From: jamie@netcom.com (Jamie Dinkelacker)
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 11:39:32 PDT
To: Matthew B. Landry <mbl@ml7694a.leonard.american.edu>
Subject: Re: Safe and fun environment?
Message-ID: <9310091839.AA19624@netcom.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


[Cypherlings, excuse the bandwidth]

Matthew,

As a fresh newbie allow me to react for the record to your recent post.

>a "safe and fun environment" to introduce new people to anything. 

I've never found a safe and fun environment anywhere, anytime if I looked
closely enough to see what was going on; hence I never expect it anywhere,
anytime.

>        And god forbid that a newcomer should ask a QUESTION! Dear lord no. 
>That newcomer will be flamed so totally that no burn unit around will be able 
>to save them.

My questions have been answered graciously, thoroughly, and when I've been
corrected, I should've been due to inattentive typing (e.g., author's
names).


>        No one on this list is entirely to blame, nor is anyone entirely 
>blameless for this. Several of the top figures on the list (TC May and Eric 
>Hughes to name two) have recently adopted an inappropriately elitist attitude 
>toward the direction of the list, and the movement. 

Movement? Like in 'bowel'? I don't see the elitest approach; from my
perspective it looks like people with knowledge being exasperated when
others want private tutoring and don't RTFM. I'm pretty much the same way
in my areas of expertise.

>No one can stop Eric from 
>running the _list_ however he wants, but the _movement_ belongs to all of us, 

Let me get this straight -- you're claiming property rights to spontaneous
behavior of other individuals?

>        Until we fix the serious problems in this list, it will never be an 
>appropriate environment for newcomers to learn about crypto-privacy, 

It's been good for me. Why do you think that might be?


--
................................
Jamie Dinkelacker   Palo Alto CA 
Jamie@netcom.com    415.941.4782