Re: Distributed Data

Matt Sergeant (msergeant nospam at ndirect.co.uk)
Tue, 09 Mar 1999 21:40:18 +0000

"Kyle R. Rose" wrote:
>
> > I totally agree on leaving out signatures. KISS is the name of the day
> > to create a protocol that people will buy into.
> >
> > However: we still need a model for editing entries that arrive at the
> > server. Or some other policy mechanism to keep the data clean and valid.
> > I don't think we've seen anything like that proposed so far.
>
> Here's one thing to consider: I was thinking about it last night, and
> the first-come, first-served method of entering data may be the best
> one after all, if we're trying to avoid trolls.
>
> Why?
>
> Because the hash function required to insert data into the database is
> one-way. This means that a troll cannot reasonably be expected to
> know the hash value of ANY CD that he does not possess -- even CDs
> that won't exist for millenia! Since it is reasonable to expect that
> only a person who likes the CD is going to rush out, buy it, and put
> it into their DMI/CDDP+/whatever-enabled player, they aren't going to
> enter crap into the database. (Of course, they may just be
> brain-dead, stupid, or poor spellers, but I'm not sure there's a way
> around this short of creating a trust system for "reliable" data
> providers.)

Look at the # of hits on cddb.com - entries are about 300 a day. That's
not too many to check for dupes manually if there isn't an exact match.
I'd bet that if you used some decent code that checks for duplications
you'd have only about 10 a day to check manually. One person could cope
with that.

-- 
<Matt/>

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