Re: Basic Rules

Bob MacDowell (bobmacd@netcom.com)
Tue, 22 Oct 1996 22:05:26 -0700

>> 4) Commercial advertising, chain letters, virus alerts or personal flames
>> are strictly forbidden! Take a look at the list of suitable topics at
>> the end of this posting.

>I would hope the warning about the scams is ok. I am very gratefull to
>know about such things. I also think a virus alert would be good to know.
>Why is it on the forbidden list? I'm still new to this stuff so I'm just
>trying to educate myself.

There are a lot of "general interest" things that are very tempting to
repost because they are of provocative and germane, and they demand to
be posted everywhere. For instance:

- An incredibly dangerous new virus which travels by e-mail

- Help a dying young boy break the world record for get-well cards

- A terrible new tax on modems that can be averted if you act now!

- An amazing way ordinary people can turn $5.00 into $50,000 or more

- Vote [for, against] a place where NAZI SKINHEADS can speak freely!

- Share a cookie recipe that Nieman-Marcus overcharged a customer for

And I see these on mailing lists all the time! Always by well-meaning
people who didn't know they were propogating an obsolete message or
a hoax. (since that memo circulated, the boy got better and grew up.)
But even if they aren't urban legends, it comes back to this:

The mailing list is about harps! :-) And the Net is so big that
no matter what you're interested in, it has a place.

-Bob