[MUD-Dev] Wild west (was Guilds & Politics)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Richard Woolcock <KaVir at dial.pipex.com> wrote:
>Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
>> [snip]
>> I find logging everything without warning to be rather immoral.  In my
>> country it would most likely be a crime.  Respecting players privacy
>> is for me an unbreakable rule.  In a commercial system this should be
>> paramount.
>>=20
>> (A nasty sideeffect is that rumours about admins snooping on players
>> is likely to wreck player loyalty)
>
>Sometimes logging is essential, particularly if you believe someone is, or
>might be, cheating (but don't want to jump to conclusions) or are trying to
>work out what exactly is causing a crash.  I have the following message co=
me=20
>up the first time a player connects:

AFAIK, according to our laws, logs should only contain information
that is highly relevant for keeping the system running, access to logs
should be limited and controlled, those who have access to logs are
not allowed to spread the information, etc.  But I think Scandinavia
is doing more to protect individuals than many other countries.  In my
opinion this is a good thing. Computers can quickly become tools for
fascist-like behaviour/reasoning/monitoring.

I think one should consider the sensitivity of the information one
logs.  Attack and walk commands are less sensitive and more relevant
to the system than emotes, tells and says (which are highly
sensitive).  Furthermore you don't neccessarily need the personal ID
to work out the cause for a crash.

It's funny, a lot of the Unix functionality is probably not allowed
here.  I don't do this anymore, but quite some time ago I used to
check out (clueless) newbie's accounts only to play mindgames with
them.  Some people get rather upset when you tell them their real
name, when they logged on, what kind of computer they are using and
soforth.  Unfortunatly, surprisingly often people use other people's
accounts (friends, parents).

Ola.