On April 7, 2019 3:02:36 AM UTC, Steve Kinney <[email protected]> wrote: > > >On 4/6/19 5:32 AM, grarpamp wrote: >> >https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/25-years-later-interview-linus-torvalds >> >> "Social Media... Add in anonymity, and it's just disgusting. When you >> don't even put your real name on your garbage (or the garbage you >> share or like), it really doesn't help. I'm actually one of those >> people who thinks that anonymity is overrated. Some people confuse >> privacy and anonymity and think they go hand in hand, and that >> protecting privacy means that you need to protect anonymity. I think >> that's wrong. Anonymity is important if you're a whistle-blower, but >> if you cannot prove your identity, your crazy rant on some >> social-media platform shouldn't be visible, and you shouldn't be able >> to share it or like it." >> > >The above sounds like a comparison between The Facebook (makes a token >effort to tie accounts to users' True Names), and 4chan (makes a token >effort to disconnect users from their True Names). That strikes me as >a >forced context creating forced either/or alternatives. We need a >middle >ground between True Names Only and Anonymous FTW. We already have a >working example of that middle ground: The i2p network. > >i2p users host various resources including websites, torrent trackers, >and community forums on their own hardware, and access the resources >etc. of their choice either anonymously, or pseudonymously via >user-chosen screen names. i2p users may disclose their True Names at >will, but by default the identity and location of i2p users can not be >determined without State level infrastructure access and surveillance >resources. An i2p user's actual True Name is his or her i2p router ID, >which by design has no connection with any geographic location or birth >certificate. > >Result? A more intelligent, better behaved version of the Internet, >with prevailing attitudes reminiscent of the public Internet shortly >before AOL popped up and saturation bombed us with weaponized morons, >followed by MegaCorporations looking to manipulate, control and extract >capital from the said morons. (Younger folks: Look up "Eternal >September" for the sad true story.) > >I can not completely attribute the modest i2p success story to the >prevalence of users known by pseudonyms only. To access i2p one has to >install and configure software that will not work unless one cam read >and apply howto docs and such; this screens out the less-bright 80% of >potential users right up front. Size also matters: The smaller the >network, the more good or bad behavior stands out, and the larger the >benefits of presenting as a good (in the sense of useful) person. At >present, i2p has about 60k users according to stats.i2p. > >But I do not discount the prevalence of stable pseudo-identities as the >primary factor affecting the quality of content and discourse in i2p >space; without this factor, concerns for reputation would have no >impact. Compared to the great unwashed publick visible on the open >Internet under their own names, i2p participants seem remarkably >polite, >intelligent and responsible. Go figure. > >A user's i2p persona can take any form, and may include the content of >websites that live on their creators' own hardware, accessible only via >the i2p router network. It takes about a day for anyone who knows HTML >to build a website in i2p space; just turn on the server included in >the >router package and populate the relevant local directories with >content. > >Pseudonyms that become visible in i2p space through participation over >time become "persons" in a community, defined by their in-network >behavior, building relationships and reputations based on their >contributions. The folks who wear those masks mostly take good care of >them, because the trust and cooperation of other users in the community >has value: When a well respected i2p user asks for something, other >users who have benefited from that user's contributions, advice, >example >etc. make a real effort to come through, because that's what humans do. >Smart ones, anyway. > >:o) > >Postscript: Above I mentioned True Names, from the Vernor Vinge >novella >of that name. Published in 1981, True Names introduced the term >'cyberspace' and several key concepts relevant to Cypherpunk interests. > If you ain't seen it, here's a copy somebody else hosted so I don't >have to: http://www.scotswolf.com/TRUENAMES.pdf
Not to be too much of a pedant, but I always thought William Gibson coined the term cyberspace, first in (I think) the short story Burning Chrome and then in the novel Neuromancer (1982 and 1984, respectively). I need to read True Names (thanks!) - although a cursory search didn't find the phrase.
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