SIPB WWW Server Policies

Or, the SIPB WWW Policy FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q. Why don't you use any of the "cool" Netscape tags on your pages?

A. Because they are not part of the HTML standard. Look at our "why we don't use Netscape tags" page.

Q. I'd like to run a script via your server.

A. Sorry, we really can't do that unless you have a very good reason. There are very big potential security holes that we really don't want to deal with. Server load is also a problem. You'll notice that the server can be sluggish at times; lots of perl processes lying around can bring the server to a standstill. If you want to run scripts, you should get your own server, or get permission from someone else who has one.

Q. I want to know how many times people are accessing my page.

A. Enough people are paranoid about privacy issues (for people who are browsing) that this kind of specific information is not given out. We are currently working on getting general stats to work right, but other than that no information on personal pages is available. Also, grovelling through our server stats is a big load on our overworked server.

Q. I want the source of the foo.bar script.

A. In principle, we'd love to give out the sources for the scripts running on our server. However, there is some concern that not all of them are completely secure, so until someone here goes over them and makes sure that giving them out wouldn't expose security holes, we aren't releasing them.

Q. I want to use your graphics.

A. Talk to rei@mit.edu. Generally, if you just want to use graphics to link to the source (the SIPB server or rei's homepage), go ahead. Please don't use them in your own server as your own icons.

Q. It's been a week and my page hasn't been added/my question hasn't been answered.

A. The webmasters are incredibly hosed; we're volunteers with real classes and real jobs, and sometimes we just can't find the time to do everything. If you have a simple request or question, we'll probably get back to you quickly. If you have a more complex problem...it might take a while.

Q. Why don't you have such-and-such a page linked into your list of (homepages, servers, activities)?

A. We include homepages or servers in our major listings only upon request. We have already had many problems where a homepage was listed before the owner thought it was ready, or where it was mis-named and the maintainers had not been told that it had been added. So if you would like us to list a page, send the maintainers of the page a note asking them to contact us.

Q. I have nothing to do with MIT, but I'd like to have my page listed.

A. Sorry, if we started adding *all* pages, I think our server would explode. Well, maybe not, but it would be impossible to maintain, and would eat up all our time, and then we'd go insane and blow up our server after all. Either way, our server loses badly.

Questions we'd love to see, but don't:

Q. We'd like to offer you a great, high-paying job. Interested?

A. Yes!

Q. We have a spare Sunfire 480R with a service contract. Want it?

A. Yes!