What happened to the Cryptography list...?

[Major Variola (ret)]

At 11:49 AM 8/6/03 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>On Wednesday, August 6, 2003, at 11:05  AM, Adam Back wrote:
>> Couldn't he just let people post in his absence?  It kind of detracts

>> from a list if it disappears for weeks at a time on a regular basis.

He moderates it.  His choice.  Single point of failure, regrettable.

>I enjoyed interacting with Perry about 10-11 years ago, mostly on the
>Extropians list. Perry was a major political ranter (even if it is not
>true that he coined the phrase "Utopia is not an option").

Amusing!  Because he keeps cryptography@ politics free, for the most
part.  Which seems to be why some knowledgable people post there
and do not bother with this group.  Specialization is fine.  I find it
useful
that both tech and techsocially clueful folks post here.

>I despise people's private fiefdoms, whether Dave Farber's "Interesting

>People" list or Lewis McCarthy's "Coderpunks" list or any of Bob
>Hettinga's various "BearerBunks" and "Phisodex" lists. And Perrypunks,
>with its quixotic policy about politics (politics banned, except when
>Perry wanted to rant), was just another private fiefdom.

A problem with editors in a free market?   That's a bit
reflexively-anarchic, no?   One man's "chafing" is another's
"straying off topic" I guess.

>I don't dispute their property right to do with their machines as they
>wish, absent contracts, but being in their fiefdoms chafes very
quickly.

Reputation/editing is useful for keeping S/N high, not that one can't
invest
personally (eg in kill files) to do this.

The distributed-CP remailing architecture is interesting, and enforces
an
anarchic (editor-free) forum, which is a good thing, but as a result has
a
S/N that deters some folks who are worth listening to, who do post
in the other, moderated forum.

----
"Thus ends, at least in Italy, the absurd anarchy that permits
anyone to publish online without standards and without restrictions,
and guarantees to the consumer minimum standards of quality in all
information content, for the first time including electronic media."
-Italian govt