Initially discussion group technologies on FLORA were separated into mailing lists (handled by Majordomo), or newsgroups (distributed via INN). The division between these two technologies begins to blur as we now make more and more use of hybrids between mailing lists and newsgroups.
The newsgroup culist.can-freenet is an example of a mailing list gated to a newsgroup. Messages posted to that newsgroup are sent to the can-freenet@cunews.carleton.ca mailing list.
The newsgroup flora.comnet-www is an example of a newsgroup that has Email distribution. One can post a message to this newsgroup by sending an email to comnet-www@flora.org, and can subscribe to the list 'comnet-www' via majordomo@flora.org in order to receive copies by Email.
With a gated mailing list there is one point of
entry for the discussion group, and all submissions to the discussion
group must go through this entry point before being distributed. This
has the advantage of allowing various types of filters to be installed
at the entry point which may be used to filter out undesirable
messages. It also ensures that this central distribution point has a
copy of any message that will appear in the discussion group.
The
disadvantage is that this central entry point may become congested or
dammaged, completely closing off all communication within the
discussion group. It also puts a trust on this central entry point
which may not be desirable for many types of discussions.
A newsgroup that has email distribution does not have any central site. In fact, any number of sites can facilitate contributions to discussions via a variety of means, including regular newsgroup posting and email posting. Any number of sites can also distribute messages to people via email for those who are not able to participate in the discussion in it's native newsgroup form.
Since a newsgroup is a shared technology, less resources are needed on any given host. For this reason and the because of the issue of centralized control, FLORA strongly favours newsgroups as it's basic discussion group technology.
A number of new technologies are becoming available to help combat these problems. Most of these technologies rely on the use of PGP Public Key technology, and it is recommended that people read information about PGP prior to reading this document in order to better understand what is being proposed.
Two different angles are being taken to attack the problem: authenticating the identity of a posting, filtering and removing inappropriate postings.
While it is sometimes desirable to not need to divulge one's personal identity, it is very important to create a known online persona. What needs to be done is to indicate that the person posting the current message is the *SAME* person who posted a previous message under that identity, and thus this individual - real or otherwise - can build a reputation.
Building a personal reputation is accomplished by PGP signing each message that is posted. Whenever someone reads your message they are able to verify your identity, much like they are able to do with sight and sound in a face-to-face conversation.
The readers of a message are then able to make personal choices, just as they do in person, as to whether or not they wish to listen to what you have to say. They can decide to 'tune out' anything that you will say in the future, or they can choose to read your messages extremely closely. Just as with everyday interpersonal interactions, the onus is on you to make sure that what you have to say will have an audience.
FLORA will be trying to make information on PGP message signing available, and will help with the training of individuals in it's use. We will also help to make better newsreading and posting tools available.
In the past, tools were written that would send out a CANCEL message for any posting that was crossposted to more than 5 or so newsgroups. Unfortunately, CANCEL messages can be forged by any knowledgable user and have been used to CENSOR postings that an individual did not agree with. Many sites are now starting to ignore CANCEL messages. The problem again is one of authenticity, this time of the person wishing to have a posting removed.
To solve this problem a new protocol called NoCeM has been designed. This protocol allows people to send out signed messages suggesting that certain messages should be hidden, and even allows one to highlight other messages as being interesting to read.
FLORA intends to adopt the NoCeM protocol as a replacement to cancel messages, and to encourage it's use on other Ottawa community-networking sites.
We will also want to make use of these filters for those people who choose to use Email distribution of newsgroups. A user will be given the choice to delay the receipt of messages until they have been verified as being on-topic by a discussion group facilitator. Details about this option will be made available in the future.
To: spam@flora.org Subject: Whatever you want -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Action: NoCeM CANCEL Email Type: MMF >From money@money.com Fri Jan 3 17:28:23 EST 1997 Article: 2317 of ott.test Path: news.flora.ottawa.on.ca!news.synapse.net!n4ott.istar!ott.istar!istar.n et!n3ott.istar!news-out.internetmci.com!news.internetMCI.com!newsfeed. internetmci.com!howland.erols.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprint link.net!nntp.sprintmail.com!news@sprintmail.com From: Free Money <money@money.com> Newsgroups: ott.test Subject: RAPID CASH Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 17:39:22 -0500 Organization: Sprint Internet Passport Lines: 125 Message-ID: <32C8449A.21E4@money.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sdn-ts-011mdrelrp06.dialsprint.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01E-SI001B02 (Win95; U) This is the fairest, most honest way I have seen to share in the wealth of the world.! [rest deleted to save space] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: latin1 iQCVAwUBMs2JsVnBbqL7SY1BAQEvjQP+LXdQOaykqDaQWjZkEXJX4DoWHkoQNOnl Mwtab+095QWPhZX5qLjADzkYvZhFO+aqzjJrns0jwCgR5Y1z9EiA/reWbvpO0XS+ gsyj0dR/UTnBHjcK9zEsDudsiLdSo7JMb09opV/ZCgePL0DOHq2fXFjITKuK+ZfM PJB6WGNS+pQ= =YJib -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----The above message would then be posted to a newsgroup (flora.admin.filters), assuming the message had been signed with a valid PGP key (IE: The key of one of the FLORA discussion group facilitators). Various tools would then be able to look at the messages, check the PGP signatures of the posters, and do the appropriate actions.