Maybe I am just stupid

[Colin]

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Last night I sent a signed message to someone and they told me they were 
unable to find my key on a keyserver (http://keyserver.pgp.net). So I put my 
key up on this server and did a search for it. If I search under my email 
address (or part thereof) I can find my key fine but if I enter the 8 digit 
key that comes with a signed message who's user is not on my keyring then I 
find nothing. I assume that the 8 digits I send on a signed message are  
'8BBEA7F4' (correct me please if I am wrong) and if I do a search for this on 
the keyserver it again says 'no match'.
If I see the below in a message
Message was signed by unknown key ID C37FC139
then do I not do a search for the 8 digit code on the keyserver to verify the 
key and the user?

Colin Rose
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