Concerning _RULEMAKING: PGP SIGS_, Bill Cheek said to Pete Hopping in 
SCANRADIO:
 BC> Cost is not an issue.  I pay $2.37 every 3-months for a monstrous load
 BC> of mail. The old days were maybe a different matter, but anymore,cost
 BC> is insignificant.  The argument for it is hollow, anyway.
Not everybody is hooked into Planet Connect, and not everybody's echofeed is 
a local call.  Admittedly, these people are few and far between, but they do 
exist.  I live out in the boonies, and right now I have one (1) choice when 
it comes to getting echomail locally.  If he ever closes down...
PGP sigs don't bother me because I hardly ever see them.  If they became 
commonly and casually used, that would bother me.  It wouldn't cost me more, 
but it would take more time to download packets.  I could buy a faster modem, 
or I could live with it.  I would take longer to process these packets.  I 
could buy more RAM or a faster computer, or I could live with it.  The 
messages would take up more space on the harddrive.  I could buy a bigger 
harddrive, keep fewer messages onhand, or whatever.
The main thing, though, is that they're just a pain to page past when I'm 
reading messages.
So I suggest what PGP signatures be allowed, but only when the situation 
actually warrants their use.  Stuff like multiple people posting with the 
same name, for instance.  For regular, everyday posts, forget 'em.
PGP *encrypted* messages, on the other hand, I against completely for most 
echomail conferences.  And I don't see the point in sending PGP public keys 
through the echo, especially in the same message.
 BC> SO what about taglines?  Is a tagline a less of a waste than a
 BC> digital sig?
Individually, taglines are smaller than PGP sigs or those big internetesque 
address blocks, but when you compare wasted bytage, taglines win out by sheer 
numbers.  On the other hand, they're small and generally easy to ignore (some 
readers even offer the option of not displaying taglines at all), whereas 
multiple lines of addresses, PGP codes, or cute ASCII graphics tend to grab 
ones attention.  And, of course, should at some time in the future these 
become anywhere near as common as taglines, they'll take up considerably more 
space.
I suggest that taglines are okay, but that larger sigs be discouraged on an 
everyday basis.
... 100,000 lemmings can't be wrong...
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