Re: Anonymous Mailing Lists

[Toto <toto@sk.sympatico.ca>]

Michael C Taylor wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Toto wrote:
> 
> >  If a list operator can program a remailer to send only to their
> > own list, then they can make it a subscriber and allow people who
> > fear being discovered to post their concerns through it anonymously,
> > and advertise its existence in places where those most likely to
> > need it will find out about the service.
> 
> Is there a combo-solution existing, an self-anonymouizing mailing list?
 
> That is, you send the message to the list as normal listname@myhost.com,
> it strips the From: headers and other headers, and forwards it to a closed
> mailing list (only members can post, disabled 'who', ...).

  I'm not certain, being far from an expert on remailers and 
majordomos. I've had one person indicate that majordomos could 
be configured to keep all users anonymous, but didn't know
if it could be done selectively in the case of anonymous
remailers. He is supposed to get back to me on it.

  I have been experimenting with Windows remailers, but haven't
found any that allow one to specify only a single, or group of,
Mail To: addresses.
  I made an offer to a friend to attempt to find an anonymizing
solution for a group of related health lists, so that their 
subscribers would feel free to discuss extremely personal issues
of great concern. Also, there is the issue of health providers
cruising the list to find personal information which they can
use to drop coverage for those they deem to be a potential
financial burden to their company.

  They have a need to keep their lists closed except to subscribers
in order to block total assholes who do things like sending posts
to suicidal people telling them to kill themselves, etc.
  A privately run remailer would allow the moderator to instantly 
block anonymous access to an individual who harasses list members,
or the group as a whole. (People with disabilities tend to get
enough crapola out in the normal world, without needing to get
it in a health support forum.)

  I haven't had a chance to delve into the problem too deeply,
as of yet, so any suggestions or pointers would be appreciated.
  I think that this is a situation which addresses the legitimate
use of anonymous remailers that many remailer operators would
consider to be the type of benefit that they are trying to promote
in giving their time and effort to providing anonymous remailer
services.
  It certainly wouldn't harm the cause of anonymous remailers to
have a few positive examples of the good results that can come
from providing anonymous email capabilities.

> Please CC to me any remailer-operator only followups.
> --
> Michael C. Taylor <mctaylor@mta.ca> <http://www.mta.ca/~mctaylor/>
> Programmer, Mount Allison University, Canada

-- 
Toto
"The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre"
http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html