cypherpunks discussions

Eric Murray ericm at lne.com
Mon Dec 8 07:22:19 PST 2003


On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 12:21:21AM -0800, Sarad AV wrote:
> I prefer not getting flamed like every one else and that
> too in quick succesion :-).  so my guess is that as far
> as newbies are concerned all the discussions are taken
> private.

This is why the cpunks list has very little new subscribers...
most newbies who post questions get flamed.  Usually by Tim
who sears them for not having read some post from
1992 or for bringing up a topic that was discussed in 1996.

Perhaps if the archives were complete, well organized and
easy to find it would be appropriate to politely tell newbies to
read the FAQ.  But they're not.   It's also not a complete waste of
time to discuss topics that have been discussed previously...
some new information may come from the discussion.  Someone
who is not interested can just skip those posts.  If the list
is restricted to discusing topics that are only of interest to Tim
(or any long-time member, Tim's not the only one) then
only a few people will even be able to follow the discusssion, let
alone participate.

Tim, before you reply, I suggest that you look back through the
last year or so's worth of your cpunks posts to see how many are
the thoughtful incisive kind vs a barage of insults or complaints
that the poster you are replying to is an idiot.

A related problem is the tendency for a number of posters to turn every
thread into an intellectual dicksizewar.   It's gotten to the point where
I don't post much, and I've been _working_ in security for the 8 years
(and on Usenet, where the dicksizewar was invented, for 15).  I can only
imagine what it's like for new people.  Only the most stubborn
will stay.   The list is selecting for obstinance.

On a related note, I do see the addresses of people who unsubscribe,
and they are often addresses that recently subscribed.  


Other people have made the point that mailing lists are "old tech"
and I agree.   I don't like the new replacements (blogs, web boards)
as much as lists, but perhaps that's because of what I used first.
Kids these days don't know how to use shell shortcuts either.


BTW, there's about 415 list members.  LNE doesn't censor, we do block
networks that we've gotten spam from.  Currently we block about 12,000
spams a week and receive another 1500 or so.  We're still on dial-up
(Verizon rural phone service sucks).  Allowing those 12,000 spams
through to process them would make our 43k line unuseable.
Hence the blocking.  I explained this to John in private email, and also
explained how to get unblocked by following a link in the bounce message.
He's refused to do this, prefering to claim that I'm "censoring" him.
Whatever.  The CIA agent reading over my shoulder says that John's way
too paranoid.

I realize that my spam solution is non-optimal but its
the best I can come up with at the moment.

I'm getting tired of running the list.  As it is now it doesn't provide
much value and I could use my time for something else.  Could someone
please set up another node?  I'll send you all my scripts etc.  But I
won't maintain it on a machine you provide, you'll have to do it.
Maybe some of our list members from the government would like
to step forward with some homeland security $$. :-)


Eric





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