Re: Hardening lists against spam attacks
At 11:47 AM 12/31/1996, Lucky Green wrote:
At 10:25 AM 12/31/96 -0800, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
The easiest and fastest solution is to set up toad.com to charge a dollar per message. (Proceeds to be spent by John Gilmore as he sees fit.)
We can then leverage off the existing e-cash infrastructure which already provides blinding software for free on all major platforms.
I am not sure that this proposal would work. Some of the spammers on this list are rather dedicated. They might gladly pay a dollar per message.
Let's try it and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, we can try a more complicated scheme. (I volunteer to modify Majordomo to make this happen. We could have this feature in the near future.) I think we should understand that two features are being discussed. One is protecting the list from spam attacks. By this I mean attacks where somebody sends very large numbers of messages to the list and brings the mail server to its knees. Charging a dollar a message solves this problem - just buy more hardware with the proceeds. If The Enemy wishes to finance the cypherpunks list - more power to him. The other feature is filtering. I do not need anybody to filter my mail. I am quite capable of doing it myself, thank you. If somebody wants to set up a tokened filter scheme, that is great, but let's see it implemented as an added header to the cypherpunks messages. Then people can filter on it if they want, but it should be their choice. Anybody who cannot set up such a filter, or find somebody who can set up such a filter for them, or cannot find somebody who will forward only filtered messages to them, is too helpless to be a cypherpunk. I have seen a lot of complaints about "too much noise". That is not a problem. The problem is too little signal. I can extract the signal - unless it isn't there. I propose that we spend the money on food for the monthly meeting. Peter Hendrickson ph@netcom.com
At 1:04 PM -0800 12/31/96, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
At 11:47 AM 12/31/1996, Lucky Green wrote:
At 10:25 AM 12/31/96 -0800, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
The easiest and fastest solution is to set up toad.com to charge a dollar per message. (Proceeds to be spent by John Gilmore as he sees fit.)
We can then leverage off the existing e-cash infrastructure which already provides blinding software for free on all major platforms.
I am not sure that this proposal would work. Some of the spammers on this list are rather dedicated. They might gladly pay a dollar per message.
Let's try it and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, we can try a more complicated scheme. (I volunteer to modify Majordomo to make this happen. We could have this feature in the near future.)
"Let's try it and see how it goes" is often a dangerous step. It could kill the list as we know it; exactly what fraction of current subscribers do you think will arrange for digital cash accounts, will arrange their mailing software to use this, will bother with PGP, etc.? Now maybe this is a Good Thing, to drive out the slackers and those without good tools integrating PGP into their mailers, etc., but maybe it is not a Good Thing . It seems to me that one should not lightly just say "Let's try it and see what happens!"
I have seen a lot of complaints about "too much noise". That is not a problem. The problem is too little signal. I can extract the signal - unless it isn't there.
My sentiments exactly. But I fail to see how collecting a dollar per post, or whatever the fee is ultimately set at, increases the number of good posts (not the percentage, the S/N, the _number_, which is what we both agree is the important thing). Explanation? --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
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Timothy C. May