FUT: alt.security

"Speaking of Netiquette" wrote in message
...
wrote:

You shouldn't send binary files to a newsgroup that isn't chartered
for such. Or mime types for that matter.

Dennis I agree with you one hundred percent on the binary posts.

Calling an S/MIME signature a "binary post" is really absurd and missing the
point. For those of you that don't understand it, the S/MIME signature
serves the same purpose as a PGP Signature which is commonly used. A quick
search found over 2.5 million PGP signed messages that had been posted to
Usenet.

The most obvious difference (and benefit) to most users is that S/MIME
signed posts don't include a block of gibberish like this near the bottom of
each post:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6

iQCVAgUBLfp2yTwTlK+hrwANAQHKxgP/QRKje36WMpxa1mDMxDXXWgalMP8HGQl+
Qh8o9XffWrNgxr55XRt79y8CA73MbmKVEiQmN9h1tdNJpkj2mX 20yNE6+92guNXh
n7kh7yhgtustkQp6nJ3dJW6q3u4QcyuVaW0WtzpYw3tSBEO2B6 va0HNv8qLA1fDb
+Li/iT7s8qU=
=/+Si
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Instead, this information is hidden from anyone with a MIME compliant news
reader.

The signature is automatically verified by the recipient's client - and a
warning message appears if it has been altered, tampered with, or spoofed.
By the sheer nature of the process of obtaining a digital ID, we know that
the email address is valid as well.

Since the signature is tied to the email address, it makes it really easy to
block all messages from people who sign their messages by simply plonking
the sender or adding the user to your killfile.


However.... Since you are picking nits and discussing netiquette, you
just replied a short while ago to another post in this same newsgroup
and made a four line comment and then proceeded to quote over two
hundred lines of totally unecessary text.

Let's not forget that as a rule of thumb (RFC 1855), signatures (completely
different from digital signatures, despite the similar name) should be 4
lines or less.

Mr. Hawkins takes up 7 lines of space to pitch backwards anti-globalist
views against foreigners securing employment in the US.

If the members of a given newsgroup wish to enforce a set of behavioral
standards on the community of users posting to the group, it is customary to
maintain a FAQ that details such posting guidelines and to enumerate them in
the newsgroup charter.

I read the charter before posting and saw NO prohibition against posting
binaries or MIME content such as S/MIME digital signatures. Since more and
more NNTP clients are beginning to support S/MIME (Outlook Express and
Mozilla Thunderbird for starters) then this will only happen more frequently
in the future. If the consensus objects to any kind of digital signatures
then those can be specifically banned.

Things are a little twisted though when the only people complaining about a
digitally signed post are people hiding behind obfuscated email addresses.

I sign my posts (and have for years) as a service to my fellow newsgroup
members - and to protect myself from spoofing.

In private email, Mr. Hawkins made remarks complaing that my initial 6kb
post was excessively large, yet his reply was 3kb itself. This doesn't seem
very rational to me - though I wouldn't rationality from a guy that was
invoking porn and viruses as reasons for prohibiting security signatures.

Followups to alt.security

Regards,
Neb