Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cos!hadron!inco!mack
From: mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Decrypting the P&W Digest Etc.
Message-ID: <2611@inco.UUCP>
Date: 12 Sep 88 15:53:13 GMT
References: <13971@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <2015@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: alembic!mack@inco.uu.net
Followup-To: alt.sex
Organization: McDonnell Douglas-INCO, McLean, VA
Lines: 32

In article <2015@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
>One should not ever allow automatic decryption of rotated articles.
>That defeats the whole point!

Agreed, but that's not what weemba was talking about. He has simply (?)
added hooks to permit Gnews users to do automatic derotation. This certainly
qualifies as an explicit action, particularly since it is newsgroup
specific. (My apologies to Matthew for oversimplifying this.)

>The whole idea behind this scheme is that people must take a special,
>explicit action to see the article.

Correct. There are undoubtedly people, including some who subscribe
to alt.sex, who would be offended by the contents of the P&W Digest.
That's why it is published with an unrotated warning followed by a
rotated collection of articles.

>Somebody once told me that their newsreader did an automatic decrypt on
>any article with "rot13" in the title, and so would I please put that in
>the title of encrypted rec.humor.funny postings.
>
>My response was not what he wished.  I now delete rot13 if it's in the
>title.  If somebody starts putting in automatic rot13 detectors, I will
>have to switch away from rot13, no matter what the complaints.

Almost ditto. From now on, I will not put "rot13" in the header, although
it will remain in the body of the Digest. I'm not likely to switch away
from rot13 encryption unless someone starts distributing a newsreader
with this "feature" built in.

Dave Mack
net.porno.king