7. Basic Permissions: who can do what

It is through the permissions commands that you may specify 'who' may do 'what'. For instance, if you wanted to prevent snapper from talking to you, you could 'deny snapper tell'.

The permissions system in Key is extremely powerful, providing an implementation something known as 'Access Control Lists' in computing.

This chapter introduces you to the basics of using this permission system for yourself. When you start building rooms seriously, or want to configure a clan, you should also read the chapter on contextual permissions.

Overview

The permission system revolves around two key elements: actions and entities. An action is something that an entity may try and do to you.

Some examples of entities include players, clans, and the pseudo-groups 'friends', and 'everyone'.

Some examples of actions include tell, find, and seePrivateInfo.

You may set a permission entry (allow, deny, or default) for any combination of these.

For instance, you can stop someone talking to you with a combination of player and tell, using a command such as 'deny snapper tell'. 'snapper' is the entity, 'tell' is the action, and 'deny' is the permissions you're setting.

This is probably a little bit confusing, so here are some more examples:

allow snapper find	This means that snapper will be able to find out where you are (important for the 'where' command and 'join' commands) even when you're hiding.
allow snapper seePrivateInfo	This means that snapper will be able to see your email address even when you set it to be private with "email private".

Actions, Allow and Deny

So far, our commands have only modified the permissions for one person. The 'actions' command shows what your current permissions look like:

-> actions
--------------------------------------------  actions for sLiDe  ---
1 entry in the list:
snapper -  [Allow: find, seePrivateInfo] [Deny: tell]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allow: [friend, tell]
Deny: [summon, seePrivateInfo, find]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

At the top, you can see the modifications that we made for snapper. The list at the bottom shows the default values for each of your available actions.

If someone doesn't have a specific entry on the list then these actions are used for them. That means that joey can tell to me but cannot find me when I'm hiding.

To change these defaults you still use the allow and deny commands.

Let us pretend that you're deep in conversation in your room and you don't want anybody to be able to send tells to you:

-> deny tell
Everyone can no longer tell sLiDe
-> actions
--------------------------------------------  actions for sLiDe  ---
1 entry in the list:
snapper -  [Allow: find, seePrivateInfo]  [Deny: tell]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allow: [friend]
Deny: [summon, seePrivateInfo, tell, find]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Once we're done with our conversation, remember to allow people to talk to you again!

-> allow tell
Everyone can now tell sLiDe

Default

'Default' is the command that complements allow and deny. Default clears an entry from the permission list, meaning that that entry will revert to the defaults listed at the bottom.

There are two ways to use this command, 'default <name> <action>', and 'default <name>'.

Here is a script based example of the first, to clear a specific action:

-> actions
--------------------------------------------  actions for sLiDe  ---
1 entry in the list:
snapper -  [Allow: find ,seePrivateInfo]  [Deny: tell]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allow: [friend, tell]
Deny: [summon, seePrivateInfo, find]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-> default snapper tell
snapper no longer has a specific entry for 'tell sLiDe'
-> actions
--------------------------------------------  actions for sLiDe  ---
1 entry in the list:
snapper -  [Allow: find ,seePrivateInfo]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allow: [friend, tell]
Deny: [summon, seePrivateInfo, find]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, the "[Deny: tell]" has disappeared from the permission list. As tell is currently defaulting to allow (see the second last line), snapper will now be able to talk to me.

You use the second form of default to wipe an entire person from your permission list:

-> default snapper
snapper no longer has a specific entry on sLiDe
-> actions
--------------------------------------------  actions for sLiDe  ---
No list entries
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allow: [friend, tell]
Deny: [summon, seePrivateInfo, find]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

With those four commands (allow, deny, default, actions) you know everything you will ever need to know about manipulating permission lists on Key.

Available actions:

Here is a list of the available actions, along with a brief explanation of what they are for:

tell:

This permission permits or prevents people from talking to you directly with commands such as 'tell', 'remote', or 'rthink'. Useful permutations include:

deny snapper tell - prevents snapper from talking to you. Good if you think snapper is an annoying $#)*(.
allow snapper tell - allows snapper to talk to you even if you have set 'deny tell'.
default snapper tell - clears snappers tell entry from your list.

find:

This permission only comes into play when you hide with the 'hide' command. When you do that, you may allow individuals to be able to see your location and join you even though you're hiding. Useful permutations include:

allow snapper find - allows snapper to find you even if you are hiding.
default snapper find - prevents snapper from finding you if you are hiding. (This works because you shouldn't ever have a reason to 'allow find', as this is the same as just not hiding in the first place.)

seePrivateInfo:

This permission allows individuals to see certain parts of your profile even when they are set as private. At the moment, this only consists of your email address, however it could be extended in the future to include your private florin count, or your hidden time. Useful permutations include:

allow snapper seePrivateInfo - allows snapper to see your email address even when it's set to private.
default snapper seePrivateInfo - prevents snapper from seeing anything on your profile that is set to private. (As with find, there isn't any need to change the default values for this action).

summon:

This permission allows others to 'summon' or 'grab' you. Essentially, this entails them forcibly moving you from wherever you are to where they are. You might want some of your friends to be able to grab you into their rooms for a talk, for instance.

allow summon - allows everyone to grab you.
deny summon - (The default). Prevents people from grabbing you.
allow snapper summon - Unconditionally allows snapper to grab you, even if you have 'deny summon' turned on.
deny snapper summon - Unconditionally prevents snapper from grabbing you, even if you have 'allow summon' turned on.
default snapper summon - snapper will be able to grab you only if you have 'allow summon' turned on.

friend:

I've saved my favourite to last. This action can be used to prevent people from friending you. By default, everyone is allowed to friend you. You can disable this with deny friend. Make sure your read the 'neat tricks' section at the end of this chapter if you think you like the idea of stopping people from friending you.

Available entities (or 'neat tricks')

Here is a list of the available entities, along with some ideas for how to use them.

players:

Obviously you can use any players name on your permission list. This has been the basis for all of our examples so far (poor snapper) since it is the closest to the old EW behaviour.

friends:

Thats right! You can put the pseudo-group 'friends' on your permission list. How about these ideas:
allow friends summon - If you use this with 'deny summon', only your friends will be able to grab you.
allow friends seePrivateInfo - If you set your email address to private, only your friends will be able to see it.
And my favourite, allow friends friend - When used with 'deny friend', only people that you have already friended can friend you back. (Note: if two people have this on, someone will have to turn it off if you want to make each other friends).

clans:

Clans can be put on your permission list, as well. Here are some ideas:
deny wolf tell - people in clan wolf can't talk to you.
allow wolf seePrivateInfo - people in clan wolf can see your email address even when it's private.

groups and ranks:

The available set of system groups depends upon the administrators of the talker. There might be, for instance, a group for newbies, or a group for people who have volunteered to help others out with problems. For all I know, there could be groups for people interested in lycanthropy. The administrator can provide you with a list of the available groups, and maybe even create some for you, if you've got ideas.