Re: Effects of Marking/Delaying Nonsigned Posts

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Eric Hughes wrote:

> This afternoon I considered starting the initial delay at one minute
> and incrementing the delay by one minute each time a message gets
> delayed.  Perhaps the increment would be 15 or 30 seconds--whatever.
> The point is that the delay would ease in slowly and folks would get a
> chance to adjust.

A concrete basis for comment.

I post about 4 messages a day to the Cypherpunks list. Many others
post less than 1 per day, some only 1 every week or so. (And so on.)

Effects on Active Posters (4 or so per day): 4 x 15 seconds = 1 minute
after the first day = 30 minutes after the first month  = 3 hours
after the first 6 months = 6 hours after the first year

(Double these numbers if the "30 seconds" figure is used.)

Effects on Casual Posters: 2 per week x 15 seconds = 30 seconds after
the first week = 2 minutes after the first month = 24 minutes after
the first year


Pretty clearly, casual posters would not be significantly affected,
while active posters would be.

The desired intent? I doubt it. But typical of mechanistic attempts to
modify behavior. (Yes, seen on the Extropians list.)

--Tim May


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