Community standards for email anonymity

[Marc.Ringuette@GS80.SP.CS.CMU.EDU]

Good point, Ted, what we're after is some "community standards"
for cyberspace, and what I'm suggesting is the fairly libertarian
standard that goes like this:

    Prefer technological solutions and self-protection solutions
    over rule-making, where they are feasible.

This is based on the notion that the more rules there are, the more
people will call for the "net police" to enforce them.  If we can
encourage community standards which emphasize a prudent level of
self-protection, then we'll be able to make do with fewer rules and
a less intrusive level of policing.

Some more specific versions of this:

      Self-protection                       Protection via rules
      ---------------                       --------------------

 "Don't read the newsgroup 	       Forbid all newsgroups which a
 if it offends you"                    reasonable person would find offensive.


 Allow anonymous posting       Use software to           Forbid all
 in all newsgroups; use        allow anonymity in        anonymous posting.
 information filters.          some groups only.     


 Handle volume bombs by                Track down volume bombs
 using digital postage and             and disconnect the offender.
 information filters.                   


 Trace harrassing notes to          Tell people to just ignore or filter
 the source.                        out harrassing material.


I guess it's a matter of preference.  I wonder if it's asking
too much to achieve general agreement among us cypherpunks?


-- Marc Ringuette (mnr@cs.cmu.edu)