Flare Sci-Fi Forums: They're trying to shut me down!

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Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

I've been here almost a year now, utilising the free access my university facilities provide to the internet. Fair enough, students need net access for their studies, etc. Some recreational use has alays been tolerated. I've never prevented anyone using a machine for an important work-related matter. Recently however they've fallen foul of students spending HOURS on line looking up rather dodgy sites and costing them a bomb. As a result, the priviledges of all students are endangered!

It's on the cards that from this Autumn students may have to pay for net access at an inflated rate. Access to more expensive (i.e. non-European) sites may even be blocked!

Outrageous? That's not the worst of it. There are creeping signs that they are beginning this process NOW. Netscape is vanishing from the machines in my department. Some kind of cache has been set up through which all sites are now accessed. Basically, every day I come in I find it harder to log on here. Add to this the constant irritation of gits leaning over my shoulder to try and read what I'm writing. Persons who look with bemusement at my relationship with Star Trek. (I'm sure you know the type). This is actually the third time I've tried to post this. The system crashed on the first, and someone started peering over my shoulder on the second, prompting a furious response from myself. (I do rather prefer to keep my net-correspondence restricted to those it is intended for).

Ultimately I estimate I have about 10 weeks left of net access before my "graduation" ensures I lose my login. I have no home computer, as my parents see no need for it.
"You've got a typewriter after all!"
(Admittedly I scarcely use the net aside from to come here).

I don't know where I'll be in 6 months time. Perhaps at another uni, but they may have a more restrictive net policy. I cetainly can't afford a machine & the UK's extortionate ISP charges on my meagre budget! So I'm faced with an unknown future, and the door to these forums where I can let off some steam and discuss things with, yes, friends of mine, is slowly closing. One day soon it will shut.

The bottom line: I'm feeling preety low today. <8-(

[This message was edited by Montgomery on April 06, 1999.]

Posted by Jubilee (Member # 99) on :

Few people seem to understand how important our net access is to those of us who come here regularly ... but I understand where you're coming from Monty, because I was threatened with the same thing last fall.

It's really a pity, I was rather hoping to get to know you better... and I hear there's something about your name, wich no one else will see fit to explain to me. *grin*

Seriously though...I know it bites. I'll be rooting for you over here in the States. Nothing is final until you're dead, and even then i'm sure the Goddess negotiates. *L*

Till then, enjoy the little amounts of access you have and piss off your university by spending as much time as you can down there in the computer lab. *L* ... I mean, You DO have to make a point, don't you? You're not going to let them get away with this without SOME sort of protest... right?

*HUGS* ... Don't feel down. None of us are going anywhere, with the exception of TSN, who I may kill. And i'm sure we'll miss eachother immensly. But you ever want to talk, you got an email address, an icq number, and I can give you a snail mail addy.

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If Galileo had lied to save his life, would America, or the West, or Space have been discovered?
And if Columbus had never set sail, would the Earth still be flat?

Posted by The Excalibur (Member # 34) on :

(Stunned)I would hate to lose contact. If you think you are going to be shut off, get a free mail address, and send it to me. Someone will let you check mail.

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The Naked Time

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

What uni you at Monty? All the uni's my mates are at have free net access. If they threatened to shut that down at mine, or any of theirs, ten minds of hell would be brought on those responsible.

I'm sure your not the only one upset. Get together with all the porn-fans and complain. Just make sure YOU do the talking.

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'Saying it in a stacato voice doesn't make it any more true'
-Stewart Lee

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

So they're going to charge extra for net access, huh? What would the kids in the Sixties have done?

Oh, yeah! Take over the Student Union and/or several other buildings on campus, until you change The Man's mind!

Of course, today, I suppose, they'd just get someone to hack into the administrator's accounts and render them utterly higgledy-piggledy.

("Higgledy-piggledy" means "a real mess.")

When somebody looks over my shoulder at what I'm typing, I usually stop a moment, then type "I'm sorry, but I have to pause here a moment and murder the guy behind me in a very nasty, bloody way."

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*I only SEEM Normal*

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Liam:
I'm at Glasgow. I'm afraid our students have a rather poor record for activism. i.e. They are apathetic about everything.

I can cope with going off-line over summer since it always gets a bit quiet then. But the prospect of remaining so into autumn and beyond is one I dread.

Thanks for the support, all the same.

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"I'm sorry I'm late....
I've been irrigating the desert...
Which isn't easy on your own."
- M&W

Posted by Curry Monster (Member # 12) on :

Ouch...that would have to bite.

I've never understood why the Europeans are charged by the minute for phone calls. But then everything over there seems ridiculously expensive..!

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I drink therefore I am.

-Descartes

Posted by StationMaster (Member # 63) on :

Trust me - everything is expensive over here.

Top Gear (a TV Car show) recently showed us how expensive things are.

Brand New RangeRover - UK list price - �53,000
In Europe - same car - List price - �39,000

Now perhaps you see just how bad the stinking country is............

As for the University - They should be on a Multiple OC3 Backbone - why the are cutting net access is beyond me.
I remember something similar coming up at Liverpool while I was there though.
Then again one of the computer staff at the time was downloading child porn and hording it - I think Scot Yard was investigating him........

Well, there are ways around it. See if there is a community college near you - they could offer free net access.

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---- AAARRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!----

I feel better now.

Posted by RW (Member # 27) on :

DAMN!I missed top gear yesterday!!!!!!!