From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 23:16:14 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Kill Files and Plonking
Message-ID: <ad3ff29d27021004b8a7@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



A predictable round of "Public Plonkings" and "You're in my kill file,
nyah, nyah, nyah!" postings.

Personally, I regret ever mentioning adding anyone to my filter file, as it
then generated the expected "But Tim won't see this...." nonsense. I
shouldn't have done it. Public plonkings rarely accomplish anything.

I move names and topics in and out of my filter files as the mood strikes
me. I have the option of looking at the mail that's ended up in one of my
various filter files, and deciding to move someone out of that file and
back into the main list file.

(With Eudora, I filter _every_ incoming message into one of a dozen or so
files. It's just a question of which one. For a few really obnoxious
people, I filter their stuff into Eudora's "Trash" file; when I empty the
trash (Macintosh TM), their message is irretrievably gone.)

I think it's best _not_ to publicize who is in one's filter or kill file
for a couple of reasons:

1. It cuts down on the acrimonious plonkings and couter-plonkings.

2. It leaves open the door for gracefully reversing the process.

3. The filtered or killfiled person never really knows if he's being
filtered, so there's a "random reinforcement" element which may, I am
guessing, have an effect on posts.

To satisfy any curiousity aroused, at this moment there are 12 names which
I filter into a file called "Kill File" (but which is persistent, and can
be looked at by me at any time) and only 2 names which I filter into
"Trash" (which gets emptied fairly often, usually without my having looked
to see what went into it). (No name I have ever mentioned publically in
this context is in this Trash file.)

Some people who write to me and get no response may of course be left
wondering....this is the beauty of random reinforcement.

--Tim


Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."