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By editorial@silicon.com, 16 November 2001 14:30

COMMENT Each week silicon.com is inundated with comments from you, our readers. From the past week, here we present reactions to a story we ran about the EU curtailing websites' use of cookies (http://www.silicon.com/a49177 ) and arguments over how much the popular FriendsReunited site should be monitored (http://www.silicon.com/a49077 )... Tough on dot-coms
From: Anon Tough on dot-coms. I don't allow cookies on my PC and if the website fails to display correctly I go elsewhere. Why do dot-coms presume they have any right to have control over surfers' PCs? Unenforceable
From: Bruce Edward Keith Sandeman If they were to implement this law, how would they enforce it? They could not. Unless they are prepared to waste even more time and money on browsing the internet for any sites (based in Europe) that are implementing cookies. How stupid is that? Once again some stupid governmental ministers think they know everything and have not spoken to the people that hold the knowledge. Cookies are necessary for any global variable type processing on a web page, which basically means that any vaguely useful web page will become pretty rubbish and step back five years in development without cookies! Why does Europe take one step forward to only go and take five steps back? Sad, really. Not all about personal info
From: Jason Kneen Not all cookies are for storing people's personal details. Many back-end solutions require cookies to store session-based information (like a session ID) etc. Disabling or preventing cookies operating could prevent these sites from working. This would be disastrous for many sites our there. End to shopping as we know it
From: Anon. Well that's 90 per cent of the world's online shops just folded. Most solutions require the use of cookies to store basket information. Yes, legislate to what a cookie may or may not do but don't get rid of them out right. Fine - for all the sites we design we'll just make it a criterion that users cannot shop unless they agree to the use of cookies. I thought Europe was trying to encourage online trading not hamper it. The other issue would be I could see most online shops moving to outside of Europe where the use of cookies would not be banned. T&C
From : Mark Rainbird As a web developer of ecommerce sites I can tell you that cookies are a necessary requirement for many shopping systems. If it becomes law that the site has to ask permission before setting one all that I suspect will happen is that an obscure clause will be added to the Terms and Conditions of the site stating that by using the site a user grants it permission to set cookies. Of course we all read the T&C, don't we? Of course we don't! Users sceptical and ignorant!
From: Anon. In our attempts to make technology easy, cookies are a valuable tool. If we ask users (who are predominantly sceptical and generally ignorant as to what a cookie actually is) if they'd like something added to their computer they'll panic and say no. Result? A 'less-than' experience. If cookies were clear to users then I'd be happy asking. This way we are able to circumvent their lack of understanding and deliver results. No need for cookies
From: John Glazebrook As a developer of ecommerce websites we do not rely on the consumer having cookies turned on their computers. We instead use the database and a login for customer recognition. This may have a slightly higher overhead on the database but we have found no problems. I do believe that banning cookies is wrong but I also think that as developers we should not rely entirely on one system. This week we also brought you more about popular site FriendsReunited, including our view on its free speech dilemma (http://www.silicon.com/a49133 ). We received some thought-provoking Reader Comments... The truth hurts? That's their problem
From: Anon. Having been sexually abused by a teacher at a school in the early 1960s, my response to the teaching unions is along the lines of "Thanks for closing ranks and calling me a liar when I tried to report it at the time". I say let the reports go on - it may help to winkle out some of these paedophile perverts! What about the innocent?
From: Anon. My wife, born in Germany, has regularly had Nazi and Hitler type comments made to her, written on her blackboard, and also had some of a similar vein posted by a pupil on this website. Her father was a half-Jew and lived through the war in Nazi Germany. He came to England to escape from his awful experiences in 1948. So, why should my wife be reduced to tears by some horrible child who is still at the school perpetuating these comments? Not a new problem, but who's responsible?
From: Rick Stacey I can remember when I was at school such words were plastered over toilet walls and changing rooms. Does this mean the head teacher is guilty as he owns the walls? Maybe the local council? Protecting the guilty?
From: Anon. Seems to me the only teachers who are going to get slagged off are the ones who were hated, probably for a good reason. I can't imagine people posting nasty comments about those teachers who were well-liked, good at their job and treated their pupils properly. Respect is a two-way thing. Smoke and fires
From: Andy Law I know from my own experience some teachers' behaviour fell well short of what one might expect. Back in those days (70s and 80s) children were not over-protected as they are now. One vivid and still disturbing memory is of a classmate being hurled around the room like a rag doll by the very man who was supposed to be educating, nurturing and developing our abilities. At the time I, and I guess all my classmates too, were so terrified of the man and shocked by the behaviour that we couldn't have reported it - and none of us knew who we would have reported it too either. If I decide subsequently to make that allegation through any means, I will defend myself in any court that vicious b*st*rd wants to sue me in. Anything that encourages others to stand up and expose wrongs, no matter how long ago they were committed, has to be a good thing. If serious allegations are being made, then sue the individuals who make them. We (the individuals) should be prepared to put up or shut up. Opposing the existence of forum simply because opinions that offend or allegations might be made through them is not the kind of open-minded attitude that I thought teachers were supposed to foster in their charges.