JimCoplien cc'd me on this correspondence. He'd picked up on the X-Url line of the unsolicited email which implicated wiki as the source of his address. We all put addresses into wiki expecting useful correspondence with our peers. I hope we continue to do so. Thanks to Cope for drafting a strong but still polite reply. I might just use it myself should I happen to notice the source of my junk mail. --
WardCunningham
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 15:41:13 -0700
From: Jaye Romo <[email protected]>
Organization: ANDATACO
To: [email protected]
Subject: Introduction
X-Url: http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?JimCoplien
Cope,
Please allow me to introduce myself and ANDATACO. ANDATACO is the
largest 3rd party provider of storage and backup solutions for the Unix market.
For additional, visit our WEB site at www.andataco.com or call me
1-800-453-9696 ext. 1260
Best regards,
Jaye L. Romo
Dear Mr. Romo,
I see you got my name from the
WikiWikiWeb and used the electronic address
posted there to solicit my business.
The
WikiWikiWeb was set up by Cunningham and Cunningham as a forum for dialogue
on important issues facing the design and programming communities today,
engaging all who are interested in such dialogue. Using it for commercial
solicitation, particularly in an area that is pretty far afield from the
central design themes on this forum, is probably an inappropriate use of
the resource. Such use imposes on the good will of those who are providing the
forum as a public service. I'd suggest you refrain from further using
WikiWiki in this manner. I suspect that many of the people who participate
in
WikiWiki will be of like mind, and that such solicitation will end being
a disservice to you.
I think all comers are welcome -- even those representing commercial
interests -- to participate in the dialogue there, and we'd appreciate
your insights and involvement in the various topics there.
Thanks for your understanding.
-- Jim Coplien
Is there a statement of acceptable use of the contents of the material here (including email lists, etc)?
Are there Acceptable Use Policies?
As
WardCunningham wonders aloud above, I wonder how long an online community with such openness can last? Will the success of this community destroy it? (That's a
CommunityDeath pattern, ain't it?)
Its nice, IMHO, that there aren't a whole lot of formal rules - that tends to inhibit contribution and put off new entrants (like myself).
--
GabrielWachob
The Acceptable Use policies at
WikiWiki boil down to self-restraint and taste. Sadly, in the world at large, openness equates to vulnerability to vandals and overzealous vendors; the former use open communities as forums for "shitty" self-expression, and the latter for the huckstering of what is too often simply excrement, albeit in market-directed and finely wrapped form. I think it is quite a testimony to
WikiWiki folks that we have not experienced any vandalism and little commercialism. Cope's restrained and kind response to Mr. Romo exhibits the spirit of Wiki at its best; inclusive, accepting, and expecting that its spirit will inform the words posted to it. --
DonOlson