Re: lynx-dev Re: who owns what -anonymous

[Greg Barniskis]

Philip Webb said:

>I (capitalised for once) have no security problem,
>nor do the majority of Lynx users & installers:
>these problems arise ONLY for sites with anonymous users.

private singl;e-user installations surely outnumber public ones, but 
that's not a count of users, so no indication of majority, really. 

>better still, site managers should set up free shell userids
>for people with valid library/student/etc cards:
>miscreants can then be identified & expelled.

I tend to agree, at least about expelling miscreants! 8)

but library patrons get "tech support" (such as it is) from librarians, 
and they couldn't handle unix. No way in the world could our 
behind-the-scenes technical people be answering to patrons on shell 
account issues, even if all their account did was to captive lynx. We'd 
end up managing something like 10,000+ lynx user accounts, perhaps many 
more (pool of potential applicants > 700,000). 

On the flip side, many patrons prefer to be 100% anonymous and that is 
fine given our stance on their privacy rights. Come into the library and 
you don't actually need to provide any ID at all to search the catalog, 
read books, surf the web, etc. This gives people the freedom to access 
potentially embarrassing information (e.g. "Learning to Live with AIDS", 
or "The Autobiogriffy of Dan Quayle") without fear of discovery/reprisal.

so please, kind people, just do the best you can with development for 
anonymous environments.

Many, many thanks,

-----------------------------------------------------
Greg Barniskis                   address@hidden
Network Administrator                  (608) 266-6394
Library Interchange NetworK (LINK)      fax: 266-6068
South Central Library System (SCLS)       Madison, WI