RE: Tim May the Luddite--His Last Message for A While
It may be time for me to move on. More than 2 years on this list, since the B.C. period, may be too long.
I've been thinking the same thing. Sadly, some of the initial C'punks are those that are amoung the worst flamers. Eric and Perry should be leading by example, but that isn't the case. Recently, I was encouraged by the number of outsiders willing to post. The folks from Netscape were just the most recent. But they were greeted with massive hostility because their code isn't perfect, or maybe because they are trying to make a buck. Sometimes releasing code sooner means that you will be arround later to fix it. Even Amanda, who I first saw posting to comp.fonts when she worked for Visix, has not been showing her usual diplomacy. Cypherpunks write code, and care about politics, technology, society and economics. Cypherpunks will continue. I'm not so sure about the cypherpunks list. I'm not willing to bet that it will be different than Extropians. Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu Department of Computer Science George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Public key availble via finger #include <standard.disclaimer>
Pat Farrel wrote:
Cypherpunks will continue. I'm not so sure about the cypherpunks list.
Without T.C. May, I'm not so sure either, unless somebody else could take up his role as inofficial moderator. In the past, whenever the list has gone astray, T.C.'s analytical posts have set things straight, calmed down flamers and defined the relevance of various topics (to the cp agenda). This kind of moderation, mostly set by example without annoying hardly anyone, is not so easy to do. Completely unmoderated (in this sense), the cp-list might become just another sci.crypt, talk.politics. crypto or alt.security.pgp. And without the visionary posts by T.C. May, the cp-list would be a lot poorer. Certainly, there are other frequent posters with visions, but T.C. May's long and deep penetration into the consequences of true anonymity or pseudonymity has yet to be equalled on the list. (Other verbal and experienced cp's, like Eric H., Perry M. and Hal F., among others, of course have their own sectors of expertize, no less vital or important.) Appendix: The recent boom in signed posts to the cp-list is uninteresting to me. If an argument is good I don't care if the pseudonymous identity (or true, in the sense of a physical identity matching the name in a fingerprint file or whatever) is forged. I would care if an impostor tried to give out disinformation in the name of, for example, Eric H. But I'm sure I would notice the difference. Amamda W.'s latest example of what MIME could be used for was interesting. The only thing that came through to me (Pine 3.91 on a Unix shell account over Ethernet to a Reflection for Windows client) was an underscored 'on' in red pixels. What a wonderful instrument for SHOUTING. Mats
participants (2)
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Mats Bergstrom -
Pat Farrell