From: mcb@net.bio.net (Michael C. Berch)
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 16:34:15 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re:  New mailing list?
Message-ID: <199403050033.QAA23619@net.bio.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I was thinking about Alan's proposal for a moderated real-world-crypto
list (which sounds good, by the way!), and it brought up my main problem
with cypherpunks, which is sheer volume, volume, volume!

It's not a "noise" problem -- since the end of the LD foolishness the
greatest part of what has been posted here has been intelligent, thoughtful
stuff.  But since c'punks has grown to the size of a newsgroup in volume,
simply getting through it is *difficult*.  

My proposal is pretty simple: splitting the list into cypherpunks-tech
and cypherpunks-policy.  (Cypherpunks-announce would be left alone of
course.)  I think a large number of readers would want to be on both
lists, but a large number (like myself) would *not*, and if nothing else,
it would cut down the mailer load on toad.  

In short, technical crypto articles, reviews of papers, steganography
stuff, PGP-specific stuff, all source code, etc., would go to the
cypherpunks-tech list; while policy articles, Clipper stuff, political
discussions, anarcholibertarian/extropian material, social
implications of digital cash, etc., would go to the cypherpunks-policy
list.  I *know* there are people out there who would rather that
the political stuff not get in the way of their technical discussions,
and then there are people like me who are more focused on the policy
issues (and regardless of technical background, are never going to be
code-level crypto hacks).

Comments?

--
Michael C. Berch
mcb@net.bio.net / mcb@postmodern.com