SpyKing wrote:
I mean no disrespect by this but this list is funny.
The CypherPunks list is, and always has been, a 'hoot'. I have followed it since its inception, in various guises. It is the only list I still keep tabs on when I'm hiding under a rock to escape persecution, prosecution, and/or prostitution. I once read over a year's worth of postings in one stetch, after having surfaced following an unfortunate incident behind the Iron Curtain. That was when I fully realized that the course of the universe could be reliably predicted by following the CypherPunks list. (Picking the winner in the Kentucky Derby being one notable exception.)
I've never seen so much bickering about moderation. I know you were a subscriber to the surveillance list that's why I mention this. When I moderate I ONLY cut out the spam... we haven't even had one flame yet...
You have one of the best moderated lists that I have seen. Some of the posts are a definite 'stretch' as far as being on-topic is concerned, but we live in a world where people make different kinds of connections inside their brains, and I have always believed that keeping too tight a rein on the human animal will lead to crushing the spirit within. Several years ago, when the CypherPunks were on the cover of 'Wired', I inserted a short post suggesting that their philosophies regarding anarchism, privacy and free speech would be put to the test when recognition, money and power entered the cypher-picture. I only became active on the list, under my present persona, about a month before 'moderation/censorship', as a result of receiving word that changes were in the wind that would make my prediction prophetic. It has been said that one can reliably predict the future course of civilization by following the progress of men of genius and the insane. To this, I would add the CypherPunks list, which seems to fully encompass both arenas.
I suppose if we had someone like the guy who flames Tim May all the time it would be necessary...
The Tim May flames were a simple matter of office politics. He could not be counted on to 'go quietly into the night' in regard for the plans for the New List Order. Anyone who chooses to spend the least amount of time analyzing the UCE/Spam content of the CypherPunks list can easily ascertain that there was a concerted blitzkrieg of postings aimed at creating an atmosphere wherein the BrownShirts could move in to address the 'problems' being created for the list. It was a classic 'takeover' of the list by those involved. It used the "Tim May" and "Make $$Money$$ Fast" UCE/Spams to implement a moderation/censorship system which could be used to bring the jackboot down on those whose postings do not fit in with the future socio/politico directions envisioned by those directing the takeover of the list. The forced unsubscribing of Dr. Dimitri was merely an opening salvo, to test the waters. He was the Saddam Hussein of Cypher Storm. Tim May presented a different problem. As a veteran, respected member of the CypherPunks list (respected, for the most part, even by those who violently disagreed with him), he needed to be eliminated through a combination of public humiliation and withdrawal of support by the elitist members of the list. The current moderation/censorship, and the process by which it was instituted, is a disgrace to the memory of a list which was, at one time a bastion of free speech. The CypherPunks list of the past is now dead. It has already been decided that, in the future, it will be controlled and directed, through censorship, to further its prostitution to the new financial frontiers of cryptology.
P.S. Those Tim May flames are hilarious although I probably wouldn't think so if I were him...
Hang on to them, they are now 'collectors items', probably worth a lot of money. If Tim May had a better sense of humor, he might have parlayed the posts into a guest spot on 'Letterman'. Toto