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NANOG Community,<br>
The issue of altering the NANOG Archive has come up and I wish to
present Merit's position on the matter. <br>
<br>
The NANOG Acceptable Use Policy as it currently stands includes the
following:<br>
<br>
1. Discussion will focus on Internet operational and technical issues
as described in the <a href="http://www.nanog.org/charter.html">charter</a>
of NANOG.
<br>
2. Postings of issues inconsistent with the charter are prohibited.<br>
:<br>
4. Postings that include foul language, character assassination, and
lack of respect for other participants are prohibited.<br>
:<br>
<br>
The part of the post in dispute is not operational or technical and
clearly shows a lack of
respect for a participant. The subject of the post and not the poster
requested that we remove his name from the post in the Archive. Merit
has decided to replace the subject's name with "NAME REMOVED". Since
this post was not allowed, we believe that we are correcting our
mistake in a way that we
think has the least impact on the integrity of the archive. We are not
removing the post
itself. The poster's name and the rest of the text are intact. The
topic of the post is still clear even though the individual targeted is
not. Operational or technical content was not modified.<br>
<br>
We have considered a number of things in making this decision
including: the age of the post, the reason for the request and Merit's
legal exposure. We let the Steering Committee know what we were
doing. If you disagree, do not blame the Steering Committee although
we consulted with the Steering Committee, it was my decision.<br>
<br>
This issue has been helpful in that it pointed out some shortcomings in
our policies and notification mechanism. We are working with the
Steering Committee to address those now. <br>
<br>
We are not
removing a thoughtless post at the request of the poster and do not
anticipate doing so in the future. <br>
<br>
This issue is unique and does not represent a blanket policy. Any
request to modify the archive is a serious issue that requires
consultation with the Steering Committee and must be balanced against
the loss of archive integrity.<br>
<br>
See you at NANOG 38!<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Don
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">Donald J. Welch, Ph.D.</font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">President & CEO</font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">Merit Network, Inc.</font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1"><a
href="http://www.merit.edu">www.merit.edu</a></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">734-764-8450</font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">1000 Oakbrook Drive</font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="1">Ann Arbor, MI 48104</font></div>
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