From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 07:16:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Cypherpunks vs. Coderpunks
Message-ID: <ad56290a09021004f04e@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 5:41 PM 2/25/96, Chris Claborne wrote:

>  I filter to an unread area and then try to read once per week.  I know
>that I trim off good articles while trying to trim the fat off.  If you
>can't exercise restraint, how about putting "junk" as the first word in your
>subject.

Ah, but where was the "junk" as the first word of your post?

You see, therein lies the reason these labelling schemes almost never work.
Few people think there own stuff is "junk," else presumably they wouldn't
post it. You can bet your bottom e-dollar that Jim Bell won't label his
posts about assassination politics or nuclear bomb high explosive triggers
as "junk." Nor that I will label my own stuff as "junk."

About like asking people to label themselves as "turkeys" just so we can
deal with crowds better.

Frankly, I think we waste more time arguing about how to improve the
"signal to noise ratio," ephemeral a concept at this is, than it takes to
simply delete posts each of us various dislikes.

The notion that we can "nudge" other people into only posting the kinds of
articles we all want to see is flawed: there is no single type of good
article, and one man's "junk" is another man's "gold."

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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."