Script revision-Why not?

The idea is this, whenever a new script is created, it has to be reviewed to make sure it isn't anything malicious, such as something that crashes the grid.

I said they should do this last time in game, to teh very few people that were there last time it crashed.

One of the few responses I got was "Ok so there'll be no creativity anymore". I just assumed she was a bit thick and took what I said in a whole nother direction right past jupiter into infinity!

Anyway, the only problem I could see with this would be someone making a brand new script and having to wait for revue during trial and error and it would take forever and so on...

I don't script, so I dont know how much more time scripters would have to take making their stuff, but I'm sure it would be better than SL going down for 5min-6 hours.

What... EVERY single new script has to be approved?

Who the heck is going to sit there and proofread all the 8745395798257394 new scripts that are made every day?

Who's going to do the reviewing?
That's more people that have to get paid. And a lot of people script. What kind of turnaround time do you expect, considering the volume of scripts that are written every hour?

I'd rather someone make antibodies that eat rapidly replicating objects. That would be useful and cool.

lol! lindens would start having names like Bob123 Linden there be that many of em....

Maybe a better solution would be to automatically And permently record everyone who had moded a script during its lifetime into the script somehow.

A revision history.

If thats not already done.

Then the Lindens can track down who modded the script to do the self replicationg.


Then they could -
ban them /permently take away their clients ability to script/ rez objects, whatever.

I don't think identifying the guilty avatars is the real problem here. The real problem is figuring out who the heck is the real person doing something. If someone registers with phony information, stolen credit card number, what have you, it's going to throw off LL is it not?

Do you do any creative work in SL? Imagine this: what if every object made had to be reviewed? Or every texture, sound, or animation uploaded? What effect would that have on people who rely on those things?

Scripts have the added difficulty of debugging. Do you mean review every time I click "save" on a script? That's often more than once every minute when I'm debugging.

When debugging I edit and run my scripts about once every five minutes. A review would probably take weeks (just look at the number of scripts in any given sim to get an idea just how mychg work that would be). So. Absoloutly not. Horrid, horrid idea.

sure - but a revision history is useful for things more than just identifying hackers.

Its pretty standard for documents in business.

I also assume they will ban people for intentionally crashing the grid if they find out they have been doing so. LL doesnt need to take you to court to ban you banning is covered in the TOS.

I guess my idea is -

If the "paper trail" is solid - (assuming that is posible)
Eventually the hacks will either stop or run out of CC #s

Pretty much the worst Idea since the invasion of poland...

I would have to say NO to this.

That won't stop them from thinking of new ways to strike. Best way to go is think defensively, and develop new ways to protect the grid's stability that doesn't restrain the creativity of the residents here.

Absolutely NOT.

Anyone who's done scripting will know that a script can undergo *hundreds* of revisions before it's complete. Do you mean that you have to wait for review for each of those revisions before you can even test each one? A script that might have been finished in a couple of days would take years if each revision needed review.

Just to put things in a time perspective. I was on like just an hour before the grid went down and in that time alone I did about 10 script compilations. In between each compilation was some testing.

With the hundreds or maybe thousands of scripts generated each day how many people in LL will be needed to do the review? The intellectual labor required for such a task is staggering.

I normally am in favor of preventive measures but review is one I can't agree with. I'm more for Lash's approach. Well designed defensive measures.

Or the Patriot Act. ;P

When I'm working on a script, something I do every day one way or another, I might compile a new version of a script 3 or 4 times a minute. If 1% of the people online at a given time are actually coding, that means someone at Linden Labs would have to review thousands of script updates every day.

It would take a week to review a day's worth of scripts. I remember back when we were working on card decks that had to be carried to the comp center... so we had 2 updates a day, and you had to have your edit decks ready at 10AM and 3PM for the morning and afternoon runs.

If SL did that, there wouldn't be any grid attacts from scripts, because there wouldn't be any scripters. Or, after not too much more time, any customers.

An issue that brings a broad consensus, near unanimous agreement. How nice.

That is the single dumbest idea I've ever heard in the history of SL. It manages to beat forced wealth redistribution, even.

Oh I don't know, I quite like the idea of having a team of dedicated LL review staff who'll check over my code every time I save it and fix the bugs before compiling it...

...obviously there'd have to be several dozen of them per scripter. And they'd have to be basically superhuman. But that would be great!

Based on the total lack of bugs in SL, this shouldn't be a problem at all. The bug staff will probably relish the chance to finally have something to do..

Oh, I don't know, it didn't seem to do too badly for him.

Now invading the Soviet Union, on the other hand, that ranks up there with this thread's starting suggestion, I think.

Yup. This suggestion is dreadful each time someone makes it. The amazing expert knowledge of LSL required to effectively screen a script would be so rare that the few who could do it would have an enormous backlog. Moreover, who the hell would volunteer for that tedium? Further, script functionality could be easily compartmentalized and spread across several scripts. Individual scripts might then appear innocuous but, in concert, be very dangerous indeed.

Now, where did I put my dealie?

Hmm... Around here somewhe--

Ah! Here we go.

When I'm working on a large/complicated script I can easily churn out 100 different tweaked versions in an hour or two, are you suggesting someone should read each of those to make sure I didn't slip in a while(TRUE) llRezObject(); ?