Re: Hardening lists against spam attacks

[David Molnar <bigdaddy@shell.skylink.net>]

On Tue, 31 Dec 1996, snow wrote:

> Babayco wrote:
>      This is cypherpunks, if we can't be bothered to use crypto software,
> then how can we tell others they should? 
	Do you think there is a difference between encouragement and dogma?
Sorry. I apologize for my emotional involvement; I find this issue 
annoying, mainly because it will affect me directly. 

> 
> > what about people who post to and read the list from someplace other than 
> > their home computer, like school or work?  I have access to this account 
> > from my college, but I'm sure not going to leave my keys lying around 
> > my account just so I can post to a mailing list.
> 
>      Seperate key for that account/mailing list.
	What about those without persistent storage? Many computer labs 
in schools and libraries choose to install security software of some 
sort. This causes their machines to behave in odd ways, insofar as they 
find and delete all foreign data. A variant of the same quirk prevents 
one from recognizing any but a select set of applications, no matter 
where they are placed.

Netscape is one of these apps. PGP is not.

My only access to e-mail, during much of the year, is through just such 
a lab. As a result, I am in the unenviable position of using hotmail.com and 
mailmasher.com for most of my correspondence. Even if it were possible to 
install PGP on these machines, there is no provision as yet for the kind 
of integration possible with, say, Eudora, PIdaho, or pine. Special 
client software might ameliorate the problem, but will not be installed 
without much administrative hand-wringing.

I am fortunate enough to have my own computer. I can create messages 
there w/PGP and then bring them to a networked computer for sending. My 
chances of doing so are about equal to the chance that UNLV will win the 
Rose Bowl next year. 

The simple fact is that I am lazy. I respond to messages on cypherpunks 
spontaneously, as I see topics of interest (and this is one of 'em!). 
Rather than somehow forcing me to spend more "thought" and "energy" in my 
posts, these kinds of measures will create frustration and 
disillusionment, _ESPECIALLY_ when things fail to interface correctly and 
cause my messages to bounce. I have no patience for such arbitrary criteria.

Making message delivery harder will not magically cause me to spend more 
time on the actual composition. It will simply take time away from the 
next message. I try to spend a fair amount of time on each post 
already...why should I be penalized for attempting to contribute?

In any case, what bogeyman are we worried about, anyway? Pseudonyms? This 
list is already full of 'em. That's nothing new. Forged messages? If you 
trust anything you read on the Internet...well.. Privacy? It's a public 
mailing list, and one which I have long respected for its tradition of 
openness and inclusion.
<casts nervous glance>

Sorry about the ranting, but as I noted above, my own ox is being gored 
here. :-) 

-David Molnar