IP: Could Online Chat Byte Back?

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Could Online Chat Byte Back?



> A CEO's Rush to Edit the Past Illustrates Perils of Posting



> By John Schwartz



> Washington Post Staff Writer



> Thursday, October 7, 1999; Page A01




> Shortly after noon, James Rutt begins erasing himself.
> Rutt, chief executive of Network Solutions Inc., the Herndon-based 
> company that keeps the master directory of Internet addresses, has 
> connected his desktop computer to the Well, a California-based 
> online service that he had used as a virtual corner bar since 1989. 
> He visited daily to chat, joke and spar with members of one of the 
> sharpest communities in cyberspace.



> The Well is a talker's paradise, with thousands of discussions 
> grouped under hundreds of topics: politics and media, parenting, 
> cigar, Grateful Dead and sex, and, simply, weird. And Rutt was a 
> huge talker: Contributions from "jimrutt" over the years print out 
> to more than 200 pages.



> Anyone who pays a few dollars a month could join the Well and read it all:
> The personal postings about Rutt's struggles with what he calls the 
> "battle of the bulge," having dropped from 360 pounds to 180 in 
> 1997: I am now almost exactly half the man I used to be.



> What Rutt calls his "Goldwater Republican" politics, with a Limbaugh 
> twist. For Clinton, whom he voted for in 1992, he has no use. It's 
> his character. The guy was a draft dodger, he is a liar, he is a 
> hypocrite . . . Harsh words, especially for an executive at a 
> company that got its prominent role in maintaining many of the 
> essential functions of the Internet directly from

.....

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/07/153l-100799-idx.html