Hi folks,
maybe it's OT but I think it's important.
The difference of size between an pgp-signed (2048bit-key) and an unsigned mail is about 4800 bit.
Even with a slow 14400 b/s modem connect this will cause an download
delay of < 0.35 s per mail. Let's say you receive 100 mails per day,
then you have to wait about 35s longer till the download is finished.
I think that's not so much waste of bandwith that it will justify the
claim of some users not to use PGP on mailinglists.
The "normal" signatures of some users are often bigger than a
pgp-singnature, so if we wanna safe bandwith, it would be better
to use no signatures instead of use no pgp-signatures.
But sometimes I think every "argument" is good enough to demonise
the use of PGP.
You're overlooking several other important issuese.
It is common place for mailing lists to 'waste' bandwidth by injecting extra headers with subscribe/unsubscribe/info data in each and every message. These headers when you realize they're in each and every message regardless of sender account for more space than all the gpg sigs. Additionally, the people that are meant to be helped by said headers routinely ignore them and send unsubscribe requests to the list.
The other issue is that when you subscribe to known high traffic lists it is reasonable to expect that you can keep up with the traffic. Should it become too much of a burden, unsubscribing is easy enough. Its not like you're being spammed for no reason.
What I find interresting is all the fuss over gpg, while the extra list and user specific x-headers go unmentioned.
In reality tho, the whole gpg 'problem' is a straw man. It consumes less bandwidth than the unread threads, rehashes of problems and off topic discussions that abound on mailing lists. Pgp signatures are no more of a 'problem' than you want them to be for you.
For another fun disccussion, try the HTML in email thread.
My $MUA cannot read your $MESSAGE, therefore your $MESSAGE must be broken....
My $MUA can read both types of $MESSAGE, therefore your $MUA is feature incomplete....
Watch for keywords like RFC and 'bloat'. Nevermind that html and pgp are open standards and there have been rfc's on how to integrate them into email for years... there's still a ton of broken mua's out there that grok neither html nor pgp. It is stubbornness and arrogance at its finest.
--
Mental ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum.
GPG public key: http://www.neverlight.com/pas/Mental.asc
-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
