Summary: Use (anonymous) certificates to fix Usenet, and mailing lists. I think this message is interesting to the readers of cypherpunks because it describes the a decentralized, crypto supported, solution to the problems of e-speach in e-public places. If a message is found on a usenet group, a mailing list, or any other 'e-public' space for that matter, one is tempted to assume that its content is apropriate for the space, and interesting. But who certified that? On moderated lists, the moderator(s) did, and things usualy go a little more smoothly. On unmoderated lists, only the author. Were there a way to attach signed judgements to posted articles (as articles naturally), you could program your mail reader to skip articles which aren't judged highly enough by your favorite judges. Then, the flames would die away -- few people would judge them interesting enough. The incentive for the reader is to improve their judgment of judges, and so spend more time reading good stuff (neural net learning anyone?). The incentive for the judges is to earn 'reps' or money (how to sell judgements?). The incentive for the poster is to be heard (improving their 'rep'), and so if no (important, in the poster's opinion) judges like their stuff, they will feel an incentive to improve their posts. Naturally the anarchist in me feels that any person shoud be able to act as reader, poster, or judge at any time. What Usenet, this, and other lists lack are digital reputations. I belive it is a 'real world' problem which is aproaching the size of the 'private email' problem. I am going to abandon the private IP stuff for a little while, and see if I can hack up a pseudonymous certificate system ala Chaum from the bones of magic money. j' -- O I am Jay Prime Positive jpp@markv.com 1250 bit fingerprint B06229 = B8 95 E0 AF 9A A2 CD A5 89 C9 F0 FE B4 3A 2C 3F 524 bit fingerprint 2A915D = 8A 7C B9 F2 D5 46 4D ED 66 23 F1 71 DE FF 51 48 Public keys via `finger jpp@markv.com', or via email to pgp-public-keys@io.com Your feedback is welcome directly or via my symbol JPP on hex@sea.east.sun.com Resist the Clipper Chip, write "I oppose Clipper" to Clipper.petition@cpsr.org