From: lucifer@dhp.com (lucifer Anonymous Remailer)
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 16:47:25 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Adam Back speaks out on AP / was: Jim Bell? Never heard of him.
Message-ID: <199704082346.TAA08641@dhp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Adam Back wrote:
> Anonymous writes:

>  There is a cost with
> anonymity: people take you less seriously, none of your reputation is
> on the line.  Anonmous persistent personas might be better as they
> allow reputation to be tracked.

  True, if your concern is to be listened to by those concerned about
reputation. If your aim is for your post to stand upon its own facts
and logic, however, then a 0-reputation persona may be preferable.
  There were a series of "Jim Bell is a loon." postings which I 
found to be uninformative in regard to the points they seemed to
want to ramrod past the readers by virtue of discounting the 
message via slamming the messenger.

> >   So the end result might well be, not the assassination of those
> > involved, but the lessening of their power by virtue of depleting
> > their funds, which leads to a more equal playing field.
> 
> I'm not sure this follows.
> 
> If a corporate can use it's wealth to influence other groups, for
> example by assasinating key employees of opposition company, it may
> well get richer as a result.

  I see the value of AP not in the assassination of others, but in 
the potential for a wide-ranging group of individuals to drain the
assets of their oppressors.
  Large grocery chains have a history of moving into an area, then
undercutting the little guys until they are forced out of business,
whereupon they raise their prices outrageously, unfettered by 
competition.
  AP might well serve as an avenue for the little guys to band 
together to target these operations and remove the profitability
of this mode of monopolistic attack.

  The TruthMonger multi-user persona might well serve as a similar
example of raising the cost of doing "character assassination"
business.
  I might well be Jim Bell, himself. However, rather than saying,
"Jim Bell is a loon, so we can discount all of TruthMonger's 
arguments.", one is forced to deal with the validity of the
arguments, facts, and logic in the posts.

  Certainly a persona with built-up reputation capital can
be an asset in many situations, but there is also a time
when anonymous communications can serve as a conduit for
weaning out those enamored with personality issues, and who
lack the discernment to judge the true content and logic
underlying a message.

TruthMonger