Gmane

[Mike Easter]

John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>>
>> I think that all of the email addresses should be encrypted.  Altho'
>> the encryption isn't highly sophisticated as larsi at gnus.org will
>> become larsi at gnus.org [which will work for the
>> example] - that is way better than the way it is now, which is
>> completely unencrypted unless the mailer uses the X-Archive: encrypt
>> headerline.
>
> so would larsi at gnus.org forward to larsi at gnus.org
> ?

The gmane discussion of the functionality of its obfuscation strategy is
at http://gmane.org/tmda.php which is that emails to the obfuscated addy
would go first to a [ugh!] C/R challenge response gizmo

"Any mail sent to an address like larsi at gnus.org
will undergo a challenge/response scheme courtesy of TMDA. After the
sender has verified that she exists, the address will be decrypted, and
the message will be forwarded to the real recipient."

Obviously that isn't a good way to email someone individually instead of
or in additon to the list - so if I were inclined to want to email
someone 'personally' - I would do it with the regular mailing list
methodology.  That is, the all encrypted strategy would make it harder
to email a person personally if you were using the nntp or the html, but
it wouldn't interfere with mailing to the list.

> if so, what is the benefit? if not, what is the use? i have no
> experience with gmane at all, so please bear that in mind.

The benefit is to deter the spamming.  Right now I could use a 'bot and
XOVER all of the kplug addies at gmane which are to be found in the
nearly 2000 posts archived there.  If whoever had configured the
subscription in the first place had requested encryption, all of those
addies would be encrypted as above, and the spammer would have to xover
them all and then convert them to good addies instead of the
obfuscation.

> also - sparky is going to be swapped over to a new OS at some point
> (ahem, joshua and mark!) and at that time most likely moving over to
> mailman and postfix (which will put tracy and i out of a job, but i
> don't think you will hear us complaining too loudly). i offer that
> only as a data point.

That will likely solve my personal problem with not getting the mailing
lists in a timely fashion [I hope] - but it still leaves the
'disability' of mailing lists vs nntp - and I side with nntp in that
regard.

I guess my request could be boiled down to "I wish the current gmane
subscription to kplug would be encrypted addies instead of naked." -
which is partly because my poor excuse for a newsreader won't let me
configure the X-Archive: encrypt line, but also because I don't think
the vast majority of mailing list participants want their addies exposed
on a newsserver.  That is, gmane is a 'big' archiver and it offers
obfuscation and I think the obfuscation should be used.

BTW;  it is nice to be corresponding in 'real time' because of my timely
access to the nntp.  I haven't gotten any of these back as mailing list
items yet.

-- 
Mike Easter