Fellow cpunks, I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I enjoy a bit of flame war. I genuinely do not care what happens to Mr. BatGuano ("if that IS your name"), so a clever insult once in a while is fun to read. If Detweiler really IS Boxx, so what? If he says that you're a moron, so what? If someone creates a second name to use when they're mad and want to flame, that's their business. What's important is the ideas in someones head, not the name they use. While I'm interested in dining cryptographers, I also find it enlightening to listen to Tim May or Duncan Frissell talk politics. I don't see any reason to limit this list to discussions of random number generators. It would be a terrible waste to ignore the collected wisdom and experience of the group because it was marginally off topic. If people would have simply ignored Detweiler rather than answering his tomes, he would have gone away sooner. It only takes a few lines to see whether a post will be interesting or not. If not, DON'T READ IT. Forget it, trash it, delete it. Most importantly, don't get upset about it. It's just words; they can't hurt you. I give Detweiler a paragraph or two. We all know who is worth listening to and who isn't. Once you've figured out what Detweiler, rjc, or Boxx have to say, don't bother reading them anymore. That's all there is to it. My point, I guess, is that net.talk isn't all that different from real.talk. There are real people on the other end of the line, regardless of the names that they use. Some are worth listening to, some are not. It's not hard to tell them apart, and not hard to ignore the wierdos. Talk of censoring people, charging for posts, or sharply defining the scope of the group all seem to make things worse rather than better. It's silly to talk of the way that things "should be". It's far more productive (and easier!) to figure out how to get what you want from the way that they already are. See you in the Zone, Tyrone Slothrop (RocketMan) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.