Whew! The dangers of posting to Usenet

Wowie zowie, as we used to say.

There's an odd new group called "alt.gathering.rainbow" which has had
many highly-personal messages posted to "the Family." I'm not sure who
the Rainbower are, but I gather (pun intended) that they are some sort
of international band of hippies, gypsies, and newage flower power
people. I'm sure one or more of you will correct me if I'm wrong.

What's of ObList relevance is that many of them seem oblivous to the
fact that their posts are readable by the world....see the one below
and you'll see why I don't think Ms. Yamada knows her post to her
"sisters and brothers" is actually readable by us all. My hunch is
that a lot of newcomers have just gotten on the Net and are unclear on
the concepts.

I could be wrong. Maybe her account at Mindvox is a cut-out. Maybe she
knows but doesn't care. Judge for yourself:


Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!eff!news.duke.edu!convex!cnn.exu.ericsson.se!erinews.ericsson.se!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!uunet!dockmaster.phantom.com!rosaphil
From: rosaphil@mindvox.phantom.com (anna yamada)
Newsgroups: alt.gathering.rainbow
Subject: Jimmy The Greek's Dogs are Broiling
Date: Thu, 07 Jul 94 18:58:59 EDT
Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox)
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <1c94oc1w165w@mindvox.phantom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindvox.phantom.com
Originator: rosaphil@mindvox


	If anyone in Wyoming can get in touch with Jimmy the Greek
	who drives a ford F100 blue pickup truck with a large dent in it
	with vt. plates, please tell him Jenny Jump-up miscarried, the
	place smells like a charnel house, they are dehydrating, and by the
	time he returns, he might come home to a bunch of dead dogs--bubba
	included.

	It is 103 fahrenheit, and worse in that place and kurt is being his
	usually irresponsible self.

	also, Jerry Wade has turned La Plaza into a cesspool and the 
	11th street squat burned down completely and the flotsam are
	now living in La Plaza. It is noisy, dirty, hard-drug ridden,
	and Jerry is dealing dust outta there with abandon.

	There have been fights almost every day--very bloody--and we need
	Jimmy's *voice of reason*

	also, girlfriends, don't, if asked come bac to NYC to be Jimmy's
	sex-slave. The last one we had to rescue, and you may not be so lucky
	next time.

	Turtle, hi. pick me some flower seed-pods, okay? Look for the spent
	flower heads. Wildflowers and shrubs and rose-hips.

	PS: Jodi is moving in one of the crackheads from 11th street-a black
	guy named leanord or something. Talk about a fire-hazard. Bleah.

	This post is not a joke. Forward please to the appropriate parties.



          Gabrielli's ASCENZA White-Wine-Blend (Mendocino,CA): YUMMY!

        Send me rose-hips/bushes/perennial seeds if you liked this post.
	        Finger rosaphil@phantom.com to find out how.
 
               	* BETTER LIVING THROUGH BETTER LIVING *

> 
> Wowie zowie, as we used to say.
> 
> There's an odd new group called "alt.gathering.rainbow" which has had
> many highly-personal messages posted to "the Family." I'm not sure who
> the Rainbower are, but I gather (pun intended) that they are some sort
> of international band of hippies, gypsies, and newage flower power
> people. I'm sure one or more of you will correct me if I'm wrong.
> 
> What's of ObList relevance is that many of them seem oblivous to the
> fact that their posts are readable by the world....see the one below
> and you'll see why I don't think Ms. Yamada knows her post to her
> "sisters and brothers" is actually readable by us all. My hunch is
> that a lot of newcomers have just gotten on the Net and are unclear on
> the concepts.
> 
> I could be wrong. Maybe her account at Mindvox is a cut-out. Maybe she
> knows but doesn't care. Judge for yourself:
> 
  [Snip]

I did a telnet to the full address (less her name), and logged in
as guest.  She appears to be legit, so one could conclude she
doesn't care...although, truth be told, her message strikes me as
a reasonable example of 'obscurity'.

I was rather impressed by the services Mindvox offers...you might
want to take a tour...

Regards,

Dave

The alt.gathering.rainbow group is presently under attack by twits 
from alt.bigfoot / alt.syntax.tactical.  Or at least it was, the 
last time a cross-post hit a group I read.  The post you quoted looks
like flame-bait to me... I wouldn't take it seriously.

   Eli   ebrandt@hmc.edu

Tim,

	sounds normal for the Rainbow Family.  (bunch of hippies, wandering
the country, gathering in nudist fests every summer, ...)

	This seems tame compared to alt.recovery -- a relatively normal
use of a newsgroup -- getting the word out about situations which need
general attention from the readership of the group.

 - Carl

P.S.  I ran into a likely Rainbow list reader (or so I assume -- a woman
who lives in a hippie communue in Oregon) last Spring in Boston and
happened to tell her about Cypherpunks and what the fight is.  She sounded
very interested in the cause and wanted a PGP disk sent to her buddy with
the PC (whose name I forget).