From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   VanguardLH wrote:   
   > Maria Sophia  wrote:   
   >   
   >> Every January 1st, I change the moniker on many of my accounts for privacy.   
   >>   
   >> The rest of the headers are completely random from dictionary lookups   
   >> (as my "newsreader" is actually a bunch of scripts using telnet & gVim).   
   >   
   > Hmm, are your scripts smart enough to incorporate AI to the extent   
   > available to parse and analyze the content of articles you retrieve from   
   > the NNTP server?  Nope, so why do you expect other NNTP clients capable   
   > of such AI feats?   
   >   
   >> I'm not "hiding from you".   
   >   
   > We've been over that before.  Nymshifting *is* hiding.  Nymshifting and   
   > content are distinct from each other, just like farting when entering   
   > someone else's car doesn't excuse you after giving the driver a gift.   
   > They might ignore the offense, but it is an offense.  Pick a Usenet   
   > identity, or go away despite your ego stroking to supply unsolicited   
   > help.   
   >   
   >> I change nothing but the headers. Hence, if you   
   >> can't figure out who I am in less than about ten seconds based on what I   
   >> write and how I write it ...   
   >   
   > Oh yes, AI has infiltrated NNTP clients, so they can all parse and   
   > analyze your content.  Uh huh.  No filters can identify you by your   
   > style or content, only by specific words in the body (and some NNTP   
   > clients doesn't even have filters with conditions that can look inside   
   > the body of posts).   
   >   
   >> If you have no understanding of privacy, ...   
   >   
   > Don't participate in Usenet if you are extremely paranoid regarding your   
   > privacy.  Establish a Usnet identity.  That does NOT mandate you divulge   
   > your personal identity.  You think my parents name me VanguardLH?   
   >   
   > So, every year, we have to update our nymshifter filters to account for   
   > your repeated nymshifting.  And that is after we start to recognize your   
   > content as typical of your prior nyms.   
   >   
   > So, how many nyms have you used, so far?  What was your prior one?  How   
   > many have you used in the last year?  Over all years you've been   
   > nymshifting?  If you are indeed not hiding then you won't mind divulging   
   > your prior nyms.   
      
   Hi VanguardLH (previously known as just Vanguard)   
      
   This is a long detailed well-thought out respectful response, where I'm   
   already well aware that you, of all people, can handle a detailed reply. :)   
      
   I appreciate your questions, and I've known you for years (via Usenet) from   
   your previous nym (Vanguard without the LH), so I am aware that you're a   
   helpful person who does out of his way to explain things to people on   
   Usenet.   
      
   You are like I am, in fact, in that you go well out of your way to help   
   them, which I do very much appreciate, although we differ greatly in other   
   ways (as I don't make decisions as quickly as you do, for one example).   
      
   It seems to me, after studying your responses for years, that you are like   
   Mayayana/Newana and John Gilliver/JP Gilliver and others, in that your   
   Myers-Briggs is highly "N" and strongly "J" if you know about MB scales.   
      
   I'm balanced on the "N/S" and very strong on the "P" so the way we approach   
   decisions using strongly held beliefs is, in my opinion, vastly different.   
      
   In my estimation (which could be wrong as it's based only on my   
   interpretation of your many posts to help people) is that you have strongly   
   held beliefs that aren't necessarily based on a wide variety of facts.   
      
   You, and those like you, often hold VERY STRONG beliefs, based on VERY FEW   
   facts, which is vastly different than I am since I use VERY MANY facts   
   before I bother to hold a very strong opinion on anything.   
      
   Given what I feel is your propensity to hold strongly held beliefs on very   
   few facts, I perfectly well understand all your comments above, as they fit   
   that mold perfectly. And you're not wrong as it's your own belief system.   
      
   But what you need to do is be a bit more "P" and a bit less "J" when you   
   tell me what you think I should do, as what you think I should do is what   
   you would do - but you don't base that on the same data that I do. Nor do   
   you give each datapoint the same weight that I do. We're different.   
      
   So that long-winded opening above is simply to say that I respect you, and   
   I applaud your attention to helping people but we do think very   
   differently. A decision YOU would make may be different than one I would   
   make, even if we're both given the same input conditions.   
      
   To that end, you keep repeating your strongly held belief system that   
   nymshifting is "hiding" from YOU (even as only a fool wouldn't know my   
   posts in ten seconds);  but you apparently ignore the context I have stated   
   for decades which is that I change the wrapping paper but not the gift   
   as a basic privacy measure. It is not aimed at you or anyone here.   
   It is aimed at automated profiling by outsiders who mine long term   
   posting histories. That is a normal and documented privacy risk.   
      
   You also keep insisting that if I change a nym then no one can recognize   
   me. Yet you admit that you identify my content anyway. That proves my   
   point. Regulars can recognize style and subject matter. Changing a nym   
   does not hide anything from humans who have been reading me for years.   
      
   I haven't changed my location. I haven't changed my device.   
   I use the same screenshots. I have the same attitude toward privacy.   
      
   Hence, your analogy about "offense" does not fit. Usenet does not require   
   a fixed identity in the wrapping paper. It never has. Many long time users   
   rotate nyms for privacy or compartmentalization. You did it for some   
   reason. Mayayana did it. JP Gilliver did it. Plenty of people do it.   
      
   That is not an attack on anyone. It is a choice about how to manage   
   exposure on a public medium.   
      
   You ask how many nyms I have used. The answer is the same as always. I   
   rotate randomly. I have said that openly for decades. The fact that   
   you can still recognize my writing shows that I am not hiding from the   
   group. I am reducing the amount of long term metadata that can be tied   
   to a single string.   
      
   You are free to maintain filters if you want. That is your choice. My   
   choice is to practice basic privacy hygiene on a medium where everything   
   is archived forever. That does not require your approval.   
      
   I respect you. And I learn from you. And you can learn from me.   
      
   I hope therefore that you understand that I make different strongly held   
   decisions than you do, perhaps with the same data, but do realize I am a   
   student of history where I'm well aware that history is full of people   
   who were tracked without knowing it, like Angela Merkel, Martin Luther King   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)