I've been thinking about this concept of `reputation'. It seems that the Cypherpunks seem to treat it differently than many other people. Many cypherpunks have the argument, `I assign no reputation to messages whose owner I have never met, or have no trust for.' But it is impossible not to be influenced by any message. When you read a message, it is influencing you. The only message that has `no reputation' is no message at all. Also, this preoccupation seems to violate one of the Cypherpunk dogmas, `there is only a message'. Isn't that kind of a bizarre statement? What if Ted Bundy, Hitler, and a Psychopunk posted 99 messages to the Cypherpunks list, and Jesus Christ posted one. Furthermore, suppose no one knew who posted what, in a pseudospoofing scenario. Who would want to subscribe to this? Apparently, it would be Utopia for some Cypherpunks. Another thing about Cypherpunks is that they think that reputation is something you can `cash in' when you need to. For example, in that rather amazing message by Mr. Szabo recently, he seemed to be completely cashing in all his reputation chips just for a cheap thrill. Doesn't that damage everything he has *ever* said, if he suddenly says, `I admit it! I'm a tentacle! I lied in RISKS!'. I don't understand this idea of building up trust just to betray someone. Maybe some cypherpunks can explain this in detail to me. I remember flaming D.Denning rather searingly over the issue of truth (over her involvement with Clipper) a long time ago, and maybe someone else along my long visit to this little dark corner of cyberspace. Mr. T.C.May was upset by my messages. He said that it was generally not a good idea to `demonize' one's opponents, because it `rarely served a useful purpose.' I have been thinking about these words a lot lately. I wonder -- is it okay to `demonize' someone with Tentacles? Maybe that is the preferred method. I guess that would explain a lot! One final question I have. If I get an anonymous phone call to my answering machine, how does that relate to reputation? should I give this phone call ``Lance, stop posting to cypherpunks'' (as I did today at about 730 or so) any merit? Should I give it more or less than anonymous mail? threats from tentacles in my mailbox? to my postmaster? I'm quite confused. Also, suppose this person had reached me personally, e.g. I picked up the phone. Should I have given that conversation more merit, because some two-way dialog took place? What if the caller still remained anonymous? What if he called me `Linda' instead? The call reminded me of an interesting comment by J. Dinkelacker -- `he's a borg'. I was watching Robocop at the time I got the call, and it was kind of funny in that context. If Medusa would like to explain to me precisely why she prefers that I not post to Cypherpunks, and how this does not detract from the forum but enhances it, can someone have her call or email me? All I have been getting are tentacle-grams for many weeks now. It's quite frustrating.