Gnupg good for big groups?

[Paul Richard Ramer]

Hi MFPA,

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 15:49:40 +0100, MFPA wrote:
>> 681 Messages sent by members of the list
>> 628 Encrypted messages
> 
> I'm surprised the difference is so large - it doesn't "feel like" that
> large a proportion is unencrypted. But that number not encrypted looks
> correct if it includes about ten notification messages from Yahoo
> about new file uploads, etc.

Actually, the number of encrypted messages that I originally posted was
incorrect.  The real number is 641.  I replied to my original post and
posted the correct numbers.  You can find them at this link
http://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/2010-August/039335.html.

No Yahoo notifications were counted in any of the numbers that I posted,
since none of those messages were from someone on or joining the list.
But all other messages were counted, including my initial post of my
public key.

>> 36 NETMK messages
> 
> I have difficulty counting those because my email program is poor at
> searching inside encrypted messages. It finds six plaintext, and this
> only rises to 13 if I tell it to also look inside encrypted messages;
> I know this is a very long way short.

36 is correct. I took note of every NETMK (Not Encrypted To My Key)
message, who was complaining, and who hadn't encrypted.

Also note that 36 NETMK messages does not mean 36 messages that weren't
encrypted to someone's key.  Sometimes a person had multiples messages
that he couldn't decrypt, and sometimes multiple people responded to the
same initial message with NETMK messages.

>> 13 Members were responsible for not encrypting to someone's key
>> 12 Members sent NETMK messages
>> And for what it's worth:
>> 22 Messages weren't encrypted to my key
> 
> How many of these 22 were within the first week or so?
> I find very few messages not encrypted to mine.

I agree with Hansen that this is seems almost like cherry picking, but I
will give it to you anyway. Six in the first week and four in the last week.

But before you say, "Ah ha," know that four of the first week's messages
were from a person that had successfully sent encrypted messages to me
prior in that same week.  Also two of the last week's were not due to
someone removing my key from his list of keys.  In both cases someone
else couldn't read the poster's message and the poster replied with a
message the NETMK complainer and I could read.

It's not that you need this much detail, but without it you might come
to incorrect conclusions about the causes of the messages that I
couldn't decrypt.

>> and 1 in 12 of all messages was either not encrypted to my key or a
>> NETMK complaint.
> 
> Wow!
> 
>> Hope this is enlightening. :-)
> 
> It is. I'm quite surprised at the proportion of unencrypted messages,
> and at the proportion of members not encrypting to somebody's key. I
> would hope that latter figure dropped significantly if non-encryption
> to keys posted within the last week were disregarded.

As for the proportion of unencrypted message, see the top of this message.

No one sent NETMK messages in the last week.  But if I deduct the 4
messages that I could not decrypt that were sent in the last week, then
the ratio of NETMK messages plus messages not encrypted me to all
messages is approximately 1 in 13.


-Paul