[Cypherlings, excuse the bandwidth] Matthew, As a fresh newbie allow me to react for the record to your recent post.

a "safe and fun environment" to introduce new people to anything.

I've never found a safe and fun environment anywhere, anytime if I looked closely enough to see what was going on; hence I never expect it anywhere, anytime.

And god forbid that a newcomer should ask a QUESTION! Dear lord no. That newcomer will be flamed so totally that no burn unit around will be able to save them.

My questions have been answered graciously, thoroughly, and when I've been corrected, I should've been due to inattentive typing (e.g., author's names).

No one on this list is entirely to blame, nor is anyone entirely blameless for this. Several of the top figures on the list (TC May and Eric Hughes to name two) have recently adopted an inappropriately elitist attitude toward the direction of the list, and the movement.

Movement? Like in 'bowel'? I don't see the elitest approach; from my perspective it looks like people with knowledge being exasperated when others want private tutoring and don't RTFM. I'm pretty much the same way in my areas of expertise.

No one can stop Eric from running the _list_ however he wants, but the _movement_ belongs to all of us,

Let me get this straight -- you're claiming property rights to spontaneous behavior of other individuals?

Until we fix the serious problems in this list, it will never be an appropriate environment for newcomers to learn about crypto-privacy,

It's been good for me. Why do you think that might be? -- ................................ Jamie Dinkelacker Palo Alto CA Jamie@netcom.com 415.941.4782