How about a birthday file so you can see all the birthdays for the
month, day or year? Readable and compiled from the user data file.
Many users do NOT want others to know their birthday, because there
are so many who are wanting to commit identity theft...or for those
like myself, who became the victim of it in years past.
To me, a users birthday is like their date of birth, social security
number, password, address, religious preference (or lack thereof), or
even sexual preference (what they do in the privacy of their bedroom
is their business).
As long as they play by the rules that the Sysop of that particular
BBS has laid down, and there is no subpeona from law enforcement (which
my BBS has NOT had in 30 years of operation), that is for the eyes of
that Sysop and that individual user ONLY -- end of discussion. Even when
my wife and Co-Sysop was alive, even she did NOT have access to the data; that's how strongly I felt about the strict confidentiality of user data.
I have had one user who requested a special handle, because of events earlier in their life, where they were a victim of stalking.
The only "data" available to all would be for:
1) Approximately how many messages they've posted.
2) Approximately how many files they've downloaded or uploaded.
3) Total logons to the BBS.
4) Their score in the doorgames that they're involved in.
Now, some doorgames require a first and last name, even if the "name"
is a handle...because otherwise, a partial name in the dropfile, will
cause the door to crash. And, with some InterBBS competitions (as with
message areas), real names are required.
Daryl
... Floggings will continue until morale improves.
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