Comments on: YO, Robert https://www.habitablezone.com/2018/05/13/yo-robert-2/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:41:18 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://www.habitablezone.com/2018/05/13/yo-robert-2/#comment-41489 ER Tue, 15 May 2018 23:01:23 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=70924#comment-41489 Its up to you, of course, its your baby. But come this fall, the Zone will need to be fully on line. This November will be critical, and the few months before after the election will be essential. This may be our Journal of the Plague Year. Its up to you, of course, its your baby. But come this fall, the Zone will need to be fully on line. This November will be critical, and the few months before after the election will be essential.

This may be our Journal of the Plague Year.

]]> By: Robert https://www.habitablezone.com/2018/05/13/yo-robert-2/#comment-41488 Robert Tue, 15 May 2018 19:47:16 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=70924#comment-41488 The server's still keeping basic, low-level logs (what IP address requested what resource), and visitor data can be derived from those logs. But I'm thinking of turning off logging completely soon, as part of an effort to tighten up Zone security. I'd like better security before starting any push to increase membership, and in our present age, strong privacy protection would be a selling point. Not to mention the advent of the GDPR, <a href="https://www.eugdpr.org/" rel="nofollow">the EU General Data Protection Regulation</a>, which goes into effect in ten days. The big social media companies hate it, but I'm kinda jazzed to see a strong online privacy law. The ubiquity of the net is being used to clean it up: If you deal with one EU citizen over the internet, or it's even possible for an EU citizen to interact with you, the GDPR applies to you. Which makes it a nominally European law with a global reach. The HabitableZone is already subject to the GDPR because our membership rolls include Raoul, a resident of Belgium. Much of the GDPR is straightforward and we're already in compliance. The only personal information recorded about you is what's on your profile page, and you can edit/delete it. The GDPR has one part that's tricky for the Zone: The "right to be forgotten". Sure, you can delete your account and all its data will be erased. But what about your posts? The content you produced and contributed to the larger Zone corpus isn't, I think, personal information about you (except what you disclosed in posts). It's your "product", your "work". And each post is part of a larger conversation, which would be damaged by removal of chunks of it. That would negatively impact the rights of other contributors on that thread. I think the answer would be to anonymize posts after their author departs. The system could generate a random display name, and the post's authorship could be obscured. Sorry I kind of went off on a tangent. I was thinking about posting a statement about GDPR, and your posted tied in directly with my plans and thinking about it. Pragmatically, you can bring in new members any time. Automatic signup is turned off, but the Zone isn't really closed to new members. The issue is when to start actively trying to reboot the Zone, by luring back existing members, and trying to recruit more. I've learned to be wary about putting a date on any work with the Zone, for the unfortunate reason that because it's hobby and not paying work, it perpetually takes a backseat to the struggle to survive. I was well along coding a new "hardened" Zone around the turn of the year, but had to suspend work for a while. I want to resume as soon as I can, but any grand opening is going to be at least a couple of months away, likely more. The server’s still keeping basic, low-level logs (what IP address requested what resource), and visitor data can be derived from those logs. But I’m thinking of turning off logging completely soon, as part of an effort to tighten up Zone security. I’d like better security before starting any push to increase membership, and in our present age, strong privacy protection would be a selling point.

Not to mention the advent of the GDPR, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect in ten days. The big social media companies hate it, but I’m kinda jazzed to see a strong online privacy law. The ubiquity of the net is being used to clean it up: If you deal with one EU citizen over the internet, or it’s even possible for an EU citizen to interact with you, the GDPR applies to you. Which makes it a nominally European law with a global reach.

The HabitableZone is already subject to the GDPR because our membership rolls include Raoul, a resident of Belgium.

Much of the GDPR is straightforward and we’re already in compliance. The only personal information recorded about you is what’s on your profile page, and you can edit/delete it.

The GDPR has one part that’s tricky for the Zone: The “right to be forgotten”. Sure, you can delete your account and all its data will be erased. But what about your posts? The content you produced and contributed to the larger Zone corpus isn’t, I think, personal information about you (except what you disclosed in posts). It’s your “product”, your “work”. And each post is part of a larger conversation, which would be damaged by removal of chunks of it. That would negatively impact the rights of other contributors on that thread.

I think the answer would be to anonymize posts after their author departs. The system could generate a random display name, and the post’s authorship could be obscured.

Sorry I kind of went off on a tangent. I was thinking about posting a statement about GDPR, and your posted tied in directly with my plans and thinking about it.

Pragmatically, you can bring in new members any time. Automatic signup is turned off, but the Zone isn’t really closed to new members. The issue is when to start actively trying to reboot the Zone, by luring back existing members, and trying to recruit more. I’ve learned to be wary about putting a date on any work with the Zone, for the unfortunate reason that because it’s hobby and not paying work, it perpetually takes a backseat to the struggle to survive.

I was well along coding a new “hardened” Zone around the turn of the year, but had to suspend work for a while. I want to resume as soon as I can, but any grand opening is going to be at least a couple of months away, likely more.

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