Voice crypto: the last crypto taboo

[Declan McCullagh]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 08:19:12AM -0000, Dr. Evil wrote:
> I know you were being ironic, but PR is an important consideration,
> far more important than is generally understood on this list.  You
[...]
> 1. No ad hominem attacks.
> 
> 2. No anti-governemnt ranting.
> 
> 3. A few select incoherent ranters would need to be kicked out for
>    causing excessive harm to the signal-to-noise ratio.
> 
> 4. Let's focus on PR, marketing and psychology instead of technology,
>    legal debate, and confrontation.
> 
> If a bunch of people are interested I'll create it.  If not, that's ok
> too.

I think everyone understands PR is important to some extent. But some
reasons why your list is a bad idea:

* the folks most interested in championing certain products are those
who run companies; they're also the ones in the best position to do so
* there's an opportunity cost involved in signing up with a new list.
most of us nowadays are trying to cut down, not increase, subscriptions
* the volume of messages on cpunx, with lne.com and a threaded mailreader,
is perfectly manageable; these discussions can happen here
* good ideas bubble up from the froth; saying no "confrontation" is a
sure way to ensure the better posters don't subscript to your list
for fear of getting the boot if they call someone a flaming idiot
* the folks you do get on the list will probably not have a clue what
they're talking about beyond "marketing cypherpunks is good". hint:
you want some PR people and journalists, and you probably won't get 'em
* cypherpunk technologies are destructive to the status quo and really
can't be honestly spun in any other way

-Declan