Re: We are ALL guests (except Eric)

[eric@remailer.net (Eric Hughes)]

   From: cactus@bb.hks.net (L. Todd Masco)

   What makes this a difficult issue to call (for me) is that you have
   partial authority as an "original founder," a much more persuasive position
   than the bureaucratical "list maintainer" status.  

Thank god you didn't capitalize those.

   I think the question is not whether you desire liberty and independence
   but whether you desire the company of those who value liberty and
   independence strongly enough to abandon this forum at the slightest
   perceived breach of their autonomy.  

I don't.

I apply Tim's Calvinist Stoicism stance to this situation.  Put
crudely, if people bolt at the first sign of encroachment, fuck 'em.

There is a matter of degree here which is quite important.  A small
notification in the header of the message is hardly much at all.
Preventing a message from going through, however, is a qualitatively
different thing.  If there are people who can't tell the difference,
or worse yet, who won't acknowledge it, I'm not going to feel too
unhappy.

   I think that you'll probably be able to pull off some compromise: the
   one that I like most is that of an independent agent or two, automatically
   checking all signatures and occasionally admonishing those who don't
   use them.

That and simple notification in the header.  I am as yet undecided
which one I think might come first.

   The former would even be a valuable tool with far wider
   application than cypherpunks, esp. if written such that it could be
   used on newsgroups or even over NNTP.

Well, I did say today that I'll get the thing working on my own
personal mailbox first.

   The thing that's particularly alluring about the independent agent idea
   is that you don't have to (ab?)use your position as list maintainer to
   implement it,

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.  On one hand, harmony is
maintained.  (I hear the guffaws too.)  On the other, the message
isn't nearly as strong.  To reiterate, I am willing to use my
position to send a stronger message.

   OTGH, pgp is a bigger
   cycle-sucker than I necessary want to have running all the time on our
   poor little microVAXen.  

Yet another reason to have an less-than-fully secure key for that location.

Eric