> The central mailing list information clearing house would likewise
> and inevitably become the subject of heated debate and, most likely,
> raging hostility.
Although I'm not generally a paranoid anarchist, I object to the idea of
making setting up mailing lists a bureaucratic process. Right now anybody and
their dog can set up a mailing list without having to go through some kind
of application process. Having such a process will discourage grass roots,
non-technical, non-official type people from setting up lists. One thing
that has always made the Net strong is that anybody can become a publisher.
It also opens up the door to those who would like to regulate such things.
Once you've decided that it's OK to ban mailing lists for one reason -
because of spammers - it's easy to start tacking on new reasons to ban
them - next it's software piracy, then child porn, then adult porn, then
profanity, then anything anyone finds offensive. This scheme would put
the mechanism in place to make this easy to do, and you know politicians
will latch onto it.
> Let's say that I set this all up next week. Just suppose. Can I see a show
> of hands of how many of you mailing list administrators would actually sign
> up, get an official handle for your mailing list and get a public/private
> encryption key pair?
Sorry, not me.
Again, the strength of the Net is that it gives power to individuals. Yes,
that makes the Net is a messy place, because not all individuals are good or
responsible. But I don't like the idea of taking power away from individuals,
no matter how benevolent and enlightened the central authority and its
purpose.
- Kief
