From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 11:27:07 -0800 (PST)
To: tcmay@got.net
Subject: Re: Recommendation: Creation of "alt.cypherpunks"
In-Reply-To: <v03007800af264c8cba96@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <199702111912.TAA00553@server.test.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim May <tcmay@got.net> writes:
> (Please leave my name in any replies to ensure I see your comments.)
> 
> I talked to Hugh Daniel at the Saturday meeting about the creation of an
> "alt.cypherpunks" unmoderated (of course) newsgroup as a possible
> alternative (or supplement) to cypherpunks@toad.com. Greg Broiles and John
> Gilmore were there for part of the discussion, too.
> 
> (We did not, unfortunately, get to the "future of the list" topic at the
> physical meeting...the excellent presentations ran way over the expected
> time and we never got to this topic. Sort of too bad, given John's edict
> that we have 10 days to find and implement an alternative....)

I was wondering how this part of the discussion would go, oh well.

> At Hugh's suggestion, I'm suggesting a "first cut" at a charter statement.
> Suggestions for additional language or changes are welcome.
> 
> Charter for alt.cypherpunks: (suggested)
> 
> "Alt.cypherpunks is for the unmoderated discussion of cryptography and the
> political, social, and economic implications of unrestricted, strong
> cryptography. The Cypherpunks grpup has existed since 1992 and has been
> central in the debate about strong crypto, government restrictions, crypto
> anarchy, and in showing weaknesses of various ciphers and security
> products. The mailing list has had as many as 1500 subscribers, plus
> gateways to newsgroups and Web sites. It is expected that "alt.cypherpunks"
> will be a free-wheeling forum for many viewpoints. As it is unmoderated,
> readers are strongly advised to learn how to use filters and other tools
> for making virtual anarchies manageable for their own tastes."

Sounds good enough to me.

> I invite your comments, editorial suggestions, etc. Perhaps when enough of
> the "collective mind" has made inputs (ughh!), the charter can be submitted
> with the creation message. (I'm not knowledgeable about the process, but
> I'll bet many of you are.)

I get the impression that Greg Broiles is, and he posted a message
proposing the creation of alt.cypherpunks a few hours before yours.
Perhaps you had not seen it.  Anyway he didn't propose a charter.


As Sten Drescher <stend@sten.tivoli.com> and Jim Choate
<ravage@einstein.ssz.com> just announced their work on a distributed
list based on multiple majordomo hosts, the question remains as to
which of:

1. separate alt.cypherpunks and cypherpunks list 

2. alt.cypherpunks and cypherpunks list gated both ways

3. cypherpunks list only

are most useful.

Either option 1 or option 2 sound good to me.  If the gating takes
place at a site with a good news feed, this would provide a mechanism
to allow people to access the list either way they chose.  (An
implementation of the news-mail / mail-news you proposed).

Adam
--
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