Re: [Asrg] Too Big to Block?

[Alessandro Vesely <[e-mail]>]

Rich Kulawiec wrote:
> In other words: we do not need any new mechanisms.  We do not need 
> reputation services, or vouching services, or any of the other interesting 
> ideas that have been put forth.  We need to use the mechanisms we already 
> have, and have had for some time.

I agree that mechanisms cannot do any good if they are not used. 
However, to forbid any new mechanism until existing ones won't have 
taken root may be exceedingly harsh.

>  The days when we could expect network
> and system administrators to care about the abuse emanating from their 
> operations because it was clearly their highest responsibility and ethical 
> obligation have been gone for a long time.  (Some still do, of course -- 
> and good for them.)  The priority now is profit, profit, profit, and 
> thus it is necessary to speak to them in a language they understand.

If we were able to highlight differences so as to improve competition, 
that would be understandable in those terms. But that requires a user 
base that is sensible to those arguments. IMHO, it is not much the gap 
between profit and ethics --different scale of planning horizon-- as 
the average user's ability to appreciate the quality of mail services, 
that has degraded them.

Perhaps, we should think of ways to make mechanisms visible to end users?