Hello, _real_ people and cypher-crypto-pseudo-spoofs!
I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the recent post revealing the TRUE identities of half the people (I use that term guardedly these days) in the mail group. It did me a world of good.
Try this on for a quick reality check- this is how I view the issue of anonymity, trust, reputation, validity, etc. in the Cypherpunk forum: I see the list as a coffee house, buried in the bowels of a machine at Berkeley. People wander in and out, some to chat, others to listen. There is no implied social contract in place among the participants, really, just some common interests. For the price of a cup of coffee (my time and my connection to Internet), I can enjoy stimulating conversation and shoot the breeze. When people present their ideas, I take their identities at face value (asking for ID's before making small talk seems a bit gauche). Every now and then, a message in a bottle comes sailing through the (open) door- the waiter pulls the message out and reads an anonymous posting. Those so motivated can put replies in the bottle and sling it back outside, where the anonymous poster picks it up. Truly obnoxious messages can be answered by Molotov cocktails in the same manner <grin>.
My point is this: we're in a coffee house, not a courtroom. If I meet someone in a coffee house and want to do serious business like buying a car, co-publishing a paper, or betting my career on a set of equations, I (we) would adjourn to a somewhat more formal setting and follow entirely different rules for establishing trust and reputation. In the same vein, I might listen to a chorus of voices spouting political agendas while sipping my coffee, but I wouldn't expect the applause and the catcalls to be tabulated and published as election results. I agree entirely with Detweiler about the importance of being able to validate people electronically, but I think it would be a shame to close the door to the coffee house, take attendance, and charge admission. .............................................................. .......... Philippe D. Nave, Jr. | The person who does not use message encryption pdn@dwroll.dw.att.com | will soon be at the mercy of those who DO... Denver, Colorado USA | PGP public key: by arrangement.
Hear! hear! I really _like_ my coffee, and I'd hate to see all the interesting people and discussions frightened off by excessive officiousness in the coffee shop. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Larry Gadallah Amateur Radio VE4TCP Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba, Canada IP: [44.135.114.9] SMTP: larry@owrlakh.wl.aecl.ca AX25: VE4TCP@VE4PIN.#PIN.MB.CAN.NA ---------------------------------------------------------------------