Re: PGP Sigs on the Usenet (was: Re: Formatting Posts With VI)

From: name (user_at_host.domain)
Date: 09/13/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 20:26:36 -0000

On 2004-09-13, Alan Connor <zzzzzz@xxx.yyy> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 03:51:27 -0000, name <user@host.domain>
> wrote:

<snip>
>> I've a question, if I may: What is your reason for objecting
>> to those sigs, other than they appear to annoy you?
>
> 1) They violate the spirit of the Netiquette, which specifies
> that nothing be included in the body of a post that is not
> directly relevant to the subject at hand outside of a legal
> signature.

Ah. Sorry, it was my understanding that this had changed with the addition
of cryptology for identification purposes, in addition to security.

> 2) They are just *stupid* on the Usenet: Only 1 in 10,000 people
> even have the software to make use of them.

I think that's probably not the case. Most distros come with the software,
as I've had occasion to discover. Dunno about proprietary systems; don't
use them and nothing virtually nothing of them.

What does seem to be the case is that most people don't deploy what they
have, and if automatically deployed, do not enable same. At least not that
many people append the keys... well, I don't know about that. I've
honestly not paid that much attention. Maybe a count over a period of time
in an active NG would yield an insight here?

> So what we have is people cluttering their posts for no other
> reason than some kind of twisted ego-trip.
>
>> If that's
>> the only reason, would it not take less effort to simply filter
>> them out, leaving you to your peace?
>
> They don't disrupt my peace, though your question is a good one.
>
>>
>> Incidentally, I am aware that you are an experienced hand with
>> filters. Is it indeed not possible to do filter them?
>
> I do. My newsfilter (procmail) gives posts that have them a
> particular score.

Hmmm... procmail for news as well as mail... well, hadn't occured to me
that such would be useful, so don't know. I did recently managed to put
together a robust mail handling system (the three *mails, you know:
Fetchmail/Sendmail/Procmail... <grin>), but had not thought about including
the Usenet.

> Just killfiling scofflaws is not good enough. You have to keep
> after them until they change their ways, and in the process
> educate the Usenet newbies.

Well, there is popular support for the notion, though without penalty, law
is toothless, by and large. I guess I've usually ignored issues that have
not become generally important enough to have a level of consensus that
assigns penalty.

If, however, I perceive a clear and present danger that others appear to
regard as potential and perhaps incidental, I'll stand up and holler. But
I've come to understand that doing so has consequences of its own: If one
cannot marshall compelling support, one generally cannot even establish a
valid basis for future consideration even if one does fail to win the day.
The result is that the issue itself is tarred with the loss and becomes much
harder to prosecute even if a compelling case can be made at some other time.

In short, one can wind up damaging the argument one would support. Dunno
what the status of this one might be, hence my question.

> Thanks for a very sensible post on this subject.
>
> An aside: Do you use slrnpull?

No, I routinely dip in and out of very many newsgroups on a regular basis,
and the list changes just as regularly. I contribute to very few of these,
mostly technical groups, in the main. Perhaps I don't understand the extent
of slrnpull capability, but it was my impression it was intended for dial-up
accounts where connectivity was charged by rate. I have aDSL, so I've not
had a perceived use for it.

Thanks for reading. 

-- 
Email is wtallman at olypen dot com

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