Re: Monitoring on MOOs and wizards' roles

• Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 17:53:42 PDT
• From:
  Rich Connamacher <phantom@baymoo.sfsu.edu>
• cc: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com
• Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
• In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.950919192142.16531A-100000@Freak.ORG>

On Tue, 19 Sep 1995, Kenny Root wrote:

>   I'd like to address the issue of wizards using their power to monitor 
> people through the use of #0:do_command and other such devices.  Is this 
> morally wrong?  I'd like to hear what people think about the use of 
> things like this that are in use at places such as CaxyMOO and HT (last 
> time I checked).
>   Comments, anyone?

This depends on the goal of your MOO.  No, it wouldn't be morally wrong 
to monitor people if you let them know in advance.  Like, stick something 
on $login.welcome_message saying that all users are being monitored for 
such-and-such a reason.  If they're told in advance, no player can 
reasonally object to being monitored.

It would be morally wrong to monitor players on a MOO that boasts 
privacy, such as BayMOO.  Ofcourse, if you're being attacked by a system 
cracker, and need to know what all ways there are to get in, then, by all 
means, use #0:do_command.  Ofcourse, it'd take some pretty enginious way 
to do it, since the cracker would be able to see #0:do_command if s/he 
had wiz permissions.  This was used once on BayMOO to nab a cracker.  
(The hole was patched immediately after the player @toaded and his site 
@blacklisted).

All I can say is: use your own judgement.

Phantom

• Monitoring on MOOs and wizards' roles
• From: Kenny Root <kenny@freak.org>

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