From: ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home)
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 05:56:00 +0800
To: tcmay@got.net (Tim May)
Subject: Re: The Interlinked Cypherpunks Lists?
In-Reply-To: <v03007800af9d068330c1@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <199705122148.QAA05204@manifold.algebra.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Tim May wrote:
> I surmise that something is wrong. So I've subscribed to one of the
> alternates, cypherpunks@algebra.com.
> 
> Some thoughts:
> 
> * Is it possible for the interlinked lists to send out announcements of
> list problems to subscriber of all such lists? (Each list owner could do a
> periodic "who cypherpunks" of the other lists, then use this list to send a
> message if a problem comes up. More sophisticated cross-processing could
> eliminate duplicates, etc.)

I think that it is rather desirable.

Also, I am curious if Raph Levien could adapt his remailer pinging system
to pinging the cypherpunks network, and produce his reports about the
speed and reliability of each site.

> * Alternatively, if one of the sites goes down, such as
> "cypherpunks@cyberpass.net" seems to have done, could the other sites
> automagically pick up the task of distributing articles until the site
> comes back up?

I've been thinking about the same problem in the last month, and I am not
sure how to solve this problem simply and reliably.

The advantage of the current network is that it was extremely simple to
propose and build.  It would be great if someone could propose something
as simple for the task that you are suggesting.

> * How feasible is it to have a single "virtual subscription address" which
> gets traffic from one of the various list sites? (To avoid having to
> subscribe to two or more lists and thus getting duplicates.)

It is not hard, of course, but how should it be different from any other
node in the network? Any existing node is such a virtual subscription
address, and each of them is a potential point of failure for their 
respective subscribers.

The only true reliability can be achieved by subscribing to two or more
cypherpunks sites, and eliminating duplicates. Reliability has its costs.

	- Igor.