Re: [piecepack] Oh, I forgot...

[Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...>]

On Thu, Jan 01, 2004 at 09:27:39PM -0800, Mark A. Biggar wrote:
> Ron Hale-Evans wrote:
> 
> > One of the best changes: the piecepack wiki now "locks" a page while
> > you are editing it so someone else does not accidentally overwrite
> > your changes.
> 
> Just for my own curiosity, does this lock time out and when it does is
> an e-mail sent to the holder?  I've forgotten to save changes a couple
> of time and wouldn't want to lock everyone else out long term.  I've 
> also spent more then an hour editing a page.

Good question.  Yes.  There is a configurable timeout.  I think it is
something like 10 minutes by default.  You can extend this by clicking
"Show Preview".  No email is sent to the timeout holder; s/he is
informed on the page itself.

> I could even see an argument that locks should only be granted to
> registered users as an incentive to register and to slow down some bozo
> from doing a denial of service attack on the wiki.  Not that I expect a
> DOS attack, but there are enough idiots out that that anything is
> possible.

That sounds like a possibility, but I think the more high-profile
wikis such as Meatball or the original MoinMoin Wiki are more likely
to get hit by that sort of thing than we are.  My impression is that
"real" hackers/crackers don't see wikis as much of a challenge.  In
any case, there are plenty of ways to create a DOS attack besides
editing wiki pages; if Ludism.org were to come under attack, my guess
is that the attacker would use a more tried and true method. :-)

Ron

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
	 Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night,
Kennexions Glass Bead Game & Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/