[committee] Restrictions on group applications for freshers

[Bob Adamson]

On Thu, 19 May 2011, Daniel Axtens wrote:

> >> Another alarming thing that needs to be addressed is the 10% of the 
> >> additions are done by wheel members using root!
> > 
> > I don't see how this is alarming or needs to be addressed. If you can't 
> > trust wheel, you can't trust anybody, and I don't like what your statement 
> > implies.
> 
> Again I find myself advocating due process. :/
> 
> I was under the impression that the new version of coke designed to reduce dispense as root. Furthermore, not knowing any wheel members who are not also coke members, I'm unsure what could be accomplished by dispensing as root as opposed to dispensing as self? Feel free to enlighten me.
> 
> I also distinctly remember being told off by someone (trs80, I think) for using dispense as root, and am a better person as a result of the reproof :P
> 
> [DJA]

The root user is an admin that can add/subtract money, set an account to 
an arbitrary value, and create accounts. The new system was designed so 
that root can't dispense items. This was aimed at preventing wheel members 
from accidentally dispensing an item as root (which charges the root 
account) when they weren't paying attention to what shell they had open, 
and unknowingly getting free items.

There is no gain or loss for wheel members adding/subtracting credit as 
root - it still has to be applied to a non-root account and the safe still 
has to balance at the end of the week. I would point out that only 51 
'dispense adds' have been done as root this year (the other 44 were new 
users being given credit), of which 22 were myself. Not exactly a huge 
number. Personally, my 'dispense adds' are generally due to the fact that 
I'm in the middle of doing something on a server when someone asks me for 
credit, and I want to get back to what I was doing with minimal effort.

Bob Adamson
UCC President

|"Bureaucracy is a challenge to the be conquered with a righteous        |
|attitude, an intolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary" |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |