[Opensim-dev] A proposed groups architecture

[Melanie]

Hello,

in chat, an interesting question was raised, concerning the scoping 
of groups.

It appears that groups really serve a dual purpose, as a 
communications platform and as a permissions system.

In the role of permissions administration, groups are tied to land, 
which scopes them at grid level, most likely.

In the other role, as comms medium, they are user-tied, you would 
want to take IM/Notices with you if you teleport intergrid.

A few possible solutions come to mind, none is 100%:

Scope groups at grid level: Allows consistent land 
ownerships/permissions, but group chat would be grid-local

Scope groups at user level: You could take all your groups with you 
anywhere, but permissions become tricky.

A combination, where the groups from your current grid and those 
from your userserver are merged and form the group list on the grid 
you are on.

There may be options to scope all groups at user level, and let them 
own land anywhere, but that would put a certain amount of trust into 
a UUID that is not locally manager, and I would hesitate to do that.

As I write this, another option comes to mind.

If groups were scoped with the user, then each grid could create a 
record that maps that group (by name) to a local ID, which could 
then own land.
This might yet give the option of implementing groups that can have 
both functions in one.

Thought are appreciated.

Melanie