To the lady or chap who arbitrates this mailing list: I am sending along a message which I would like to have forwarded to your mailing list. A colleague of mine found my name mentioned somewhat out of context in a letter posted to your list, and I would like a chance to address the issues mentioned therein. Let me start out by saying that I do fully support the perpetuation of encryption and anonymous posting; however, there are some circumstances in which it is neither appropriate nor desirable. My situation represents one of these circumstances. Let me explain: There are certain transactions which the IRS has allowed to be non-taxable. For example, in Washington state, as in several other states, non-luxury food items are tax-exempt. Another tax-exempt transaction is barter. Barter is one of the mainstays of struggling small-farm owners, a method of support between startup businesses, and an excellent way to obtain needed goods and services without the exchange of money, which might not always be available. In my case, I am a startup business owner with limited funds and a need for better software than I currently possess. Therefore, I post to the Internet that I am willing to trade my services for an equivalent value in software. Therefore, I get my copy of Word or PageMaker, and some other cash-low company receives a professional business form or other graphic design project. All perfectly legal, all tax-exempt, according to the IRS' own laws. This is not tax evasion, merely good business sense. This brings me to the following conclusion: even if anonymous posting was available to me (which it very well might be; I haven't pursued information about it), I would have no need or desire to use it. My clients are not interested in playing some sort of spy game, they are interested in making a business arrangement with me. They would very likely not be willing to trust me if I was merely a phantom name from a nonexistant site. Finally, I would like to point out that there is currently a movement on the Internet, pushing for the greater utilization and availability of barter. The IRS left a loophole in their rules, it is up to us to take advantage of it. For more information on barter through the Internet, subscribe to the Fringeware mailing list at the following address: fringeware-request@wixer.bga.com Thank you for your time and bandwidth, - Cindy L Vanous --------------- * cyphrkt@eskimo.com * --------------- Cindy Vanous, the Cypherkat, graphic artist at large ------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: even though I work for myself, my opinions STILL don't seem to be the opinions of my employer.