[...]
> Michael Pollak <mpollak ** panix.com>
>
> or
>
> Michael Pollak <mpollak __ panix.com>
>
> now, since there's some confusion, it's the case that, when you are
> actually ON THE LIST and receiving individual or digest mail, you will see
> everyone's email address. so, matt's complaint was a bit silly. but, if
> someone stumbled over a post they liked or wanted to flame then matt's
> complaint is that he wouldn't know who to write to (i don't know about
> anyone else, but i get 10 mails a years asking me questions, flaming me, or
> thanking me for a post at LBO). he's got a point.
That was exactly my point. I wasn't just thinking of people who subscribed, but people who stumble across the archives doing a search.
> this other solution is less work and still flips spammers the bird. google
> still turns up searches for mpollak, though.
There are multiple issues here. If the archives were obfuscated as above (most USENET posters do this kind of thing themselves) that would be great since it would slow down the spammers from harvesting addresses. That was not the original proposal though.
The privacy issue is different, and I still think the onus is one the user to provide their desired level of pseudoanonymity. Assuming that posts to a public mailing list won't end up in an archive is just not very smart, especially if one thinks their posts might be controversial at work or at home. And while I may not have 20 years coding experience, I have been using this 'net for over 10 years and I am in charge of network security for a Fortune 500 company, so I might just know a couple of things about this stuff. Take it FWIW, but I am not going to 'sit down and shut the fuck up' because someone with whom I disagree happens to be older than me (talk about a warped borgie notion!!!).
Again, people that want pseudoanonymity should use a webmail service. I'd use hushmail.com instead of things like yahoo.com. If people want maximum privacy they have to go to greater lengths and setup a PGP protected pseudonym and use remailers. Plenty of information is available at:
http://www.eskimo.com/~turing/remailer/FAQ/
Matt
-- Matt Cramer <cramer at voicenet.com> http://www.voicenet.com/~cramer/ PGP RSA Key ID: 0x1F6A4471 aim: beyondzero123 PGP DH/DSS Key ID: 0xAFF35DF2 icq: 120941588
yahoo msg: beyondzero123 Theoretically, people see money on the counter, and no one around, they think they're being watched.
-Dante Hicks Honesty through paranoia.
-Veronica