[Opensim-dev] Guest logins for grids, an idea which could change a lot

Sun Dec 14 06:36:37 UTC 2008

There is something called HyperGrid that allow you  to jump from your native
sim to any other linked sim. Seriously, I doubt any grid will allows
anonymous login for safety reason.

SM

On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 3:07 AM, Mircea Filipescu <
mircea_the_kitsune at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  I have been thinking about this feature for a while and thought it's time
> I post it here to discuss it with the team. In the latest version of Opensim
> there is an "allow anonymous logins" option in opensim.ini.example for
> standalone mode, which allows avatars who haven't registered to that region
> to login by choosing any random first name, last name and password. This has
> always been helpful for me and an easy method of connecting to local sims,
> and made it quick and simple to easily log in and be in-world even if you
> didn't have an account set up. Watching this possibility and how easy that
> makes things work has then gotten me thinking in depth about something: What
> would it be like if on grids like OSGrid and others anyone could be allowed
> to login anonymously as guests without having registered their avatar from
> the grid's website? How much easier and better would it make it if anyone
> could just open the SL client pointing to the grid's -loginuri and go in?
>
> I'm not trying to say that going on a page like osgrid.org and registering
> there is too hard to do, but I think that anonymous logins in grids could
> have a positive impact and severily open and change the metaverse. For
> example, whenever you want to visit a forum or go onto an IRC server /
> channel, you most often don't register before entering there to read or
> talk, and yet it's very helpful that you are allowed to just go in anytime
> from anywhere and stick around with some limits, allowed to register your
> nickname / username when and if you wish to later on. Opensim works a lot
> like a forum from certain points of view, and a region works like a thread
> with its own topics in some ways. People often come in, configure
> theirselves as they wish, see what's there, talk with other people... unless
> they are builders and have their own sim as well. So just think about it...
> all that made easy for all. For instance you quickly want to invite someone
> to your sim on a grid, and if this would be allowed it would be as simple as
> dropping that person the loginuri for the client and in a second he could
> join you as a guest (given he couldn't register or figure out how to
> register in that moment). And now that there are SL viewers which work off
> web browsers as well, think what use this could be put to... an avatar could
> just go to www.something.com, choose a nickname (firstname / lastname) and
> be in-world!
>
> Of course I'm talking about a non-default setting, this would only be a
> feature which grid owners would enable if they wanted to, and unless someone
> specifically wants this enabled grids would remain restricted to registered
> users only. There are of course other questions this raises as well... for
> instance, avatars loging in as guests would not have their inventory,
> profile and all other settings stored between login sessions, as it would be
> very complicated and pointless to persist stuff like inventory for someone
> who only logs in once with a random auto-generated name and avatar UUID. Yet
> they could walk around, talk, build as well, and I think this would bring
> the community on Opensim closer and offer a lot of advantages if done
> proberly.
>
> Ways to differ guests from registered users should be placed in as well.
> Best way would be forcing the Last Name to be "Guest", so to login as
> anonymous the user would need to use any first name they want, the last name
> "guest" and no password. That would be the best way to know when someone did
> not log in as a registered user or not. Also, individual regions should be
> given the option to specify if they allow guests in or not, as long as the
> grid itself does too. A grid could allow anonymous logins but a region may
> specify if it doesn't want to allow that from opensim.ini.example, and a
> guest trying to TP or border cross to such a region would be blocked with a
> popup telling them they need to use an avatar registered to the grid to
> enter. Grids and / or sims could also give what permissions they would wish
> to guests as well, such as if guests should be allowed to build on that grid
> / sim, script, upload files and all else.
>
> I think this is an interesting point and would love to hear your opinions
> as to wether or not this should be done one way or another. This couldn't
> ruin anything or make anyone unhappy if they don't want to enable it, and I
> for one see a bright future with allowing such a thing to work. To make
> things even more clear I made a small personal list of pros and cons for
> allowing anonymous logins on large grids. Here it is:
>
> Pros:
>
> - Allowing anonymous logins on grids would make it easier for people to get
> in and have at least a tour of things, thus increase user count and
> popularity of Opensim and OS based grids. When many people hear they have to
> register to look around OSGrid they often say "forget it, I don't have time
> to bother with this right now", but if people could easily visit as guests
> many would likely get in and take a look more often. On OSGrid I believe
> this could severily increase user count and popularity.
>
> - Such a feature would allow easily using Opensim as something similar to a
> forum or IRC system, as I had mentioned above. Just like on forums where
> guests are allowed to post but cannot have an avatar or signature and upload
> files until they register, Opensim could allow guests to login and chat,
> build, while registering would offer an unique name for the user as well as
> a persistent inventory and profile, probably more rights as well depending
> on what the grid would allow guests to do. This could also make usage
> between Opensim and other platforms like chat systems even more easier, and
> encourage other applications on guest-based user systems to try to connect
> with Opensim creatively.
>
> - Useful for testing and especially for running bots. For pCampBot you need
> to register an avatar for every single bot you want to login, and don't
> forget that on most grids you need a different email address for each avatar
> you register as well. On OSGrid for instance I used up all my email
> addresses to make two bot accounts and my own account. This would allow
> running bots easily without having to register each first as well as making
> other types of tests easier as well.
>
> Cons:
>
> - One thing this would do would be to open new doors to griefers. Many
> griefers could try to barge in and do what they want with scripts, attacks,
> etc. There would be ways to prevent that of course... for instance access
> from a certain IP address should remain be possible to restrict in the same
> way rather that you attempt to login as a registered grid user or as a guest
> from that machine.
>
> - As mentioned above, features like static inventory, profiles, groups,
> friends list, and other things related to storing information in the grid
> for an avatar would not be doable for guests, and all that would be
> temporary for each login session in their case. Still they can run and fly,
> talk and build, etc.
>
> So yeah, that's what I thought of so far. I hope this idea will be
> considered and maybe OSGrid and other grids would be better and have a
> bigger and more open community this way. What do you think? Would allowing
> anonymous logins for grid mode and using them in a limited amount on large
> grids be a good idea? Is it doable, are there any plans on that?
>
> ------------------------------
> Discover the new Windows Vista Learn more!<http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Opensim-dev mailing list
> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/attachments/20081214/6e5fe40c/attachment-0001.html>