Giorgio Maone wrote:Chiming in with a warning: I didn't read the whole thread, but it seems lately it is about what "Site" means.
Well, in ABE context, it just means the final endpoint of a HTTP request or, in other words, its destination.
What I have been gleaning from the many posts by users, some of them not at all novices, is that it's the "
request" portion that causes the confusion. That is not intuitive to the user who doesn't understand that ABE's context is based on a request model.
So, if I may use
GµårÐïåñ's
excellent simplified analogy,
Code: Select all
Site tie@dad.com
Accept from son.com
Deny
To those who understand the request model, this rule permits
tie@dad.com to accept a request from son.com for a tie, which Dad then sends (lends?) him.
In non-tech English, without knowledge of the request model, it's "very clear" (sic) that Dad is accepting a tie
from Son.
Perhaps to emphasize:
Code: Select all
Site $10@Giorgio.net
Accept from Tom.com
Deny
You and I understand this to mean that you (Giorgio) will accept a
request from me (Tom) to ask you to send me ten dollars.
The user not familiar with the HTTP Request model simply reads this as: Giorgio will accept ten dollars from Tom.
Does that help? ... it's *exactly* what has confused a number of posters; I won't waste your time by pointing to all of them.
I just believed that "Accept" and "from" already hinted about the direction...
The direction of the
request, yes. But only if one understands that request model.
The non-cognoscenti take "Accept from" LITERALLY (in plain English) -- the first site will accept something from the second site.
Hence they try rules like:
Code: Select all
Site .myfavesite.com
Accept from .google-syndication.com
Deny
... in the mistaken belief that to help support their favorite site, they will accept ads
from G-S at that site, but nowhere else.
Their fave site is "Accepting (script) FROM g-s.
It becomes necessary to explain that no, we must control the sites FROM WHICH g-s may accept (and reply to -- that's the missing part) requests.
Most users focus on what
we know to be the
reply -- the script or object that is sent, at the site's (permitted) request.
Instinctive (non-tech) usage would create a rule like "Accept AT myfavesite.com", with the
source being g-s.com.
It is difficult for someone like yourself, who started learning these things as a child, and can't remember not knowing them, to empathize with those to whom this is all new. That is true in all fields of knowledge.
I'll close with a bit of immodesty, partially compensated for by a confession of ignorance:
I have a professional level of knowledge of the English language. I learned to read at age three, and was reading from an encyclopedia at age five. I was allowed to skip the first year of required University freshman English, and received credit for the skipped courses, by scoring very highly on the Advanced Placement (AP) tests. I've worked as a private tutor, including helping students improve their scores on the standardized US college entrance exams, the SAT and ACT -- which test verbal skills very heavily.
And I was honored to be one of those chosen to preview the early drafts of
Bruce Schneier's recent book, "
Liars & Outliers: Enabling the trust that society needs to thrive". (John Wiley and Sons, February 2012). Mr. Schneier wrote 125,000 words of manuscript. I sent 55,000 words of critique, including usage, meaning, syntax, simple typos, etc. A number of my suggestions (not all, of course) were accepted and included in the book. If you look at the Acknowledgments on pgs. 347-348, you will find me listed there (under my real full name, which of course I ask you not to disclose, for the sake of privacy).
Confession: When first exposed to the ABE rules, I had the same initial reaction: It's backwards.
I think you and I might even have had a brief discussion about it, and about using the request model -- which then made sense of it.
The point is that if someone this well-versed in the English language, but without your decades of tech learning and experience, could misunderstand this, then we cannot fault anyone else who reads it the "wrong" way. Especially if English is not their native language either, but even for native speakers.
Code: Select all
Source: $10@Giorgo.net
Accept at Tom.com
Deny
would be intuitively understood by anyone who speaks basic English. Not suggesting changing ABE, just Thrawn's idea of adding aliases that non-tech users would grasp immediately. Like this:
Code: Select all
Source: .google-syndication.com
Accept at .myfavesite.com
Deny
Sorry to have bored you with my creds, but I hope it helps.
ETA: "Destination" would still be regarded by the average user as being the site that they are presently visiting -- the landing site of the script or object that they are choosing to allow.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/12.0