Re: PR disasters

From: Martin Ling (martin@nodezero.org.uk)
Date: Sun Jun 25 2000 - 14:50:52 MDT


On Sat, Jun 24, 2000 at 09:31:03PM -0700, hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> Here's another idea, which just popped into my head. It doesn't help
> with the "extropians believe X" taunt, but it would prevent individuals
> from being linked to their comments in the archives.
>
> Imagine a "pseudonymizing" mail list. Everyone who posts gets their
> name transformed into a pseudonym which is a deterministic but secret
> function of the email address (for example, the md5sum of a fixed secret
> string concatenated to the email address). These are put in as the
> "From" addresses.

In a different context last month, I was also suggesting something
almost similar (attatched below).

I would love to try some experimentation with both these ideas, perhaps
leading to one or both becoming useful tools, or just as a learning
exercise.

Martin

On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 10:50:59AM +0100, Martin Ling wrote:
> On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 10:56:32PM -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> >
> > I am beginning to question whether rational discussion can occur on a list
> > such as this. How do we hold rational discussions with people who don't
> > understand the basic rules of logic, debate, semantics or scientific method?
> > How do we hold definitions and examples constant? How do we keep debates
> > from evolving to back and forth banter that is so far removed from the
> > original positions, that nobody even understands what is being discussed
> > anymore?
>
> Anonymous posting.
>
> Set up a hotmail account and provide everyone here with the password.
>
> One person posts a question or conjecture for discussion, from that
> address. Following that, everyone who wishes to comment on it does so
> from the same address, and doesn't sign their post. You will have to
> watch out for your writing style if it is particularly distinctive.
>
> I tried this once with some friends on another list. It was extremely
> interesting and productive. We kept it up for quite some time, but
> learned enough from doing it to be able to go back to posting ourselves.
>
> In fact, here goes. I've arranged it on Yahoo:
>
> Login at: http://mail.yahoo.com/
>
> User: anon_extropian
> Pass: extropian
>
> I don't mean to insult anyone by doing this. But give it a try - it's an
> interesting exercise.
>
>
> Martin

-- 
-----[ Martin J. Ling ]-----[ http://www.nodezero.org.uk ]-----



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