Should Bebo be banned in UCD?

irlrobins

What is your opinion on Bebo usage in UCD?

Jonny Arson

If you're gonna ban Bebo you have to ban hotmail or even.... er am I allowed say it..... Boards! :eek: BTW with the UCD college group on Bebo now it's only going to get far worse.

I'll admit last year I was a major culprit of hogging the computers for non-educational useage but it has to stop. There's nothing more frustrating in queuing for 15 minutes while badly needing to use a computer for your essay.

Banning certain websites may be a solution, during 10-4 Mon-Fri may be a good idea but where do you draw the line on which sites should be banned???

I can't see many solutions to the problem. I think things will stay the same as they are.

Blush_01

When you have an obviously visible problem, like Bebo, then a peak-hour ban isn't out of the question. Hotmail et al can be used for educational communication - tutors often use hotmail and their ilk, as do students, for keeping in touch regarding changes in schedule etcetera. Bebo does not offer the same saving grace. Besides, if each problem is dealt with on an individual basis, then I don't see things being unreasonable. Bebo isn't just some site, it's a parasite. It's eating resources we pay for, specifically so we can have them at our academic disposal. If I was being unreasonable, I'd say set Bebo on fire and let it burn. But I'm being pretty rational in my reasoning, and therefore think that a timed firewall wouldn't kill anyone.

rainbow kirby

I'm gonna have to agree with the timed firewall idea. During the peak hours of computer usage in UCD (10-4, Monday-Friday) it should be banned because some people aren't able to get all their work done because of people using Bebo during that time. At crunch times (last 2 weeks of term) it should be banned completely. At those times, labs are really just for work.

Umaro

i think restriction to off-peak hours is a fair compromise. it doesnt really concern me tho cos i have my own laptop but i can understand how frustrating it is to watch some tool draw a birthday cake for whiteboard on a PC thats specifically for academic use.

arbeitsscheuer

Umaro wrote:

i think restriction to off-peak hours is a fair compromise. it doesnt really concern me tho cos i have my own laptop but i can understand how frustrating it is to watch some tool draw a birthday cake for whiteboard on a PC thats specifically for academic use.

Did you like my artwork???:D

Seriously tho, I think the peak hours firewall is a good idea. If it proves popular it can then be made a total ban on BEBO, if it proves unpopular then it can be easily retracted.

Hotmail is useful for keeping in touch with people, staying on top of essays etc. E.G. I don't have a USB key and find using my MP3 player as a disk is unwieldy - so I just email myself an essay on hotmail and then log in and download it when I get to college! Viola! Useful academic apparatus.

Boards is useful for keeping in constant contact wit ur peers, who in my case include 4 or 5 final yr History and/or Politics students. Without this resource I certainly would not have passed Politics last yr, and it's already reaped dividends for me again this year.

I fail to see what Academic purpose BEBO could possibly be serving.

Dave!

#2

Red Alert

neither does hotmail since you have web access to H: and a ucd connect mail account.

i agree with the timed firewall as long as it doesn't apply to: staff PC's, postgrad PC's and privately owned laptops - easy to do because IP addresses are different on the different VLANs. however i don't agree with it because computer services may then decide to come the heavy on sites they don't like (remember that this gang do think they're running the university).

The library can and should be more draconian with it's PC's since they're specifically for researching/studying use.

Hanginthere

I think it should be banned completely. i was in the first year comp sci lab yesterday trying to get some work done and all i could hear was "jaaa..jaaa did you look at my bebo... ohh shes so ugly there... HAHAHA" and so on. I mean its a great idea but if you look at any lab it seems to be that every second person is looking at it.. it might encourage them to get a bit of work done even.

the evil lime

Walk into the back of a commerce lecture and look at the laptops. About 60 - 80% will be on BEBO. Not that I have any major objection to people doing whatever they like on their laptops, but it can get a bit distracting on the odd ocasions when I try to pay attention.

brian plank

oh bebo should be banned! dickheads!!:mad: :mad:

Waltons

brian plank wrote:

oh bebo should be banned! dickheads!!:mad: :mad:

I'll ban YOU.
Or, hopefully, someone else will :v:

Syth

You can't ban a website. All you can do is set prevent the main UCD proxy from allowing it.

