I wish that folks sending to this list would realize this new world exists, as much as it sucks, and spend a bit more time double checking before posting anything alarmist. In particular, there have been several recent false alarms regarding netscape security sent to this list and others. While I don't want to sweep real security holes under the rug, I think it hurts both cypherpunk and netscape interests for false claims to be coming out of this list.
I completely agree that the reporters on this list make things very difficult and people do need to be very careful about posting things which will get misinterpreated by reporters.. but-- This list is -not- an "announcement" list. If I see a potential bug, I want other cypherpunks to tell me whether I am onto something or not, so I would post. If some idiot reporter takes that and writes an article saying "XXX has a hole" that is -EXTREMELY BAD REPORTING-. I understand though, that we can't control what the reporters say and how they interpret what we say. It is very important to word your posts carefully such that when you post a bug a reporter won't think that they should write an article on it until it is verified. It's very sad, though, that we have to be very careful about what we post now because of the media attention. I would prefer if the list could just be a forum where we can discuss things, but that is not the case.
Just to make things clear, I'm not an official spokesperson for Netscape and anything sent to this list is my personal opinion.
As if that is going to help when a reporter sees your post. "Jeff Weinstein, Electronic Munitions Specialist at Netscape, said, 'XXXX'" -- doesn't put you down as "spokesperson for netscape", and doesn't contain any factual errors, but is damn misleading and makes it sound like you are speaking for Netscape... I guess I'm rather lucky being in charge of a sole proprietorship-- there isn't very much difference between me speaking for myself and speaking for my business. (There are some differences, yes, but very small.) -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Community ConneXion FAX: 510-601-9734 The Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer@c2.org