Andrew Helm wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Andrew Helm wrote:
> >
> > >> You can't code morality.
> > >
> > >Correct. What does this have to do with fixing a bug?
> >
> > What bug?
>
> Excuse me, I"ll reword it: what does it have to do with fixing the
> potential ethical situation that will arise due to the unforseen
> behavior
> behavior in the switch function? We both agree, you simply
> insist that other people's terminology is wrong and your's is right.
> You changed the behavior by allowing chars to be loaded. I assume
> other people who have encounted the switch problem have changed it's
> behavior as well. Don't be so difficult when you already agree with
> me.
> It's not like I'm making a controversial point.
>
ethical:- adj. 1. of or based on a system of moral beliefs about right
and wrong.
2. in accordance with principles of professional
conduct.
3. of or relating to ethics.
from The
Collins English Dictionary
I can see the point you are raising, should we, or should we not be
able to read other players mail? Unfortunately there is never going to
be a straight answer either way.
Because it is an ethical problem the *best* way to deal with it is
to set it out as one of the policies of the MUD.
It is perfectly possible to restrict the switching into players
bodies by a simple if statement in the code to check that the name of
the player using the command is that of the chief implementor and/or
checking for the players idnum. This allows 1 person to be able to read
others mudmail whilst preventing everybody else from doing so using the
switch command. Of course it will still be possible, either by
teleporting the player to the postmaster and forcing them to receive and
read (as mentioned in an earlier post) or by some other method. If you
want to prevent this from happening place a line of code in the force
command to stop people from forcing others to "receive".
No matter how many different methods that are devised to read
someone elses mudmail it will always be possible to restrict it.
However, the decision to restrict it lies with the implementor of the
particular mud, not to be coded as standard. This is because one persons
ethics *WILL NOT* be the same as the next persons.
Jon.
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