As a student who is tired of UCD's crappy computer network, I'm voting against any more restrictions.

ozt9vdujny3srf

brianplank banned, thanks for report.

Blush_01

I know I've posted this already, but here goes...

STUDENT COMPUTING RULES

GENERAL REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE USE OF UCD COMPUTERS BY UCD UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

The UCD computer systems may only be used for the course or research work for which students are registered as UCD students.

Use of another person’s computer account is strictly prohibited.

Any usage of the computer systems for frivolous purposes or game playing or any usage which interferes with or disrupts the use of any computer system by other computer users in any way is strictly prohibited.

Students who fail to observe these or any other regulations may be denied access by Computing Services to any or all of the computers in UCD. Students who are denied access to the computers may be required to pay an amount determined by the Registrar as a fine before being permitted to continue their studies in UCD. A serious or persistent breach of these rules will result in a report being sent to the Registrar, and an appropriate penalty will be imposed at the Registrar’s discretion.

segadreamcast

Similar thing happening in DCU. This all seemed to pop up overnight... yesterday, I looked to my left, and the two people there were using bebo, looked to my right, and all three people there were using Bebo too. Insane. And it is hogging resources. I'd be in favour of a ban.

P.S. Yes, I know this is UCD - similar issue is affecting all colleges I'd imagine though.

Blush_01

I've heard that IT Tallaght banned it, but I don't know how accurate that is.

rainbow kirby

IT Tallaght bans EVERYTHING. Including boards, Hotmail, Gmail and various other things. A friend of mine who's a 3rd year computing student there had to sign up with rediff.com (an Indian version of Gmail) to get a 1GB email account she could access on campus.

Red Alert

those horrid people in computer services would just love to clamp down more on the network. look how they dumped re-imaging in favour of a draconian policy lockout when they moved from win98 to win2000 :eek:

PaulDoh

I'm not one for Facism but Bebo should be banned from every computer everywhere forever and ever.
I just don't get it - "here take one of my quizzes and look at my stupid focking pictures".
I hate fads, but it'll pass soon hopefully.
[/rant]

Sorry.

rainbow kirby

It's basically D4 online, complete with obnoxious twats as far as the eye can see... and therein lies the problem.

ghostchant

Alll that being said, it's a very handy way to keep in contact with people you used to go to school with...people you otherwise may never hear from again

ferdi

ghostchant wrote:

Alll that being said, it's a very handy way to keep in contact with people you used to go to school with...people you otherwise may never hear from again

agreed, it has its uses, but not many.

Riamfada

Im all for fascisim as you know but Bebo is simply just a fad. It will pass and its only a bit of a laugh.

Blush_01

It's a fad that's currently taking up 15 of the 38 computers in LG3. There's the friggin problem!

Riamfada

People can do what they want online. Within reason. But they qued for their computer. No matter what you ban people are still going to use the computers for non-college based activities. We cant make people use
college resources for college work only. Can anyone here on a college PC right now say they are not browsing non-college research sites?

Una im looking at you. Posting on Boards??? eh? If I was waiting on a PC id be pretty pissed off

rainbow kirby

Well I'm at home now... Go having Fridays off! (though I *know* I should be working on my Data Structures practical...*hides*)

Red Alert

well i suppose people can surf what they want on laptops.

irlrobins

yea but it will be all or nothing. It would be very hard to block bebo from just lab machines and allow access from laptops. Labs used to have fixed ip addresses but now only servers have fixed ips, even lap machines share the same ip range as private laptops.

Red Alert

ouch! that really wasn't a clever idea at all. considering too that they block laptops from accessing the novell file servers on the wireless - you sure the wireless laptops and the lab machines are the same IP range or is it just the wired points?

if it was wired fair enough - they'd only be wasting bandwidth at the faster speed.

irlrobins

Red Alert wrote:

ouch! that really wasn't a clever idea at all. considering too that they block laptops from accessing the novell file servers on the wireless - you sure the wireless laptops and the lab machines are the same IP range or is it just the wired points?

if it was wired fair enough - they'd only be wasting bandwidth at the faster speed.

AFAIK they are. They're def both using dynamic ip ranges. Can;t be 100% sure if they have one range for wired and another for wireless OR a range of ips for both wired and wireless for each VLAN.

I'm on two server machines so can't test my theory.