RE: On JavaScript, mt2k, and security risks

[vroom]

I'm all for fun... but annoying other users isn't fun. Also there are a lot of things that people can do with JavaScript. I wish I wouldn't have to make it disappear however it seems inevitable. The more e-mails and /msg's I get from people with the potential dangers of using JavaScript the more I realize that it's going to have to disappear from the site entirely on home nodes as there is no good way of filtering what is good JS and what is bad JS.

I'd like to thank of all of you who wear the white hats and let me know about potential problems, sadly it's inevitable that not all people with wear the white hat.

vroom | Tim Vroom | [e-mail]

[Adam]

Sad, sad day.

Well, silver lining time: Lets add a new toy to replace the old JS one! Here is what I am thinking: PM-code already scans through a node looking for [ and ] and <code> tags and such. Why not start a library of user defined PM tags. These tags would call a predefined function that does something. (This is like a specialized Server side include, which is not the same as the client side JavaScript) This library would be under the direct control of either Vroom or a few high level monks. (Either another clan or just the saints or something.) Anyway, the idea being that when you come up with something cute you would like to have on your node you submit it to the maintainer of the library who then tells you the tag to use. (or not if the idea is rejected.) Other users can then incorporate these new ideas as they choose by using the same tags. And of course, a few data points will be made available to this library (visitor's name, level, and maybe XP for example)

So, an example:

sub SetRandomBGColor
{
    my @colorset = qw( aqua white yellow lime );
    my $color = $colorset[rand(@colorset)];
    print "<style><!-- body { background-color:$color;} --></style>";
}

# This could then be used to do something like:
#
# <PM SetRandomBGColor>
#