Against Moderation writes:
Have you considered using a system like NoCeM (see http://www.cm.org)?
NoCeM doesn't appear to do mail yet. At least not according to the info on the web site
I think such a system has many advantages over centrally controlled moderation. The basic idea of NoCeM is that instead of moderating a newsgroup or mailing list, people post lists of articles to be ignored, and you can configure your mail/newsreader to pay attention to NoCeM's by whichever people you trust.
There's nothing in John and Sandy's proposal that forbids doing that. Just apply it to the cypherpunks-unmoderated list.
NoCeM would prevent any message delays which moderation might introduce
NoCeM for mail would require a delay (for the 'retromoderation' or whatever it's called message to arrive) otherwise you'd see the spam. Unlike news, once email's delivered it can't be deleted by a cancel.
NoCeM would also prevent anyone from accusing you of censorship.
The unmoderated version of the list doesn't do that?
If we continue to get important messages like implementations of the RC2 and RC4 ciphers, a moderator could be found responsible for approving such an article.
If such a message were to arrive and the moderator felt it would be too illegal to post it, it would still go to the unmoderated list. Remember, _everything_ goes to that list, before it's looked at by the moderator.
Obviously there are some issues related to NoCeM. Not all mail- and newsreaders support NoCeM.
It appears that NO mailreaders support it. :-)
However, there are definitely solutions to those problems. For instance, a perl script could be used to delay messages and apply NoCeM's, so that people can subscribe to customized filtered versions of the list. I might even be willing to write such software if there is interest.
I don't mean to sound really negative, NoCeM looks like an interesting solution to the problem of Usenet spam. But it's not ready for mailing lists. We need a solution now, and the proposed solution does not make it any harder to use something like NoCeM when it's ready. -- Eric Murray ericm@lne.com ericm@motorcycle.com http://www.lne.com/ericm PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03 92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF