I made a social network in middle school. Nobody used it, but that taught me how to write terrible PHP applications.
With that same knowledge I made another social network ~2/3 years later for an online community, and it worked better. Eventually I shut it down. In 2012 I revived it and very quickly learned the value of not mixing your business and presentation logic (refactoring the codebase to be maintainable was an absolute chore), and of preventing XSS and XSRF (someone set their avatar to the URL "/logout").
A lot of people make a lot of money from writing terrible PHP applications that solve a particular business need. Sometimes it's shocking to me to be honest!
> If you were a high school senior and your schoolmates were handing you transcripts of all their juicy gossip on a silver, digital platter, what would you do?
If I was actually handed that info on a silver platter, willingly, then who knows.
But that's not your situation. In your situation, I'd be violating the trust of my entire school. That's neither a good idea ethically nor socially.
I think you are slightly misrepresenting the author. His sarcastic comment about "bulletproof moral guidelines" seems to indicate that he isn't proud of this particular moral transgression. And while I don't think he was right to read the messages, you have to consider that the people using the service literally had no idea who they were sending messages to. I think that makes it a bit different from reading messages that were intended for one person that the speaker knew well. Not that that excuses the behavior, but I do think it explains some of the rationale. Also, who didn't make stupid immoral decisions in high school?
I believe we might be running into cross-cultural issues WRT the linked articles sarcastic description of "transcripts of all their juicy gossip"
When I'm sitting in a bathroom stall I don't ponder the moral and ethical dilemmas of reading or not reading what someone scribbled on the wall. He was not running a cryptographically secure anonymous remailer service here. He was running a virtual bathroom wall to scribble gossip upon.
I wonder if this wouldn't also be illegal? I know the US has terrible regulation of privacy for private entities - but AFAIK plain text email is covered by the assumption of privacy, so listening in/reading it would be considered wire-tapping. I'm also not sure how much of that (if any) someone below 18 is able to legally sign away?
At any rate, an interesting article. It might have been interesting to set up something similar, just bundling an XMPP client and OTR, and having an XMPP-server per school/"cicrle" for pairing (could probably even require school logins for registering on sign-up -- just make sure to throw that information away (beyond possibly keeping age/gender tag).
With the caveat that secure, anonymous communication and "web browser" doesn't really mix -- it could probably be set up as web page/service too (Not sure if eg: Matrix has a web/js-client that does/tries to do client side OTR or equivalent?).
We had IRC, with chat-rooms per town -- as not everyone had Internet in the 90s in Norway. But that did afford some people pseudonymity.
Great read! Really well written too. Kudos to you for being so open about everything - I can't imagine many high schoolers would have written with as much candour as you did in the "You ≠ your app" section.
TazeTSchnitzel|10 years ago
With that same knowledge I made another social network ~2/3 years later for an online community, and it worked better. Eventually I shut it down. In 2012 I revived it and very quickly learned the value of not mixing your business and presentation logic (refactoring the codebase to be maintainable was an absolute chore), and of preventing XSS and XSRF (someone set their avatar to the URL "/logout").
xiaoma|10 years ago
TazeTSchnitzel|10 years ago
If I was actually handed that info on a silver platter, willingly, then who knows.
But that's not your situation. In your situation, I'd be violating the trust of my entire school. That's neither a good idea ethically nor socially.
Others|10 years ago
VLM|10 years ago
When I'm sitting in a bathroom stall I don't ponder the moral and ethical dilemmas of reading or not reading what someone scribbled on the wall. He was not running a cryptographically secure anonymous remailer service here. He was running a virtual bathroom wall to scribble gossip upon.
e12e|10 years ago
At any rate, an interesting article. It might have been interesting to set up something similar, just bundling an XMPP client and OTR, and having an XMPP-server per school/"cicrle" for pairing (could probably even require school logins for registering on sign-up -- just make sure to throw that information away (beyond possibly keeping age/gender tag).
With the caveat that secure, anonymous communication and "web browser" doesn't really mix -- it could probably be set up as web page/service too (Not sure if eg: Matrix has a web/js-client that does/tries to do client side OTR or equivalent?).
We had IRC, with chat-rooms per town -- as not everyone had Internet in the 90s in Norway. But that did afford some people pseudonymity.
Animats|10 years ago
blantonl|10 years ago
* Privacy * Bullying * Under age pornography
Facebook, Instagram, Snapshat etc all struggle with this across their networks.
Something designed for a user base that is almost exclusively under 18.... Shudder.
College students have trouble conducting themselves online in a proper fashion - just look at Yik Yak and the headwinds it is facing.
unknown|10 years ago
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rexpop|10 years ago
refrigerator|10 years ago
detaro|10 years ago
thaumasiotes|10 years ago
jpochtar|10 years ago
joshmanders|10 years ago