Re: How to handle a bully
HUFFMANS@MSUVX1.MEMPHIS.EDU
Mon, 01 Apr 1996 19:23:29 -0600 (CST)
>From: IN%"pcp@mailbase.ac.uk" 31-MAR-1996 10:59:51.42
>Subj: How to handle a bully
>
>
>Sy Balsen wrote, in response to messages on how to handle harassing messages
>on this mailbase:
>----------------------------------------------------
>"I,for one, simply hit the delete key and leave his mail unread."
>----------------------------------------------------
>
>Then Suzanne Huffman wrote:
>----------------------------------------------------
>"Until recently, this has been my choice -- and I mean this in terms of GAK's
>corollary -- and I intend to resume this method. So Bill, flame on if it helps
>you elaborate your system, but I'm not reading another single word you write.
>As soon as I see your address in the header, that post is history."
>----------------------------------------------------
>
>Then Devi Jankowicz added:
>----------------------------------------------------
>"Yes, the most sensible thing to do with Bill Chambers is to ignore each
>item he posts."
>
>"Then nothing he writes will be read: even the occasional sensible mailing
>which slips through his self-destructiveness."
>
>"I shall be returning each one directly to him unread, in the faint hope
>that he reads what he's written, and reflects on it."
>---------------------------------------------------
>
>I still have serious concerns re: etiquette on the mailbase, and even went
>back to the message that gets sent to all new mailbase members when they join.
> It states
>---------------------------------------------------
>"In addition, without the normal channels for social restraint, some members
>are tempted to 'flame' those with whom they disagree - making criticisms
>and personal remarks that would be unlikely to be voiced in a face-to-face
>discussion. Careful and frequent attention to on-line etiquette is
>required to minimise these deficits."
>---------------------------------------------------
>
>I cite this because recently I have been wondering whether or not telephone
>harassment (i.e. making recurrent intimidating and abusive calls) is free
>speech the same way that mailbase harassment (i.e. sending recurrent
>intimidating and abusive e-mail posts) has been dubbed free speech. Certainly
>there is a good deal of subjectivity in where free speech ends and harassment
>begins. I just want to raise the issue, since I think the young internet is
>currently struggling to define such things more fromally, and ultimately will.
>
>Perhaps all this is unnecessary, because I, too, like Suzanne, Devi, and others
>before them, will no longer even read any of Bill Chambers' messages. I guess
>you really can't argue with a bully; his kind are indestructable, and always
>have been.
>
>Adios, Bill. Your posts are history on my computer. Flame on, angry man, but
>I'm no longer listening.
>
>JON RASKIN
>(fondly known to friends as "Big Daddy")
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%