NODE 93acee74Scientologys Attempts
danisch@ira.uka.de (Hadmut Danisch)Tue, 17 Jan 95 00:24:16 PST
I just had a view into the alt.religion.scientology and
alt.clearing.technology newsgroups. There are some messages
about a Scientology decision to shut down every internet traffic
about Scientology. If the messages are true, Scientology sent
rmgroup Control messages to remove the groups.
The request to stop the remailers seems to come from the
same people...
Hadmut
NODE ac26a77fRe: Scientologys Attempts
Charles Bell <quester@eskimo.com>Tue, 17 Jan 95 03:01:38 PST
On Mon, 16 Jan 1995, Hadmut Danisch wrote:
>
> I just had a view into the alt.religion.scientology and
> alt.clearing.technology newsgroups. There are some messages
> about a Scientology decision to shut down every internet traffic
> about Scientology. If the messages are true, Scientology sent
> rmgroup Control messages to remove the groups.
>
> The request to stop the remailers seems to come from the
> same people...
>
After reading the lawyer's threatening letter I tried to check out the
two newsgroups mentioned, and was told they do not exist. (This is not a
local filter here; Eskimo does not censor newsgroups.) So have they been
deleted? If so, by whom and how? What is 'rmgroup' and who has the
authority to remove alt. groups?
Charles Bell
NODE 45adf384Re: Scientologys Attempts
Jeff A Licquia <jalicqui@prairienet.org>Tue, 17 Jan 95 07:46:34 PST
On Tue, 17 Jan 1995, Charles Bell wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Jan 1995, Hadmut Danisch wrote:
> > I just had a view into the alt.religion.scientology and
> > alt.clearing.technology newsgroups. There are some messages
> > about a Scientology decision to shut down every internet traffic
> > about Scientology. If the messages are true, Scientology sent
> > rmgroup Control messages to remove the groups.
> >
> > The request to stop the remailers seems to come from the
> > same people...
> After reading the lawyer's threatening letter I tried to check out the
> two newsgroups mentioned, and was told they do not exist. (This is not a
> local filter here; Eskimo does not censor newsgroups.) So have they been
> deleted? If so, by whom and how? What is 'rmgroup' and who has the
> authority to remove alt. groups?
An 'rmgroup' is a control message used by Usenet when a group needs to be
removed globally. Etiquette suggests that only big, important people
should send these out, but technically anyone can send one.
I followed the Scientology debate with little interest until yesterday,
when I fired up my newsreader and was asked "Subscribe to new group
alt.religion.scientology?" At that point, I knew that the real war had
begun. :-)
From what I was able to ascertain here, an rmgroup was sent out, followed
soon after by a newgroup (or two or three or...). My news server doesn't
honor newgroups in the alt hierarchy automatically as a rule, but did so
in this case for some reason.
News server: news.cso.uiuc.edu, on the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign campus.
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