CDR: Re: would it be so much to ask..
On Wed, 20 Sep 2000, Asymmetric wrote:
My mistake, I misread. I thought you were asking how many anonymous-remailed messages I had seen to the list. I would still group that as "a small handful" which was my point; That these messages don't come all that often, and the benefits of allowing them when they do come seem outweighed by the sheer volume of spam.
You're probably one of those people who think that A. Melon, Nomen Nescio, An Metet, Secret Squirrel, etc., are actually individuals' personas. Are you subscribed to toad.com? A *lot* of legitimate posts are dropped by that server. I see at least 10 anonymous posts a day. -S.R.
"A. Melon" wrote:
You're probably one of those people who think that A. Melon, Nomen Nescio, An Metet, Secret Squirrel, etc., are actually individuals' personas.
Call me a moron, but what do you mean here? I had figured that "A. Melon" was the nym of one individual, "Nomen Nescio" was the nym of one, probably other, individual, and so on. Are "A Melon" etc group nyms, like "Publius" of the US Federalist Papers? Does some anonymizer give the same name for everyone who uses it? -- Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel 518-374-4720 sfurlong@acmenet.net
At 7:26 PM -0400 9/20/00, Steve Furlong wrote:
"A. Melon" wrote:
You're probably one of those people who think that A. Melon, Nomen Nescio, An Metet, Secret Squirrel, etc., are actually individuals' personas.
Call me a moron, but what do you mean here? I had figured that "A. Melon" was the nym of one individual, "Nomen Nescio" was the nym of one, probably other, individual, and so on. Are "A Melon" etc group nyms, like "Publius" of the US Federalist Papers? Does some anonymizer give the same name for everyone who uses it?
Some do. "A. Melon" is attached to every post coming from one particular, fairly new, remailer. (His rant goes something like: "I'm a melon, you're a melon, the child pornographer next door is a melon, the anti-Iraq freedom fighter is a melon, the woman planning to poison the water supply is a melon, etc."). "Secret Squirrel" is self-explanatory. I was confused by the "A. Melon" usage myself: for a few hours I thought someone I was conversing with from the alt.fan.nietzsche newsgroup was the same "A. Melon" who posts here. Not so. The owner of the remailer posted his explanation a few weeks ago. It may have appeared here on the list...I just don't recall. Search engines should turn it up. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
At 07:51 PM 9/20/00 -0400, you wrote:
------"A. Melon" is attached to every post coming from one particular, fairly new, remailer. (His rant goes something like: "I'm a melon, you're a melon, the child pornographer next door is a melon, the anti-Iraq freedom fighter is a melon, the woman planning to poison the water supply is a melon, etc.").
The owner of the remailer posted his explanation a few weeks ago. It may have appeared here on the list...I just don't recall. Search engines should turn it up.
--Tim May
Just hit the abuse report URL in the header of all melon missives...
On Wed, 20 Sep 2000, Steve Furlong wrote:
Call me a moron, but what do you mean here? I had figured that "A. Melon" was the nym of one individual, "Nomen Nescio" was the nym of one, probably other, individual, and so on. Are "A Melon" etc group nyms, like "Publius" of the US Federalist Papers? Does some anonymizer give the same name for everyone who uses it?
In the past, I have been Secret Squirrel. I have the means to be A. Melon. Usually I post under my True Name. There is also a nym which is mine and mine alone, whose continuity I maintain using a PGP key that no one knowing my True Name has ever signed. But there is not much continuity to maintain, since I have need of that nym very rarely. Many remailers (almost all good ones, I think) use the same name on all outgoing posts. On some of them, you can override it by including appropriate instructions in the last layer of the envelope, but it's rarely a good idea -- if you want hard anonymity, you are in the business of not giving any unnecessary clues. Judging from writing style and grammatical habits, I think there are at least 3 "A. Melon"s on this mailing list. But I could be wrong, and if I am, that's okay. Bear PS. For bonus points, can anyone name the now-defunct remailer whose default posting name was in fact "Publius?"
participants (5)
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A. Melon -
me＠myplace.to -
Ray Dillinger -
Steve Furlong -
Tim May