Encryption on Mailing lists sensless?

[Robert J. Hansen]

> It’s completely true. However Mark’s right when saying it could help
> to do it client-side...

No.  Client-side, you get to inspect (fully) only your data, and you
have to develop a statistical model of spam based on only your data.
When Gmail filters, it inspects (fully) traffic to *millions* of users,
and uses that to create a model no individual user can hope to match.

Encrypting everything, even Aunt Edna's recipe for potato salad, means a
significant step backwards in the spam fight.  I love decentralized
algorithms, but there's something to be said for a God's-eye perspective
on the problem -- look at decentralized route discovery protocols versus
Dijkstra's algorithm as an example.

> But the true solution is this one: use only free software, software 
> you’re sure you can check the sources.

Maybe one user in ten thousand has the skill to audit a nontrivial
codebase.  Free software is a good idea, but let's not pretend that
normal users will realize a real benefit from being able to check their
source code.