From: ee89psw@brunel.ac.uk (Paul S Wain)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin
Subject: Re: Transcript of the "God Conference on Players' Rights"
Date: 11 Jan 93 12:46:54 GMT
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Well, having sat and read and heard etc... here's my little input. I didn't
actually attend the conference, as I have better things to do at 3am GMT, but
have heard reports and seen the transcripts. Anyway, if what I say repeats
anyone then, tough, but here is my input for all that it is worth.

BTW I should add that I admin/run UK_MUSH out of a 'student sys-admin' account
which was set up by Brunel for a small group of students (of which I manage -
sorry Chef, had to put it ;) to hold about 400Mb of executables,gifs etc for
all at Brunel to access. Anyway one of the things that people wanted was a MU*
so hence I run it. Brunel has a VERY strict usage policy following a number of
recent hackers destroying the root directory on previous occasions so I had to
fight long and hard to be able to set up the MU*'s we suport. Basically the 
system here is if you do something which offends you lose your password for a
week, and get reported to your head of department/boss. If you do it again
you lose your account. 

The actual definition of 'something which offends' was never laid down but
typical things are:

 - monitoring network traffic (snooping on email/talk etc...)
 - attempting to crack the password file
 - trashing someones account
 - viewing pictures of (fe)males on the workstations (clothed,semi-clothed
   and unclothed and of course including pornography but thats another story)

You may think that all the categories in that last one is a bit strict but it
was introduced following various complaints made by students. Its an example
of the situation we are, I feel, talking about. A few spoiling it for, judging
by the email I got on the subject, the many. A situation where by someone trying
to bend the rules spoils things for everyone else... 

Anyway back to the main part of the posting...

Stephen Schmidt (whale@leland.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
: 2. The responsibility for what happens on a MUD is ultimately on the head
: of the person on whose account the MUD runs. That being the case, that person
: must have the right to set guidelines for MUD behavior and the right to
: exclude from the MUD any player who willfully violates them.

[see above]

As I said the policy at Brunel is NO-ONE has a right to access the system here.

This I supose puts the admins on UKM in a stronger position, since we can if all
else fails fall back on this point of view (indeed it is the stated policy on
UKM. Usage is a privilage not a right and what a wizard-type says go's and if
you don't like it go somewhere else.) Infact this has worked quite well so far
and I can only think of 1 or 2 cases where there has been any real problem with
this at all. 

We do prefer to findout WHY the problem happens. After all if you don't know WHY
someone did something (because its there is a vaild reason!) then what hope in
hell have you got of stopping someone else doing it.

It has produced a few amusing situations looking back on it, BUT IT HAS WORKED
and I supose that is what counts....

: 3. Each MUD should carefully state its rules, or guidelines
[snip snip...]

: 4. That said, the responsibility for knowing the guidelines of ethics is
: with each individual player. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse. Even
: if the rules are NOT publicly posted, responsibility STILL lies on the player
: rather than on the MUD God. If you don't know, ask; if you aren't certain,
: don't do it.

Real life situation...:

"But your honour, I didn't know it was illegal to rob the bank...."

Ignorance of the Law, certainly in the UK is NOT a valid defense.

: 8. I have no comments at this time on snooping, logging, etc. as I think
: those issues should properly be left up to the God of each MUD. If anyone
: wants my personal opinions, they are welcome to ask, but I warn you that
: they aren't worth very much.  :)

Mine aren't toooooo.....

BTW, am I missing the point, BUT isn't common sense much the order of the day
(and yes I do know that NOT everyone has common sense...) and the idea that
if you do something that offends people then you deserve what you get....?

*sigh* Its always that little minority of w**kers that cause problems....

Paul
-- 
.signature 'narrowed' by popular demand:
****************************************************************************
**  Paul Wain, (studentsoft supervisor), MESD 4, Dept. of Electrical and  **
**Electronic Eng., Brunel University, UXBRIDGE, Middlesex UB8 3PH, ENGLAND**
**        E-MAIL: ee89psw@brunel.ac.uk or studentsoft@brunel.ac.uk        **
****************************************************************************
Xref: sparky rec.games.mud.admin:1040 news.admin.policy:1062 alt.fan.furry:2597