FROM:	Michael T. Griffith, 74274,650
TO:	Anthony Marsh, 72127,2301
CC:	Paul J. Burke, 74656,2333
	Ed Dolan, 74030,3022
	M. Duke Lane, 76004,2356
DATE:	9/10/94 3:13 AM

Re:	JFK Forum Closure

Dear Fellow Researchers,

I am writing you to urge you to ask CompuServe to restore the JFK
Assassination Forum.

I am quite dismayed by the closing of the forum, and I think there were
alternatives to simply shutting the whole thing down.  If there were
certain members who spent their time attacking other members, then
they should have been expelled from the forum after fair warning.
If there were members who were not following the forum rules in other
ways, then they too should have been expelled after fair warning.

In my opinion, it was needless and unfair to close the forum because
of the actions of some of its members.  What about all those members
who did not engage in personal attacks?  What about those who followed
the rules?  What about those who were contributing serious research?

Frankly, the closing of the forum strikes me as bordering on
censorship.  I certainly don't condone name-calling and other personal
attacks.  But, on the other hand, the forum was no more spirited and
heated than the assassination dialogues on Internet's WELL and those on
Prodigy, yet those forums are not closing.  We're all adults and are
free to ignore any messages we choose.

In effect, the forum managers have punished all those members who were
following the rules and enjoying the forum's research opportunities in
order to punish those members who weren't.

I have already written to CompuServe Customer Service to strongly
protest the closing of the forum.  I suggested that the forum be
reopened, with different managers, and with the clear understanding
that those who violated the rules in any reopened JFK forum would be
expelled after fair warning.  I urge you to do likewise.  If enough
of us complain about the closure, perhaps the forum will be reopened.

So, again, I urge you to contact customer service (via GO FEEDBACK
or on the phone) and request that the JFK Assassination Forum
be reopened.

Mike Griffith