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Re: the obliterate discussion - why dumpfiltering is no valid workaround

From: Toby Thain <toby_at_smartgames.ca>
Date: 2007-07-21 00:00:05 CEST

On 20-Jul-07, at 5:31 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:

> Karl Fogel wrote:
>> Les Mikesell <lesmikesell@gmail.com> writes:
>>> Erik Huelsmann wrote:
>>>> I work in a financial institution. Users make mistakes. We correct
>>>> them, but the original error stays in the database, forever.
>>> What would you do if a user included something in your database that
>>> would be illegal for you to store or redistribute to anyone
>>> else? And
>>> I doubt if your comparison really comparable in other respects.
>>> Can a
>>> user accidentally include a DVD image in a database update
>>> instead of
>>> a small change?
>> I think you might be misunderstanding Erik's point.
>> He's not arguing that it's okay for errors to stay in the database
>> forever. He's saying that users make mistakes, and that even though
>> they can correct those mistakes for the future, the original mistake
>> stays around forever, and that's a *bad* thing. He's on your
>> side :-).
>> (As am I.)
>
> I took it the other way. Financial transactions need a real audit
> trail so there's a good argument for saying that mistakes and their
> corrections should be tracked forever. But that situation doesn't
> have much in common with an open-ended storage system like
> subversion where what goes/stays should be entirely based on local
> policy and not forced by technical difficulty.

To bring this back to the original point, may I identify 2 classes of
mistakes:
1. those where an additional revision (deletion etc) is sufficient
2. those where an obliterate (dump/filter) is necessary (illegality,
pr0n, whatever)

We don't have to talk about (1) further, although it covers the vast
majority of 'mistakes', I think.

Those mistakes remaining, why can't they be handled like this:
- user checks in a 4.7GB DVD image "by mistake"
- admin filters out revision, LARTs the user

These stupid things just shouldn't be happening that often,
especially with appropriate 'feedback'.

--Toby

>
> --
> Les Mikesell
> lesmikesell@gmail.com
>
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Received on Fri Jul 20 23:59:29 2007

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