Let's do it.

Oct 6 06:55 UTC 2004

Recently enough, a certain Grex staff member was a bit confused.

He thought, see, that /etc/passwd files, which don't actually contain any
passwords, were somehow dangerous things.  In his confusion, he incorrectly
believed that having such things posted on Grex would somehow compromise the
security of Grex and other systems.

No-one but him believed this to be the case.  Indeed, many people much more
experienced in system administration than him came forward to verify that
/etc/passwd files being posted on Grex was a perfectly harmless activity. 
He now rightly believes this truth.

However, in his confusion -- when he thought that something good was wrong
-- he naturally and nobly attacked what he believed to be wrong.  He did this
by freezing the accounts of users who were posting /etc/passwd files.

Let me make something clear at this point.  No-one would rightly condemn the
staff member for doing something he thought was good and just and beneficial
for the system.  Indeed, he should only be condemned for acting contrary to
what he believes to be good and just and beneficial for the system.

The problem, then, isn't with the actions that were taken.  Instead, the
problem is that certain actions weren't taken after the staff member was led
up the rocky incline into the world of truth and justice and true and just
forms.  In his confusion, he had unjustly caused damages to certain people
by freezing their accounts.  Now that we all realize this action was unjust,
we should surely attempt to restore it and make ammends.  This can be done
quite simply.  All it would take is for a staff member to take five minutes
to reset the accounts and communicate the login information to people whose
property was unjustly destroyed.

This should, I think, be done to-day.

response 2 of 40:

Oct 6 11:39 UTC 2004

I predict David is not going to last very long at the University
of Toronto. 

response 4 of 40:

Oct 6 18:08 UTC 2004

Lock 'em up and throw away the [encrypted] key...

response 6 of 40:

Oct 6 18:41 UTC 2004

re #1
"Losing a login is a penalty for juvenile
 behaviour, its like a slap on the wrist"
Its more like a monkey see, monkey do when you consider the staff wastes their
time following around those they don't "like".

response 8 of 40:

Oct 6 21:38 UTC 2004

And the moon isn't even full...

response 10 of 40:

Oct 7 01:54 UTC 2004

I should probably respond quickly, before I forget all about this.  I've
somehow acquired the unfortunate habit of forgetting everything you say
moments after I read it.  I don't actually remember anything about this
incident you are talking about, which suggests either that the account
involved was one of yours, or that I've forgotten that there are other people
I forget just as rapidly.  If it should happen to have been you, then it
appears that you have acquired another account somehow, and are going along
just spiffily, so there really seems to have been no great harm done.  I
can't remember how many accounts you've had so far, but it seems like quite
a lot.  You'd probably start feeling all itchy if you had the same account
for four months in a row.  So, if you were harmed at all, then it was just
a teeny tiny little harm.  Posting a passwd file to the conferences is a
teeny tiny harm too.  In the context of a conferencing system, it's basically
littering.  All sorts of people who would like to be reading conferences
find themselves reading an ugly load of gibberish instead.  So a teeny tiny
harm was done, and a teeny tiny harm was received and ...

What was my point again?  Dang, I forgot.  But I suspect I'm happier that way.

response 12 of 40:

Oct 7 02:38 UTC 2004

re: 0,7,9,11:

too stupid; didn't read

response 14 of 40:

Oct 7 03:12 UTC 2004

Well, I'm sorry I annoyed you.  In retribution for my sins, I'll say something
nice:

    You, mfp, are my favorite user.

There.  Now we are all even-steven and we can forget the whole subject,
whatever the heck it was.

response 16 of 40:

Oct 7 05:04 UTC 2004

Also things like posting passwd files and posting plato's republic over a
hundred times can be interpreted as an attempt to slow down the system by
filling up its disk space (which is limited after all)  What looks like fun
to one person can look like vandalism to another

response 18 of 40:

Oct 7 05:47 UTC 2004

I like the last item in the feme conference

response 20 of 40:

Oct 7 18:05 UTC 2004

Hey, mfp posted an /etc/passwd file, freeze his account, NOW!

response 22 of 40:

Oct 10 13:38 UTC 2004

[Has "kerl" caught on yet? I've been using it all the time in the hope 
that everyone in the legal system hereabouts will adopt it. I even 
threw it into a few depositions, and employed it in trial testimony in 
New York City recently. You know, it might not seem like much, but 
these teeny tiny steps are how history is made, you know?]

Anyhow, fwiw, I agree with David that the accounts of his that were 
deleted on account of his being an asshole should all be reinstated. 
If "being an asshole" were in itself sufficient cause to have one's 
account deleted, then rcurl and md, to name only two prominent and 
beloved Grexers, would've been deleted ages ago. Need I even mention 
jp2, twinkie, happyboy and the others?

Here's a suggestion: to help gather the assholery all in one place, I 
suggest that all of David's deleted accounts be reinstated and turned 
over to me. Just reset the passwords and email me the list of id's and 
passwords, and I'll take it from there.

response 24 of 40:

Oct 11 06:00 UTC 2004

I don't get it.  :(