response 103 of 149:

Jan 21 19:51 UTC 2006

Listen, if the government becomes more draconian in its attempts to 
regulate the 'net, grex may one day be REQUIRED to verify all users.  
As it is, some terrorist living in the U.S. could log on to grex using 
an anonymizer to hide his location, and using an anonymously generated 
login, and pass along terrorist information to his people back at 
home.  It is safer than calling them on the phone since we all know 
they wiretap international phone records now.  

Also someone who is into child porn and wants an email to use for such 
correspondence, would be far safer using a Grex email than a Yahoo or 
Hotmail email.  Grex doesn't require any verifiable personal info to 
take out a login.  I am sure the Homeland Security Department would 
love to shut a place as open as Grex down, if they were aware of it.

response 105 of 149:

Jan 21 21:42 UTC 2006

 Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?

response 107 of 149:

Jan 22 03:28 UTC 2006

I really doubt grex is on anyone's anti-terrorism radar.

response 109 of 149:

Jan 22 10:14 UTC 2006

Re #99: Dan: Dial-up access is an essential part of Grex's chritable mission
for a number of reasons, not least of which is that we told the IRS it was
an essential part of our charitable mission.  If we were to eliminate our
phone lines, we would have to notify the IRS, and they might cancel our
501(c)3 status.

response 111 of 149:

Jan 22 16:36 UTC 2006

Regarding #109; Huh?  That's a thin argument, I think.  I do see where
dialins are mentioned on the application for 501(c)3 status, but it also
seems to me that that could be amended in light of changes in technology
and undue financial burden that would jeopardize the rest of grex's
mission, etc.  Note that no where in the articles of incorporation are
dialins mentioned; only computer conferencing.  Regardless, I'm not sure
why removing the dialin lines is at issue right now.

response 113 of 149:

Jan 22 18:11 UTC 2006

Re #110: M-Net's application was different than Grex's.  The rules say that
if you change your charitable activities, you must notify the IRS of the
change.

Frankly, I think keeping those dialins open is the most charitable thing
that Grex does, and I'm proud that we do it.

response 115 of 149:

Jan 22 18:40 UTC 2006

Re #114: Charity rarely makes economic sense -- if it did, it wouldn't be
charity. So long as there are users who use the dialins, I think they should be
left open. (If it were between closing the dialins and closing the Internet
link I would be in favor of the latter, personally, but I suspect I'm in the
extreme minority on that point.)

response 117 of 149:

Jan 22 19:06 UTC 2006

Re #116: I didn't say that. It *would* be performing a charitable function,
however.

response 119 of 149:

Jan 23 05:41 UTC 2006

User's from .edu domains can be checked against the institutuion' online
directory.  Public access users would not be listed there.  At the University
of Michigan, public access users cannot e-mail.

response 121 of 149:

Jan 23 07:28 UTC 2006

 re #119:  
 Strictly hypothetically, let's imagine that someone logs in and tries
 to send 10,000 spam messages from an IP address that reverse-lookup
 tells us belongs to a student computer lab at a large public university,
 for example UCLA.  What good do you suppose that knowledge does us?
 Do we know who to contact at potentially any .edu-listed institution
 across the country if we have a problem?  Will that person respond to
 our inquiries?  Even if we do and even if they would, who's going to
 be willing to spend their time trying to track down each spammer that way?

 I'll grant that people connecting through a .edu address might be less
 likely to spam than other users (I don't know that for a fact, or have
 any real reason to believe it, but I'll certainly admit the possibility
 and even accept it for the sake of argument..)  But so what?

response 123 of 149:

Jan 23 17:42 UTC 2006

Without proof? You bet.

response 125 of 149:

Jan 23 20:35 UTC 2006

I think triludaa has some Weapons of Mass Disturbance.