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Yil · 12-16-2010, 08:42 PM

Looking for some feedback on a possible new feature...

I've seen FTP servers setup where access to things like "site who", "site stats", etc are all restricted to Admins only. I can understand the reasoning, but often the filesystem goes ahead and displays the owner/group on everything and I just have to scratch my head and wonder why do they bother... I'm assuming that people set it up that way intentionally so perhaps there is interest in something better.

The idea I have only applies to non-Admins and looks something like this:

Anonymize_Users option -- users who match this setting have their usernames replaced with something (determined by Anonymize_Style below) so that all filesystem ownership information in directory listings and site commands such as 'site who' and 'site stats' will not disclose their username. In no case will the user's own information be hidden from themselves so they can determine their stats ranking and see what they are doing on another login via site who, etc.

Anonymize_Style is one of "<hidden>", "UID", "GID", or "<group>". "<hidden>" shows just that string, "UID" shows "UID:###" where # is the numeric user-id of the user, GID shows "GID:###" where # is the numeric group-id of the primary group of the user, and "<group>" shows "<groupname>" with the <>'s. The advantage of using something other than "<hidden>" is that it is more interesting to view the stats of anonymized users over time, or to see that a particular user is uploading/downloading several things at once even if you don't know who they are. These seem reasonable? I haven't seen what this stuff looks like in directory listings yet so something shorter than the UID: prefix might make sense... Like #34 or something. But it can't just be a number since that would be a valid username...

I'm also thinking of adding a userflag, groupflag, or something that would prevent anonyimzing users who are in the same primary group (provided it isn't NoGroup). Thus you could enable certain subsets of users, if you wanted, to see other users in their primary group by name but everyone else would be anonymized.

Is this a feature you would find useful? Got any suggestions on ways to improve it?

12-16-2010, 08:42 PM
Yil Too much time... Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 1,194	Looking for some feedback on a possible new feature... I've seen FTP servers setup where access to things like "site who", "site stats", etc are all restricted to Admins only. I can understand the reasoning, but often the filesystem goes ahead and displays the owner/group on everything and I just have to scratch my head and wonder why do they bother... I'm assuming that people set it up that way intentionally so perhaps there is interest in something better. The idea I have only applies to non-Admins and looks something like this: Anonymize_Users option -- users who match this setting have their usernames replaced with something (determined by Anonymize_Style below) so that all filesystem ownership information in directory listings and site commands such as 'site who' and 'site stats' will not disclose their username. In no case will the user's own information be hidden from themselves so they can determine their stats ranking and see what they are doing on another login via site who, etc. Anonymize_Style is one of "<hidden>", "UID", "GID", or "<group>". "<hidden>" shows just that string, "UID" shows "UID:###" where # is the numeric user-id of the user, GID shows "GID:###" where # is the numeric group-id of the primary group of the user, and "<group>" shows "<groupname>" with the <>'s. The advantage of using something other than "<hidden>" is that it is more interesting to view the stats of anonymized users over time, or to see that a particular user is uploading/downloading several things at once even if you don't know who they are. These seem reasonable? I haven't seen what this stuff looks like in directory listings yet so something shorter than the UID: prefix might make sense... Like #34 or something. But it can't just be a number since that would be a valid username... I'm also thinking of adding a userflag, groupflag, or something that would prevent anonyimzing users who are in the same primary group (provided it isn't NoGroup). Thus you could enable certain subsets of users, if you wanted, to see other users in their primary group by name but everyone else would be anonymized. Is this a feature you would find useful? Got any suggestions on ways to improve it?