At 6:33 PM 9/27/95, Travis Corcoran wrote:

I'm not sure whether you're objecting to someone asked for your key, or the fact that they did it through a semi-automated process.

If you go back to my original message you'll see that I was discussing the rising number of spams, advertisements, and "automatically-generated" posts. What I call a robo-warning was this: " P.S. This mail was composed by my mailreading sftwr, which automatically scans incoming mail, looking for failed keyserver requests, and prompts me whether it should automatically send this msg on my behalf. If there is a bug w this sftwr (for example, you never PGP sign your msgs, so this entire msg makes no sense), or if you're interested in the software itself (mail-secure.el: a package in lisp for emacs; this is just one of the many crypto/privacy related things it does) please mail the author of this package ( tjic@openmarket.com) for details. As to whether I needed to respond to your robo-warning about how your automatic scan of incoming mail produced some kind of Signature Failure Condition Red at your end, I just ignored your message. (As others will attest, when people ask me for my key in a non-automated way, I usually send it to them. I often regret this, as they then send me PGP-encrypted mail with innocuous contents---the same reason PRZ hates to get PGP mail.) My _overall_ point was not to attack Travis C., who I don't think I even mentioned by name, but to point out that great care must be taken in running automated mail-response programs (including "vacation" programs, "I'm away from my terminal" messages, and these kinds of automated PGP messages). Finally, since Travis is making a fairly big deal over my citing of his post (though anonymously, as I recall), I'd like to see the post he claims I signed. If it has a PGP signature, it's probably an obvious spoof or satire.

If anyone has a constructive suggestion as to how this mail could be changed to convey more information or to be less "threatening", please mail me.

Simple, don't bother to ask in the first place. Or ask informally, in ordinary English. Skip the "This mail was composed by my mailreading sftwr, which automatically scans incoming mail, looking for failed keyserver requests..." nonsense. On a list with well over 1000 people, I don't need some fraction of them running their own "key etiquette agents" inspecting my posts for conformance to their preferences. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."