Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Political diversity - Confession

[Stuart Staniford-Chen (stanifor]

> I posted a message claiming to be a wealthy, hard-working yuppie with a
> Mercedes Benz, large wine collection, and generally opulent lifestyle. I
> asked if my wealth would preclude me from joining a cohousing community,
> something I, in fact, would like to do.

I have to say that I think Tony's revelation is pretty funny - especially 
remembering how seriously folks took it at the time.  If this kind of thing 
happened a lot, then I'd probably agree with Judith Wisdom that it would 
undermine group trust in the "cohousing-l community".  However, on an 
occasional basis, I think it's funny and illuminating.

So, Tony, you have piqued my curiousity - what is your lifestyle really?  
Of course, we'll have to treat your answer with the scepticism it deserves.  
Maybe you really are an Armani suited yuppie and are now about to perform 
an experiment by claiming to be a peasant.

I should emphasize a general point here: this is the Internet.  There is 
just about no reliable security mechanisms in any of the standard Internet 
tools (such as email).  Anyone with the requisite knowledge can easily and 
untraceably forge email from anyone on this group.  Some people on the net 
choose to create personas that are different from what you would think 
about them if you met them.  There isn't any way to tell.  It's probably 
less common on cohousing-l than, say, alt.sex.bondage, but you can't rule 
it out.  So, anything you see or hear on in cyberspace should be taken with 
a little more of a grain of salt than you would elsewhere.

Stuart Staniford-Chen
N St Cohousing  (and professionally a computer security researcher).