Sales pitches on RADSAFE

[melissa (M. Woo)]

Radsafers -

Thank you for all of your responses; I apologize for not answering each
individually, but a general posting seemed more appropriate.

Unsolicited advertisements/sales pitches are not welcome on RADSAFE.
Please note that I am specifying UNsolicited ads.  When a request for
information is made by a member of the list, it would be appropriate for a
vendor or representative to answer with a brief message and contact
information, if the message can be considered of general interest to
the nearly 650 subscribers to RADSAFE.

As an aside, I cannot screen messages prior to inclusion on RADSAFE; the
listserver automatically processes the messages as they are received.  I
can probably ban addresses or entire hosts to prevent recurring problems,
but I'd like to think that we are all adult enough that I shouldn't have to
become as draconian as I am when I'm on the job (a little health physics
administrative humor here, folks).

Reasoning behind the decision:

1. The majority of respondents were against ads on RADSAFE; many of them
were quite vehemently opposed.

2. I am gating this Internet list to a Fidonet echo as a service for those
who do not have Internet access.  Fidonet is an amateur, hobbyist, and
a network which does not approve of commercial ads.

3. The list and the bbs (to which the messages are gated) are not financially
supported by the Health Physics Society or any other professional society.
The support for romulus (the listserver machine) and phantom (my work
machine which also runs the bbs in the background) is "sponged off" of the
UIUC Div. of Environmental Health & Safety.  I cannot in good conscience
allow equipment supported by campus funds to carry commercial
advertisements.  Additionally, the future of the listserver, bbs, gopher
server, ftp server, and Web server are already shaky for reasons that are
more appropriate for a separate message; suffice it to say that I do not wish
to jeopardize their existence further.


I apologize for the length of this message, but I wanted everyone to know
the reasons behind the decision to keep unsolicited ads off of RADSAFE.

Thanks to all for your patience!

-- 
Melissa Woo                       | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Health Physicist                  | Environmental Health & Safety Bldg., MC225
office phone: 1.217.244.7233      | 101 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL  61801
m-woo@uiuc.edu                    | http://www.cso.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo