Will MetaFilter get persistent SSL?

July 3, 2006 12:26 PM

Will MetaFilter get persistent SSL, like Craigslist?
posted by The Jesse Helms to Feature Requests at 12:26 PM (16 comments total)

In the distance, a dog barks.
posted by cortex at 1:07 PM on July 3, 2006

Craigslist has SSL? Where?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:09 PM on July 3, 2006

on the internet! <clashing of cymbals>
posted by blue_beetle at 1:46 PM on July 3, 2006

Let's see... problems with supporting SSL:

• It doesn't work with name-based virtual hosting, which means Matt would have to put every subdomain on a different IP address, possibly costing increased hosting fees.
• It would consume more CPU time on an already arguably overloaded server.
• A certificate costs money, and he'd need one for every domain.
• Bandwidth usage would go up as many browsers do not cache SSL pages.
• Any page where a user linked to an image not on a https: URL (i.e. just about any page with an image) would cause a warning in some configurations.
• It is of questionable value to a messageboard that's public to begin with.

Advantages: um.... you get to say it's SSL-enabled?

In short: What in the fuck are you smoking?
posted by Rhomboid at 1:55 PM on July 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

I'd only thought of three of those, but yeah, what he say ^^

And if what you are smoking is good, I hope you've brought enough for the whole class.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 2:06 PM on July 3, 2006

* drops trou in outrage
posted by boo_radley at 2:11 PM on July 3, 2006

Well, ok.

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7

mQCNAz1w/KoAAAEEAM7MkKeu0tgU3XC3w2ChNyN2nDJCg28sXPhiHOO6ajGhugms
f7+J1ScU5wHeUl1NjSuA+c3fkZixA9BEhfbkI2FgTkc2+o1HzhOoVaAt57t1UNVN
txi2aZbrhHQOmrBV2wFefWmcgh6cpTX8Ob1th6WbvZ7KtIu9ZPIyWVItWelFAAUT
tA51c2VuZXRAZ251Lm9yZ4kAlQMFED1w/KryMllSLVnpRQEB+JAD/0FJ/vi9fM8c
EK5e/EZP/BpxmGLJ9RQlakvzUU3NGYnCa0jFUW1/YoAHSegn+ogPMdL0K8bzICHH
VqPc48hABBPUfib96oUfNdgAlp43DiwiKFV7vdqYuDXQUKHhcxiu6HGSHuvthU8V
/wDAXKz8sH4Q+u0ifZT5qLywNPOOD3rS
=lRPs
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Just kidding. Craigslist does have SSL for posting, though. I don't know if Craig has hundreds of IPs for his CSRs, and if they're self signed, or what. Just a question. A secret question.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 2:56 PM on July 3, 2006

Craigslist does have SSL for posting, though

But that's presumably because there's private data in the posting (eg your email address). Apart from anonymous AskMes, all data that you send when making a post here ends up publicly visible anyway. What are you trying to secure?
posted by cillit bang at 3:59 PM on July 3, 2006

You might not want your upstream provider (like your employer at work) to know what you're doing on mefi.
posted by Paris Hilton at 4:04 PM on July 3, 2006

You might not want your upstream provider (like your employer at work) to know what you're doing on mefi.

Then you should setup your own personal VPN. A linksys wrt54g wirelss point and some open source software and you can have your own VPN available from anywhere on earth, and only you know which sites you are accessing.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:12 PM on July 3, 2006

*drops trout in outage*
posted by loquacious at 4:40 PM on July 3, 2006

A linksys wrt54g wirelss point and some open source software

how do you shoehorn all that in a series of tubes?
posted by matteo at 4:50 PM on July 3, 2006

how do you shoehorn all that in a series of tubes?

Butter.
posted by loquacious at 4:53 PM on July 3, 2006

We're talking about the site here that used to have your password in plaintext in the source of each page, right? :-)
posted by bonaldi at 5:03 PM on July 3, 2006

Did mathowie just tell me how to surf MeFi from work? God bless that man.

You know, should I ever actually get a job.
posted by Eideteker at 5:09 PM on July 3, 2006

bonaldi : "used to have your password in plaintext in the source of each page"

Used to? When did that change? Bring back plaintext passwords!
posted by graventy at 7:23 PM on July 3, 2006