Re: One vs many directories

[Tim Cross]

Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> writes:

> Observing users who are asked questions upon invokation of other
> software I can say that many times users just click one of the
> options, either YES or NO, but without real regard to the
> meanings. The purpose to click either YES or NO is to continue one
> step forward and randomity decides later what happens.

You cannot prevent people from making bad decisions. Saying yes to
something when you don't know what it means is like using the same
weak password for everything. There has been massive amounts of
communication and education out there to let people know about the
risks. If they choose to ignore it or follow practices which are unsafe,
it is their tough luck.

We need to encourage people to take more responsibility for their
actions, not less. One important component of this is allowing the
consequences for bad decisions to occur and not spend endless resources
protecting people from themselves.

If your asked to do something and your clearly told that doing so might
be unsafe and your given an option not to do it which is just as easy to
perform and you still decide to do it, that decision is on you.

The alternative is to remove extremely useful functionality from many
responsible users because of an unknown number of others who make poor
decisions.

Furthermore, keep in mind that this ability in Emacs has been around for
longer than many users have been alive. I've been using it for nearly 30
years and have participated in many forums over that time. I have yet to
hear of a single security incident occurring because of local variables.
That doesn't mean such incidents have not occurred, but it does likely
mean they are rare.

--
Tim Cross