At 11:29 AM 12/27/96, David Schwartz wrote:

On Fri, 27 Dec 1996, Neil J. McRae wrote:

...

The last thing the Internet needs is some dodgy cartell deciding on who is allowed access and who isn't. Although I've had similair experience mostly from academic sites.

I think a list of sites that refuse to deal with troublemakers (with details) would be extremely useful. If people want to use it to blackhole traffic, that would be their decision.

Even more importantly, you could check it before choosing an ISP or provider to be sure that your provider is running a clean ship. That way you don't get inconvenienced by other provider's defensive acts against your provider.

As an added bonus, you have some more assurance that your provider will come to your aid if you are mail bombed, ping flooded, or hacked in some other way. Providers that deal effectively with their own customers when they create trouble are much more likely to assist their own customers when they are attacked.

David Schwartz WIZnet

Perhaps the model we might examine is not so much a cartel that decides who gets access, but that of a credit reporting service. Each merchant that uses such a reporting service makes an independent decision whether or not to grant credit. If such a service were established, I certainly would want to avoid the secretiveness, and resistance to correction, that long affected -- and still affects some -- credit bureaus. Howard Berkowitz