ietf
[Top] [All Lists]

re: Mail sent to midcom

2001-02-13 07:10:02

I think this discussion is revealing a deep truth and
avoiding that truth at the same time.

the real root-cause of this discussion is the assertion
of identity as determined by email address. 
that's the operational basis for any kind of "subscription"
model based on email address.

the whole "moderation" thing is really about the identity
of posters, not their email address, and the imputed 
motives for their posting.  on the one hand, it's hard
to argue that it is unreasonable to try and protect
WG discourse from individuals with "hostile" motives.
the problem, though, is the technology currently has
not strong notion of identity upon which to base such
a determination other than email address.

once upon a time, people were lucky to have *one* email
address and a given individual tended to be associated
with that email address in a very strong way, enough
so that people decided it was a sufficient indicator
of identity.

today, with many more people having email addresses
and many people having more than one email address
for good and righteous reasons, that model simply
doesn't work anymore.  it isn't a "good-bad" thing,
it's a "not applicable at the current scale" thing.

it did work - it doesn't work anymore.

if we want to do such discrimination based on the identity of
the poster, (and i happen to believe *lots* of people want to
do this), then we need to get busy and improve the technology
and stop trying to pound the tree-trunk through the small
knot-hole.

        -mo

ps - no, i didn't say anything about removing anonymity,
if people do not wish to assert an identity in an email,
that's fine with me.  the recipients can use that tidbit
of information as they see fit.