Cascading aliases

[Hal <74076.1041@CompuServe.COM>]

I think Matthew Rapaport's point is good that much of the trouble with the
automatic assignment of aliases comes from the automatic mailing to the user
of a new alias.
 
Most of the remailing servers have a special address or command you can send
meaning "assign me a new alias, and tell me what it is".  Probably, as
Matthew says, they should only mail back the newly assigned alias when one
of these special commands is used.
 
I'm still not convinced that automatic alias assignment should always
be done when mail goes through a server from a new address.  It seems like
this might generate so many aliases that it would be too great a load on the
servers, especially if remailers become more widely used.  But it's hard to
say how bad a problem this is.
 
I feel that the main purpose of an anonymous address is to protect the
anonymity of the person being addressed, not people who send to him.  Just
because a person chooses to be anonymous is no reason to expect that
everyone who wants to talk to him also wants to be anonymous.  I think it
would be better to only provide anonymity when asked.  Systems that do too
much for people sometimes get in the way.
 
Hal Finney
74076.1041@compuserve.com
 



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