From: Alan Mason <vznquest@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 09:55:56 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Safe and fun environment?
In-Reply-To: <9310090817.AA10656@toad.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310090853.D10267-b100000@netcom5>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


As a newcomer here, I too detected what I saw as an elitist attitude at
first.  I also got 'spoken to' about low-content messages.

My present feeling is that - with the exception of flames - things are
going just about the way they should here.  As Tim May and others have
pointed out, there are Usenet groups covering cryptography, as well as an
increasing amount of coverage in the popular press (for what its worth). 
I will go there for hard news.  And there is email.

My understanding of a list is that it isn't intended as a newsgroup.  It
is a way for people with common interests AND KNOWLEDGE to share those
interests and that knowledge.  An intermediate level between 1-to-1 email
and a newsgroup with the qualities of each but performing a new function
unique to itself.  The power of the Net is that it allows the users to
create tools to fit their needs, vs having to work with generic tools
created by others.  Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that
this tool was created by the folks working on the crypto frontlines to
exchange information, not as an alternative to sci.crypto, etc.  Given
that, the only appropriate thing for me to do as a bystander, IMHO, is to sit 
back and keep quiet until I have something to contribute.  I don't know if
this post violates that, but it seemed like something that needed to be said.

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Alan Mason		|   Any time you find a simple answer to a question,
vznquest@netcom.com	|   The odds are you asked the wrong question.
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