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IP: Could Online Chat Byte Back?
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 04:40:37 -0400
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
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