-=> Quoting Rob Szarka to Leonard Erickson <=-

 -=> Leonard Erickson spake unto John Mudge, saying <=-
 
 LE> The fact that Usenet started out as a bunch of *professionals* doing
 LE> it for "love" (look up the origin or the term "amateur"). And they
 LE> still expect "professionalism" from authors.

 RS> Actually, Usenet was originally put together by grad students (at Duke
 RS> and UNC).  Does that count as as "professionals"?  As a grad student,
 RS> I'd like to think so, but I don't expect most people would agree.

Well, I suspect that grad students in CS are a lot more "professional"
than the average Fido programmer. Professors are even *less* forgiving
than users when it comes to "bugs". :-)

Another way of looking at it is that Usenet grew out of the *original*
"hacker ethic". Fidonet did too, but got quickly sidetracked (mostylt\y
due to the lower maturity level of people involved, a natural
consequence of the "easier access").


... "Mumble mode set...Foo switch active...Checking phase of moon..."