech weaponry
>Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
>Tue, 15 Jun 1999 01:00:04 -0500

NOTE: Prohibited thread, however, content specifically addresses the ongoing lack of enforcement of the "gun" thread prohibition.