On delegation, publicity and tags (was: Re: [Demexp-dev] Re: New version of security requirements)

[David MENTRE]

Hello,

Frédéric Lehobey <address@hidden> writes:

>   I do not agree.  Delegate vote means vote that you agree to see
> published.  I do not see the point in delegate votes for which you
> prevent people from delegating: they would count in any case for
> nothing!  If you do not want people to know your vote through
> delegation then just don't vote as delegate (and break the _virtual_
> link you want to have between your private secrete vote and your
> [unusable] delegate vote).

I agree with fred here.

>   So the real problem is not the secrecy of your vote (the problem is
> badly stated) but the way you shall publish the keywords for which you
> accept/propose delegation.  Instead of one more option in the software
> that would increase its complexity I would suggest just to publish
> such keywords (your domains of expertise) on your personal web page
> independent of demexp.

Yes, I also agree, especially for the complexity argument. :) One could
also use RSS feeds to publish "your domain of expertise" and RSS
syndication to find proper delegates.

But Félix's question also raises another point: the client software
should easily allow to make delegate and personal votes in accordance or
not. While this sounds trivial, the security of the vote system could be
impaired if, for example, all delegate and personal votes are
synchronized *by default*.

To solve this issue on the client, I'm thinking of a list of keywords
(i.e. tags) in the client, list initially empty, that tells questions on
which delegate and personal votes are synchronized. If a question tag
does not belong to this list, no delegate vote is made. To answer to
your initial question, Félix, if somebody delegates a vote to you on a
keyword not chosen in your delegation keyword list in your client,
you'll never vote as a delegate on it and so it is as if you would have
refused the delegation. What do you think of it?

Yours,
d.
-- 
 David Mentré <address@hidden>