One of the (many) reasons it tanked so early out of the gate is due to the internet. When Star Trek V was out in theaters, people still went to see it before they knew just how dumb it would be. Now, with the wonders of the internet - everyone can check reviews, see Joe Commoner's opinion, read tons of rants, etc.
The word of mouth on this movie was so bad, I'm sure it kept many people at home.
I'll respond to your message, at the risk of branching off topic.
Sky Dayton is not only still with the company, he's Chairman of the Board. I'm pretty certain the position of Chairman has a large amount of influence in the direction and operations of the company.
No, the company may not be 100% owned by Scientology, but they have significant control - and members of their cult have been placed in key executive and managerial positions. They also provided most of the startup funding for the company before it went public.
The terminology "unofficial investigation" means just that. There are employees of Earthlink who have informed outside sources of practices within the company. Some of those employees are investigating on their own.
Please note that at no time did I state that these were anything other than rumours. The intelligent reader can do their own research and form their own opinions.
Please do not ask me to cite my references, as we all know what Scientology does to people who speak out against them.:) And I'm not about to give a list of names for you to go after.
It is interesting to note that Earthlink is owned by Scientology. This story is especially timely. There is an unofficial investigation underway into the rumour that Scientology maintains a separate set of email servers on Earthlink's network that mirror all email traffic sent to or from it's subscribers. The purpose of which is to scan for Scientology related (read: disparaging) messages.
The rumour is that the server farm is at an offsite location, which only Scientology has access to. The explanation given to the employees of Earthlink about this offsite facility is that it is an "offsite backup" location.
The problem is not @Home's news servers. They are not "open". They only allow postings from @Home's customer base. The problem is that the customers themselves have proxy software running that they haven't bothered to secure.
The one solution that might make sense is for @Home to secure their news servers with an authentication method required each time a client wishes to read or post. They can tie this password with the users email password in their database. This should help defeat the proxy spam problem.
Some may argue that it is @Home's responsibility to educate their customers - which I partly agree with. But this process takes time, and is not an easy task.
Take two million computer illiterate households who decided to jump on the internet so they could buy books and cd's for grandma and grandpa for Xmas. Now picture Junior installing wingate or some other proxy software on mom and dad's machine so he could irc from both home and school. Of course, Junior didn't bother to secure the proxy - but that's neither here nor there. Now picture the difficulties involved in the ISP educating this household in what went wrong and how to fix it.
The USENET community should have patience and provide assistance. It's the UDP itself that has forced @Home to take such drastic action as shutting down news access to it's customers who have misconfigured proxies. So maybe folks should think twice before they scream about @Home "blaming" it's users. The last thing any company wants is bad customer service. The UDP forced the issue, and forced @Home to take this stance.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure @Home could have been more responsive in the past... but keep in mind that the USENET community at large probably would not be privvy to @Home's behind the scenes activity; Nor would they be intimately aware with the number of emails or phone calls the @Home abuse department has made to their customers to correct misconfigured proxies.
The bottom line (IMO) is that USENET has given @Home an ultimatum, and @Home is responding. But this is not the sort of problem that @Home can fix overnight. The nature of their service and the shared network topology inherent in the cable network design create some unique security hassles. Everyone should do their best to understand the nature of the work required before they blast @Home for being unresponsive or for just not caring.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the (many) reasons it tanked so early out of the gate is due to the internet. When Star Trek V was out in theaters, people still went to see it before they knew just how dumb it would be. Now, with the wonders of the internet - everyone can check reviews, see Joe Commoner's opinion, read tons of rants, etc.
The word of mouth on this movie was so bad, I'm sure it kept many people at home.
Sky Dayton is not only still with the company, he's Chairman of the Board. I'm pretty certain the position of Chairman has a large amount of influence in the direction and operations of the company.
No, the company may not be 100% owned by Scientology, but they have significant control - and members of their cult have been placed in key executive and managerial positions. They also provided most of the startup funding for the company before it went public.
The terminology "unofficial investigation" means just that. There are employees of Earthlink who have informed outside sources of practices within the company. Some of those employees are investigating on their own.
Please note that at no time did I state that these were anything other than rumours. The intelligent reader can do their own research and form their own opinions.
Please do not ask me to cite my references, as we all know what Scientology does to people who speak out against them. :) And I'm not about to give a list of names for you to go after.
Cheers!
The rumour is that the server farm is at an offsite location, which only Scientology has access to. The explanation given to the employees of Earthlink about this offsite facility is that it is an "offsite backup" location.
Just something to think about.
The one solution that might make sense is for @Home to secure their news servers with an authentication method required each time a client wishes to read or post. They can tie this password with the users email password in their database. This should help defeat the proxy spam problem.
Some may argue that it is @Home's responsibility to educate their customers - which I partly agree with. But this process takes time, and is not an easy task.
Take two million computer illiterate households who decided to jump on the internet so they could buy books and cd's for grandma and grandpa for Xmas. Now picture Junior installing wingate or some other proxy software on mom and dad's machine so he could irc from both home and school. Of course, Junior didn't bother to secure the proxy - but that's neither here nor there. Now picture the difficulties involved in the ISP educating this household in what went wrong and how to fix it.
The USENET community should have patience and provide assistance. It's the UDP itself that has forced @Home to take such drastic action as shutting down news access to it's customers who have misconfigured proxies. So maybe folks should think twice before they scream about @Home "blaming" it's users. The last thing any company wants is bad customer service. The UDP forced the issue, and forced @Home to take this stance.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure @Home could have been more responsive in the past... but keep in mind that the USENET community at large probably would not be privvy to @Home's behind the scenes activity; Nor would they be intimately aware with the number of emails or phone calls the @Home abuse department has made to their customers to correct misconfigured proxies.
The bottom line (IMO) is that USENET has given @Home an ultimatum, and @Home is responding. But this is not the sort of problem that @Home can fix overnight. The nature of their service and the shared network topology inherent in the cable network design create some unique security hassles. Everyone should do their best to understand the nature of the work required before they blast @Home for being unresponsive or for just not caring.
Lonnie