Reputation Systems in Action

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:41 PM 9/11/96, paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk wrote:
>> tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) writes:
>> > As to "tasteless and insulting," a matter of personal perspective. I find
>> > it helpful to call a spade a spade, and others apparently do as well.
>> >
>>
>> Of course, Tim gets very uncomfortable when others call a spade a spade.
>
>
>This constant character assasination of Tim is getting rather boring,
>as far as I can see, and I read all of the posts on the list, he has
>done nothing more than ignore posts from these idiots, that is his
>choice and nothing to do with anyone else.

But this latest episode illustrates the role of reputations. Namely, my own
reputation is not being harmed by bizarre commentaries from the Vulis-bot.
As its reputation is (apparently) pretty low, and associated with Serdar
Ardic-style rants about "sovoks," "the cabal," and "spit," such an entity
can hardly "assassinate" my character.

A few years ago Larry Detweiler, aka "vznuri" ("visionary"), aka "S.Boxx,"
aka "Pablo Escobar," aka several other alternate personalities, wrote
dozens of screeds denouncing me, Eric Hughes, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, etc.
Did this have an effect on our reputations? Not to people I respected, of
course. And if Detweiler's rants affected my reputation with his peers,
including Dimitri Vulis, Ludwig Plutonium, Doctress Neutopia, Serdar Argic,
well, this is to the good.

In the mathematics of reputations, a negative reputation held by one whose
own reputation is negative is a positive.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."