[Jim Choate]

[Sandy Sandfort]

Sunder wrote:

> Recall that what had happened was that a
> hard censorship system was set up where
> Sandy Sandford (if memory does not fail),
> served as a filter between an uncensored
> list and a censored list.
>
> This was done because of a certain pest
> named Vulis, who much like you was spamming
> the list with his noise.
>
> The fatal pill was simply a message that
> Sandy could not forward to either list as
> it would have jeopardized his job.  At
> that point, Sandy had to step down as he
> could not complete his role as filter.

Close, but no cigar.  :-D

a) I'm Sandy Sandfort.

b) My job was never in jeopardy, not would that have stopped me if it had
been the only issue.  (I've quit job for less.)  The message in question was
a libelous lie, I personally knew to be false.  It was obviously designed
specifically to exploit the gapping flaw in the system under which I was
allowed to filter the list.

What was the flaw?  Originally, I approached John Gilmore with a plan I had
worked out to enforce civility and relevance on the list.  It did not
include any pre-filtering of content.  He didn't like my plan, and instead
offered me a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.  Under his plan, I would
personally pre-approve every message going to the filtered list.  So severe
was the problem on the list, that I foolishly agreed to abandon my plan and
go along with John's.  Unfortunately, that was a huge mistake; the rest is
history.

One last word about John.  I think John has been, and continues to be, the
most effective and hardworking Cypherpunk in the world.  He's clever,
fearless and he puts his money where his mouth is.  Compared to him, most of
the other Cypherpunk luminaries are just big talkers (even not compared to
him, for that matter).  Yeah, I think John had his head totally up his ass
with regard to his choice to filter the Cypherpunks list.  Given his many
"good works," though, I've long since given him a pass on that little
mistake.