Author Topic: registering to upload to hobbes  (Read 10762 times)

Ian Manners

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registering to upload to hobbes
« on: January 29, 2017, 06:37:50 am »
Hi Everyone,

Hobbes provides a great, and free service for the OS/2 community but over the years it has begun to take up more time for the maintainer(s) to remove all those strange files that appear in incoming. They have also ended up with an ever growing list of banned IP address's in the process which is likely to impact on the access of other people as IP address's are moved around a lot more than they have been in the past due to limited allocations for IPv4.

The idea has been floated (just thought about at present by the maintainers) to have people register (still free) before they're allowed to upload to Hobbes. The registration would have to include an email address for password reset. This would remove the addition effort for the maintainers that is currently required to keep Hobbes incoming in a clean state.

It might even be possible if this were to happen, for up-loaders to have better control of removing their own content in incoming due to bloopers or updated files before incoming is cleared.

Any other ideas or comments would be welcomed.

Added - Uploads to Hobbes only, there would be no changes for anyone wanting to download from Hobbes.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2017, 06:54:59 am by Ian Manners »
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Ian B Manners

ivan

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2017, 12:53:01 pm »
Hi Ian,

That sounds to be an excellent idea, one that all of us in the OS/2 community should support.

Dave Yeo

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2017, 08:12:58 pm »
Sounds fine as long as it not too much hassle to register.
I do wonder that if the maintainer(s) don't have the time to keep up on incoming, where they're going to find the time to keep up on registration. Too simple and spammers etc will just use a throw away email address, too hard and it'll be too much of a hassle/time consuming to register.

Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2017, 08:56:46 pm »
I support this.

TeLLie

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2017, 09:05:30 pm »
Hi All,

great idea !

Doug Bissett

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2017, 12:30:55 am »
I support it, but I have the same concerns that Dave has. After the initial surge, the number of users that need to register, should back off to a manageable level, but I am not sure how the maintainers will know who is okay, and who is not. As I understand it, they rotate in a new set at each semester, and it is unlikely that they would know the community.

Being able to remove bad uploads (your own, of course) would be a good thing.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2017, 03:49:26 am »
I'm fine with it too. I upload occasionally. I don't think there are that many legitimate uploaders.
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xynixme

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2017, 04:39:39 am »
Sounds reasonable and more clear than old text files. As long as uploaders won't receive more emails of Hobbes than they receive now, excluding possible confirmations.

I'ld like to keep the functionality of being able to browse new incoming files, because processing can take a long time, even with some new system.

Ian Manners

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2017, 07:01:15 pm »
Hi Dave,

Quote
Sounds fine as long as it not too much hassle to register.
I do wonder that if the maintainer(s) don't have the time to keep up on incoming, where they're going to find the time to keep up on registration. Too simple and spammers etc will just use a throw away email address, too hard and it'll be too much of a hassle/time consuming to register.

It would be an automated process (I assume), it is a Uni with CS students ;-)
Even something simple will at least get rid of all the automated kiddy scripts, and judging from what I get hit with that's more than 99% of the problem solved.

Doug, Curtis is still the main person that looks after the server, has done for as long as I can remember so there is some continuity.
There are ways and means to overcome bots signing up that are more intelligent that captchas, could also be educational for Uni students to come up with new and novel means to overcome that problem as well.

Andre, you would only receive an email from the system I assume for confirmation, and to reset your access password. Otherwise you would receive an email if there is a file problem (which is why your email address is in the description file) as occasionally happens now. You may have already received an email re your uploads in the past.

I could/should probably do something automated for os2site.com beyond the access methods I use beyond username/password as well but the volume is so low I haven't taken the time to look at it. So far I have only had humans ask for access.
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Fahrvenugen

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2017, 09:34:52 pm »
Any chance of tying Hobbes login information in with one of the community sites such as os2world.com  so that Hobbes would authenticate through a community site?




Doug Bissett

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2017, 12:21:45 am »
Quote
Any chance of tying Hobbes login information in with one of the community sites such as os2world.com  so that Hobbes would authenticate through a community site?

I would suggest that that would create a security exposure, for all sites involved.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2017, 03:49:06 am »
Hi Ian

I will support almost any update that is done to hobbes, but I don't know if Curtis have the time and resources to make updates on the script.

Some important changes that I think that hobbes requires are: (personal opinion)
- An active administrator (or group of administrators) that can move content and update the descriptions of the files.
- A way to upload files from the web and have an easy form to add the information of the file instead of the txt file.
- A mirror or active replication to the Internet Archive.

I also checked the web to see if there is an open source script similar to what hobbes does. I haven't seen anything that satisfy me, but I think that the only tool that may replace hobbes script is the open source ECM called Alfresco. But it requires a extended learning curve to have it ready.

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xynixme

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2017, 05:16:22 am »
I also checked the web to see if there is an open source script similar to what hobbes does.
A front-end for the client may be easier, with a checksum to make sure that the uploaded TXT file is generated by the front-end, with its own checks. The front-end just has to match how the script actually works.

Some people not related to Hobbes are already checking uploads, I'm familiar with their wrong and unverified assumptions, but those people aren't volunteers yet, and I won't contact them. They are probably managing an own mirror or BBS (not a clue!) website.

Edit: a front-end also requires OS/2, so it excludes uploads fully produced with another OS.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2017, 03:01:16 pm by AndrĂ© Heldoorn »

Doug Bissett

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Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« Reply #13 on: January 31, 2017, 05:29:25 pm »
Quote
I will support almost any update that is done to hobbes, but I don't know if Curtis have the time and resources to make updates on the script.

Some important changes that I think that hobbes requires are: (personal opinion)
- An active administrator (or group of administrators) that can move content and update the descriptions of the files.
- A way to upload files from the web and have an easy form to add the information of the file instead of the txt file.
- A mirror or active replication to the Internet Archive.

You must remember that HOBBES is a learning tool for students. I think that Curtis only gets involved if things really go bad. There is usually a student assigned to it, for one semester (and sometimes, nobody is assigned to it, which is why it goes for months without being updated). In that semester, the student needs to learn what needs to be done, then create the tools to do it (that is why the rules, like upper/lower case file names, change sometimes). It is one of the student's tools that moves content, and updates the file descriptors, not an administrator, and certainly not a group of them.

I expect that this discussion happened because nobody has the time to keep weeding out the garbage that some people, sadly, insist on uploading. The basic operation of the site doesn't need to change. All that needs to change is the authority to upload files, and an easy way to revoke that authority, when necessary.

It is true, that it could be better, but then there would need to be more people involved, and that probably won't happen.