Sat, 20 Mar 1993 01:33:38 +0100
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Before I go any further I want to make it clear that spoofing mail to a
list without leaving traces is not difficult if you know LISTSERV and
e-mail well enough, so lack of evidence proves nothing. Similarly, the
fact that Melvin would know how to do that doesn't imply he's done it
either, and I will have no gratuitous/unfounded UK-tabloids-like
mudslinging on this list.
This being said I will now inform you that it does look like someone or
something sent what was originally a private message to the list. Normal
messages go through MAILER@SEARN, whereas this one came directly from
[log in to unmask] If Melvin had done it and didn't care to have all the clues
point to him, this is what it would have looked like. On the other hand
Melvin could just as easily have made it look like it came from
MAILER@UGA to MAILER@SEARN, at which point we'd have logs that look
perfectly normal and your word/expertise vs his. Given the oopsy
situation, you'd have a hard time convincing the crowd that you did not
in fact send the message to the list, that your mailer did not screw up,
that your fingers did not slip to the wrong key in your emotional
outburst and that Melvin is such an evil person. You'd know the truth of
course but nobody would believe you and it would be very frustrating.
Looks like a much better retaliation than just retagging the file :-)
With that in mind I conclude that either the problem is due to some
unfortunate technical/computer screwup, or that Melvin did it but had no
desire to leave no traces and to hide this fact from us, in which case I
suppose he will speak up soon.
As for the lynching, if think it is inappropriate to forward private mail
to a mailing list when it is obvious from the contents that it was not
meant for the list, but I don't see that as a capital offense, maybe
because the newspapers and politicians do that all the time where I come
from. It has happened to me more often than I can remember. When you
insult someone in private, it is a good idea to weigh the use your
private communication may be put to by your antagonist vs the bad
impression they would be making if they forwarded your message to a
mailing list. I once received a pretty explicit death threat via e-mail
from a bozo (living in Sweden) and posted it to a public list to show the
kind of cretins that certain political parties produce. Guess who said I
should have asked for permission to repost a private message? :-) Well,
that's admittedly a rather extreme example, but you get the picture.
Eric
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