14.0 Now that I have users, how should I deal with them?

NOTE: I AM NOT THE WORLD'S GREATEST EXPERT ON THESE ISSUES OR ANYTHING. IF YOU WANT TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, BE SURE TO ASK A LAWYER ABOUT ANY DISPUTABLE PROVISIONS HERE.

14.1 How should I introduce my users to the unique Internet culture?

This is really a matter of USENET, electronic mail and mailing lists, since most other resources are purely read-only. I had some long conversations with a number of people heavily involved in net administration, and they asked me to convey the following to new users of the Internet:

* Tell them not to post for about two weeks to a month. It takes a while to understand what's going on in the unique Internet culture. Absorb what's going on before beginning to speak.

* Read Frequently Asked Questions files (FAQs) before asking for help. There's a wealth of information there.

* Read the messages on news.announce.newusers. They give you a lot of great information on how to pose questions properly and how to get the most out of your access.

It should also be emphasized that, although the guidelines on mailing lists are very much dependent on the list itself, generally users should conduct themselves therein by following the same basic rules as on USENET. Because mailing lists generally attract many fewer posters than newsgroups, and since the software used to read them is usually more primitive, "flaming" and other anti-social practices can cause considerably more harm to a list than a newsgroup.

14.2 What sort of disclaimers do I need to protect myself?

[legal matter - our legal advisor should answer this]

14.3 How should I deal with Netiquitte violations?

There are as many different opinions on this issue as there are system administrators. The general rule, however, is quite simple: a single complaint can probably be safely ignored as a dispute between users and not true wrongdoing on the part of your user. Multiple complaints should be investigated, and proper warnings given. Only after a user has received complaints about multiple incidents should his account be in true danger.

As a general rule, your user is innocent until proven guilty. Many obnoxious groups, such as the infamous alt.syntax.tactical crowd, will complain to you about a perfectly innocuous user in an effort to get her or him kicked off.

The law firm of Canter & Seigel was kind enough to tell us all about their Immigration Law services a few months back. Many of us appreciated their help so much that we wrote to thank them personally for the information. :-) Unfortunately, so many people were so effusive in their thanks that they filled up the entire mail disk of C&S' service provider!

With the kind of blatant nastiness of C&S, there is really no excuse not to drop them straight away. Indirect did basically all the right things in their response to the C&S incident:

* Yanked the C&S account instantly.

* Posted messages to news.admin.misc and other appropriate groups telling the world about their response. This helped stop the mail bombs and other attempted punishments of Indirect.

* Set up a gopher server with fuller information about the incident.

(I welcome additional information on dealing with problem users and such)

14.4 How should I deal with disputes between users?

Unless it looks like they are going to physical blows, you should ignore most of these disputes. Dealing with physical threats is a more serious matter. I have actually had that problem on a BBS I operated, and my course was to ignore them. What I actually should have done is open to debate, and I'd like to hear opinions from others who have faced similar problems.

Next section: Wanton Women and Straightlaced Crusaders: Pornography on the Net