Re: [OT] Posting styles

[Indulekha <indulekha@theunworthy.com>]

In linux.debian.user, Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> wrote:
>
> Wayne Topa wrote:
>> Who would want to spoof YOUR Mail.
>>=20
>> I have been on this list for 19 years now and do not recall anyone being
>> spoofed.  From the tenor of your mails, I doubt anyone would gain
>> anything from it.
>
> This is fallacious, dangerous, and probably insulting thinking.
>
> I'm sure that many people on this list are eg, sysadmins for large or
> important installations. Or perhaps they are researchers,
> decision-makers, free software developers, or any of a myriad of
> other important things.
>
> If you're at least some of the time sending mail that is important to be
> reliably attributed to you, it *absolutely* makes sense to sign that
> mail. 

Yeah, but to a *mailing* *list* ??? I think not...

> If you're signing some mail, you might as well sign all of it, as
> this will habituate people to expect your mail to be signed, and avoid
> you needing to decide what's important enough to sign. It also acts as a
> nice signal that you can handle encrypted mail, which needs to be used
> more widely.
>

So, since I sometimes need big, thigh high rubber boots to keep my feet and 
legs dry and clean, I should just wear my big rubber boots everywhere all 
time then, right? That way whether I'm at the grocery store, the office, or 
the barn there'll be no worries. :D

Seriously, when people sign every mail with a key (or request email return 
receipts) they're either saying "look how cool *I* am", or "my desire to 
$[express my geekiness | indulge my paranoia] trumps your wish to simply 
read email".

Besides, if everyone signed all mail it'd be a very short matter of time 
til the means to spoof any gpg/pgp key would appear. 
If you and I work together on a secret project for a defense contractor, 
or in banking or something it makes senseto sign business-related emails 
to one another. For casual communication it's just madness.

Of course, that's merely my opinion. :)
-- 
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 Indulekha