From: "Daniel J. Boone" <djb@alaska.net>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 03:16:20 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: The closed Nym list
Message-ID: <34957D5E.720C5BC5@alaska.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim May wrote:

> Declan decided that rebroadcasting articles out of Nym would not be
> allowed, but he said nothing about not mentioning its existence. (Nor would
> I have agreed to be on a list whose very existence I could not disclose.)
> Anyway, tonight when I mentioned its existence as I was posting an article
> here that I wrote for the Nym list, I half-expected some comments from
> Dimitri.
> 
> But I didn't expect someone to post the subscription instructions
> (anonymously, of course). Hint: it wasn't I.
> 
> Anyway, I suppose that by mid-morning tomorrow Declan is going to have to
> decide how to deal with subscriptions by Vulis, Human Gus-Peter, Toto, and
> all the others.

The Nym list appears to be closed.  (The web page says so -- so I didn't
try.)  This state of affairs may even be my fault.  The history, for
those who care, is appended.

It's a shame -- if David Brin really is posting there as one of Tim's
recent messages suggested I'd be very interested in seeing his posts. 
(Thanks, Tim, for reposting yours here.)

I still don't think it makes much sense to have a conversation about the
use of nyms and then try to protect the posters' words from public
view.  If posters are concerned about public scrutiny, why not use a
nym?  Not to mention the fact that one would have to keep the list
closed to have a prayer of enforcing the no-repost rule.

--Daniel Boone

History:

Robert Hettinga was briefly forwarding "nym" posts to e$pam, where I saw
them.  Declan publically requested that posts not be forwarded.  I sent
Robert a message asking if he was going to comply -- and expressed (to
Robert) my lack of respect for a no-forwarding policy.  Robert (that
notorious cross-pollinizer that he is) forwarded my message to Declan,
which was unfortunate -- as Declan no doubt considered my message
insulting.  (Addressed to Declan, it would have been.) I got a very
chilly "response" from Declan about how he had no duty to entertain me
with his list traffic.  I took the opportunity to ask him how his
no-repost rule would fare when someone using a nym started reposting the
traffic publicly.  He responded with "the list is now closed" or words
to that effect.  I realized too late he may have thought _I_ was
threating to do the evil reposting deed.