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

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 19 Dec 97 at 12:56, Ola Fosheim Gr=B0stad wrote:
> Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> wrote:
> ><something>' without saving the actual message text.  Emotes, however, =
I
> >would log in their complete form, as they are a rich and diverse source=
 of
> >ideas for system commands.  Global and public channels would probably a=
lso
> >keep the message text in the logs, because the privacy issue cannot hol=
d
> >to a public address, but accountability can.
> 
> Well, although I can understand the reasoning from your point of view
> that isn't enough from a moral POV.  Emotes are exessivly used for
> sexual communication for instance.  If you are alone in a public room
> then public communication would be viewed as private by the players
> and soforth.  I can't see any reason to log identity.

I do NOT believe the logging of communications to be an immoral action
at all.  However, some possible actions taken on this information CAN be 
immoral.  Any actions taken on log information should be done with the 
with the highest regard to privacy, ethics and morals.  

> >Finally, the job of administration will be greatly eased by knowing
> >exactly what happened in any given incident.  No more claims of 'But _I=
'm_
> >the one who finished the quest first.  Boffo just spam-killed my link,
> >took the prize while I was reconnecting, and claimed to have won...'  A
> >simple, 'Well, lemme chack the logs...' will make even the most daring
> >trickster come clean if they know that you _do_ have the logs to back i=
t
> >up.
> >
> 
> This is awful...  To me this is a movement towards virtual fascism.

Yes.  You are assigning a moral significance to a form of mud 
administration in the absense of any actual action.  I would not
handle the above events the same as Derrik though.  The above is 
an IC event and would be handled IC if an administrative adjudication
were needed. 

For instance, many of us on this list do not run our own E-Mail 
servers.  I have no doubts at all that the administrator(s) of my
E-Mail server, whom I have never met nor likely to meet, have the
ability to read my E-Mail.  I don't consider the logging, back-up
and storage of my E-Mail to be an immoral act.  If, however, my ISP
should abuse this trust then we have a potential immoral action.

--
Jon A. Lambert
"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant" - Plato