Tim May <tcmay@got.net> writes:
(Please leave my name in any replies to ensure I see your comments.)
I talked to Hugh Daniel at the Saturday meeting about the creation of an "alt.cypherpunks" unmoderated (of course) newsgroup as a possible alternative (or supplement) to cypherpunks@toad.com. Greg Broiles and John Gilmore were there for part of the discussion, too.
(We did not, unfortunately, get to the "future of the list" topic at the physical meeting...the excellent presentations ran way over the expected time and we never got to this topic. Sort of too bad, given John's edict that we have 10 days to find and implement an alternative....)
I was wondering how this part of the discussion would go, oh well.
At Hugh's suggestion, I'm suggesting a "first cut" at a charter statement. Suggestions for additional language or changes are welcome.
Charter for alt.cypherpunks: (suggested)
"Alt.cypherpunks is for the unmoderated discussion of cryptography and the political, social, and economic implications of unrestricted, strong cryptography. The Cypherpunks grpup has existed since 1992 and has been central in the debate about strong crypto, government restrictions, crypto anarchy, and in showing weaknesses of various ciphers and security products. The mailing list has had as many as 1500 subscribers, plus gateways to newsgroups and Web sites. It is expected that "alt.cypherpunks" will be a free-wheeling forum for many viewpoints. As it is unmoderated, readers are strongly advised to learn how to use filters and other tools for making virtual anarchies manageable for their own tastes."
Sounds good enough to me.
I invite your comments, editorial suggestions, etc. Perhaps when enough of the "collective mind" has made inputs (ughh!), the charter can be submitted with the creation message. (I'm not knowledgeable about the process, but I'll bet many of you are.)
I get the impression that Greg Broiles is, and he posted a message proposing the creation of alt.cypherpunks a few hours before yours. Perhaps you had not seen it. Anyway he didn't propose a charter. As Sten Drescher <stend@sten.tivoli.com> and Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com> just announced their work on a distributed list based on multiple majordomo hosts, the question remains as to which of: 1. separate alt.cypherpunks and cypherpunks list 2. alt.cypherpunks and cypherpunks list gated both ways 3. cypherpunks list only are most useful. Either option 1 or option 2 sound good to me. If the gating takes place at a site with a good news feed, this would provide a mechanism to allow people to access the list either way they chose. (An implementation of the news-mail / mail-news you proposed). Adam -- print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<> )]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`