Re: message pools.

17 Dec 2003

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Request-Remailing-To: cypherpunks@toad.com

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Jim asked about message pools. Why not just start using alt.test? It's really
not such a noisy group compared to say comp.org.eff.talk ;-)! You must
include "ignore" in your subject line, or the remailer you use will
be swamped by autoresponder messages. And as long as a PGP message already
tattles what the nickname on the key it is encrypted with is, you can up
front put that nickname in the Subject header. At worse, if you want to
"hide" it, just remove the header and footer that announces it's a PGP
message. No one will really notice. You could even add a jpeg header and
laugh at the poor soul who tries to view that "ignore Stacy" jpeg that
he never saw in alt.binaries.picures.erotics. No remailer operators like
me to have to trust. No central pool software. Fuck the waste of bandwidth
complaints, your just running a TEST. You still have to run through a remailer
though, to alt.test@news.cs.indiana.edu, so use encrypted remailing. You
can't use those that strip Subject lines, though even if qwerty did strip
Subjects, the return address is in there as "qwerty-remailer" so I wouldn't
see the autoresponds.

I know this isn't a new idea, but he did ask for ideas. You still have to
get the other person to "join the pool" (read alt.test), but that's easier
than getting them to join a real pool which will fill his mailbox daily
with garbage. And you can tell him to "join the pool" in public, say
anonymously on this list, or on Usenet or for God sakes send him an
anonymous snail mail letter! Whatever you do, since "Stealth-PGP" isn't
here yet, I don't see a reason not to include the person's anonymous
nickname in the Subject line or at least in the message, and make
everybody's lives much easier!

I think certain post-by-mail services like news.cs.indiana.edu function like
anonymous remailers if you forge mail to them, in that they strip much
of you original headers away, including the real path but you then have to
connect directly to that post-by-mail site and end up on their logs.

As far as problems go, I don't think the bandwidth problem would be
a big problem since what, maybe a dozen people would be really doing
this in a given week? Perhaps "strength in numbers" isn't going to be
possible yet in the next few years. So be a little naughty and use the
world-wide pool that already exists. The hell with internet bandwidth;
this is one's privacy at stake! I don't have an exciting enough life, so
let me know how it goes if you try it.

 -=Xenon=-

P.S. Maybe Stealth-PGP is a secret and is the reason the jpegs on
alt.binaries.pictures.erotics have become so "noisy" lately ;-).

P.S.S. I'm going to start reading alt.test and misc.test, but I will
not look at anything unless you put "ignore Xenon" in the Subject line!
Look Ma, I'm in a pool. Somebody send me a message, and send me an
anonymous public key within it, and I'll respond back the same way.
Don't sign the Encrypted message; clearsign the message within it!
Then nobody will know "Mr. Nickname" signed it. Why not contact
Pr0duct Cypher this way? Then you aren't taking up space in
alt.security.pgp. Afterall what's a 40K-100K message compared
to how much is in the binaries groups a day?! And you can easily
scan a day's alt.test postings for you name, then trash the rest.
You can even automatically scan the postings for you nickname with
most news readers. Sorry this is so long. I do have a nasty habit of
thinking in public.

P.S.S.S Extropia already has a pool set up, but I've been lazy and
don't know the details yet. With Usenet though, you never end up
on any pool's member list, except the list of all Usenet readers, and
possibly all remailer users if such a list exists. And a guy like
Pr0duct can NEVER be tagged for having picked up the message! No?

Nikolaos Daniel Willmore

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