December 9, 2001
11:24 AM   Subscribe

The Cypherpunks email list, an online forum that in many ways defined Internet activism, was booted unceremoniously from its original home, the Toad Hall Web site, earlier this week. Cypherpunks veteran John Gilmore all but dismissed the computer-security and privacy forum he co-founded in the early 1990s. It had, he wrote, "degenerated a long time ago to the point where I have no idea why more than 500 people are still receiving it every day."
posted by tranquileye (4 comments total)
 
interesting article. does it say anwhere exactly why they were "uncermoniously booted"?
posted by jessamyn at 6:05 PM on December 9, 2001


by far the biggest problem the list suffered from is that since 1994, cypherpunks@toad.com was the e-mail address people wishing to be anonymous gave as their registration address on Websites. Which meant that it receives *fistfuls* of spam every hour.

cypherpunks, though, true to its spirit, decentralised a long time ago. most people now post and read through one of the gateways that filters away the spam. the disappearence of the original list home hasn't affected it one bit, AFAICS.

it's still a fairly noisy place, but there's interesting new developments on the edges if you know how to eliminate (and kill file) the noise.
posted by ntk at 11:46 PM on December 9, 2001


hey, this is FPP 13,000! way to go.
posted by jessamyn at 12:00 AM on December 10, 2001


I supposed it had gone away years ago. Where do the 'punks hang out these days?
posted by Iberaband at 9:43 AM on December 10, 2001


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