Date   : Wed, 16 Oct 1985 08:29:00 MDT
From   : "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: Classified ads

Eric,

    When I post an ad to a non-arpa newsgroup, is it my fault that
    someone automatically forwards it to every defense site?  No, as
    long as i am not violating the rules of the local newsgroup, i
    can't be to blame.  Rather, it is the group of arpa folks who
    crave and subcribe to this newsgroup that have asked for extra
    baloney.

You have it backwards.  For the record, I started INFO-CPM at MIT-MC
as an ARPANET mailing list spinoff of INFO-MICRO on 29 August 1980.
The uucp newgroup was subsequently created to subscribe to this list.
The same sequence occurred earlier when I resurrected INFO-MICRO after
it had become dormant for about a year.  There are several other
newsgroups with similar ARPANET origins, such as HUMAN-NETS, the first
digest format mailing list and SF-LOVERS.

One of the reasons that several mailing lists went to digest format
was to filter out such for-sale messages to save the list from being
disbanded.  Over the years, both INFO-CPM and INFO-MICRO lists have
been occassionally hit with for-sale messages, with the subsequent
flurry of messages reminding people of the restrictions imposed on the
ARPA community and redirecting the poster to the apparently little
known and used for-sale or wanted newsgroups.  At times, there is even
a suggestion that these lists be converted to digest format to filter
for-sale messsages.  Unfortunately, no one wants to volunteer as the
burnout rate for moderators of high-volume lists is also high.

You ask if we can agree to disagree.  The answer is no.  For sale
message to newsgroups such as INFO-CPM and INFO-MICRO will not be
tolerated.  For-sale messages leaking into what is now called DDN
(Defense Data Network) is quite a serious matter.  There is mention of
it in netiquette, which every potential poster to a newsgroup should
read.  The consequences on the DDN side if users from a particular
host do not observe this restriction is to pull their connection from
the net.  This has never actually happened, but it has come close on
more than one occassion in the early years.  The consequences on the
uucp side is to drop the gateway.  We do not wish to do that.  But if
you insist on ignoring our restrictions, we have no choice.

--Frank