5/11    Proposal for amckee: add in an experimental /etc/motd.experimental
        where one needs to use a lock/unlock mechanism. Make tracking
        anonymous (but auditable by root if threads start to violate UC
        Regent laws). Then:
        cat motd.official motd.public motd.experimental > motd
        We can play around with it for a while, and see how it goes.
        \_ you don't need to enforce lock/unlock if you enforce editing
           via one command.  motdedit merge works fine, so no need for
           locking. -nivra
           \_ There's already some form of locking in motdedit, although I
              haven't looked at it much to see how it works (or breaks down).
              As the simplest mechanism, we'd only need to make motd.exper
              writable by some special user, suid motdedit to that user, and
              add the all-users group to the sudoers list for that file cmd.
              \_ motdedit uses the normal file lock that standard text editors
                 can use.  It's not an absolute lock that prevents others
                 from editing, obviously.  My point is that one of the reasons
                 people didn't use motdedit, esp. when threads are in heavy
                 debate, is the pain of having to wait while others edit
                 and have the motd locked.  motdedit -n doesn't require a lock,
                 and still prevents overwrites. Thus, you can implement your
                 solution without requiring locks, as long as everyone is
                 using motdedit. I shoulda just made "-n" the default. -nivra
                 [Re-posted after it was overwritten, ironically, enough]
           \_ speaking of which, it just merged my post with this one below
              it. -nivra
        \_ One thing I was thinking of was to create a bona-fide
           threaded interface, something with a database behind it where
           users can post anonymously (but not delete their or other records).
           Nothing revolutionary, by far, but tailor it for something like Lynx
           and automatically generate a 'read-only, most recent' list piped
           to motd.public - something that looks exactly like this. Perhaps
           make it only locally accessible, though (the interface, not the motd).
           Sounds controversial, though, and your idea might be better in the
           short-term, if nothing else.
           \_ http://csua.org/motd
              \_ Haha, fabulous. It always amazes me the sheer quantity of crap
                 on here yet to be discovered (by me, at least). So, uh, why
                 don't we just make people use that?
           \_ of course, most people probably look directly at the .public file
              and it'd be a shame not to be able to do interleaved threading...
           \_ it's called "wall"  -meyers