Although
few like to admit it, we've all had an AOL account at one point
or another. If you still have that AOL account and need yet
another reason to switch, read the following email I recieved
from my parents during my tenure with an AOL account:
From: "Crut's Parent's"@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: Terms of Service
Crut,
Please let us know who violated the TOS and what they did. If
it was you, please discipline yourself appropriately.
Dad
The
forwarded message was a message from AOL's Terms of Service
person saying
that one of the screen names had violated
the Terms of Service (TOS) and to obtain further information
about
the TOS violation check the master account for an email with
the details. Now the master account is the name I use, so I
wonder off
to check my AOL mail for the first time in a month. The following
is
from that email :
Subj: Terms of Service
From: CATRep434
Dear Member,
I
need to let you know that America Online received the following
report regarding a Terms of Service violation via instant message
to
another member. Here is the information I have placed on the
account regarding this incident:
On
5/3/99 8:00:00 PM the (Crut's sister) screen name sent an instant
message to another Member of America Online. The
following is an excerpt from the instant message: " (Crut's
sister): a
dumbass " . . . .
Thanks
for taking the time to read this letter. Please note, this
screen name cannot accept replies. Therefore, if you have any
comments or questions please send mail to TOSGeneral@aol.com.
Oddly
enough, I never recieved any reply to my reply:
To: TOSGeneral@aol.com
Subject : Re : Terms of Service
I
recived an email from a person who enforces TOS for AOL that
informed me that "On 5/3/99 8:00:00 PM the (Crut's
sister) screen name sent an instant message to another Member
of America Online. The following is an excerpt from the instant message: " (Crut's
sister): a dumbass ".
From
what the email I got sent I can't even tell if she called the
person she was talking to a "dumbass" or was calling
someone else a "dumbass" behind their back. My parents
raise miniature horses and we know many, many people who raise
donkeys, so while not grammatically correct, she could have even
been talking about someone's not so bright animal. For the time
being
though,
I
am
going to assume that the "dumbass" reporter would not
go through the
effort to report to TOS, my sister for calling their donkey a
bit on the
slow side, although if they were really attached to thier ass
I suppose they could.
What
part of TOS does using the word "dumbass" break?
Would perhaps a "smartass" not been a violation of
TOS because it
implys intelligence whereas the "dumbass" was more
insulting? Or
was the "ass" part below the AOL TOS accepted standards
for
language? In that case wouldn't the context be important because,
as mentioned before, the word "ass", just like "tit", "cock", "head", "
lay" and "cummerbund", have many different meanings
depending upon the context, unlike words like "fuck", "shit", "piss", "Billy
Ray Cyrus" and "cunt" which
always are considered vulgar by a majority of the public, regardless
of the context.
If
at all possible I would like to have a more clear explanation
on how the word "dumbass" is a violation of AOL TOS.
Also if there was no
context of the use of "dumbass" provided to AOL TOS
personnel by the"
dumbass" reporter, you may wish to change the "dumbass" policy
so that other people don't report the similar and you will not
have the same "dumbass" problem or the same "dumbass" misunderstanding
in the future.
Thank you,
Rabbi Crut
