[Techtalk] cups

[Daniel Pittman]

Wim De Smet <kromagg at gmail.com> writes:
> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 3:06 AM, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> Can't you address this at a social level, by billing the user for their
>> excess use, or posting information so it is apparent to *everyone* that
>> the user is abusing the service?
>>
>> If you do that, generally speaking, people will suddenly regulate their
>> own behaviour and do the right thing because the cost — either cash, or
>> in social disapproval — is too high for the benefit they receive.
>
> I agree that a social solution is probably best here (though you
> always have the occasional user who really does keep getting confused
> about what printer is the colour printer). A public shaming seems a
> bit drastic though, a bit like going nuclear on an invading mosquito:
> you're liable to miss the mark completely and end up with lots of
> collateral damage. I'd advocate a more subtle approach first.

Ah.  What was apparent to me, because I wrote that, but wasn't stated
was my assumption about *how* the "posting information" part would be
done; that was a mistake on my part.

My assumption is that the information would be made available in a
non-judgemental fashion, without explicitly targeting anyone by name.

An example would be a "10 highest users of colour printing with page
count" list, posted every week or month, showing who used the printer
the most.[1]

That gives the information, and more importantly the visibility of the
information, that allows users to regulate their own behaviour.


Displaying a notice reading "Daniel has printed too much colour stuff
and should be hung from a tree" is probably not going to productively
motivate someone.


Thank you for pointing that out my lack of clarity, Wim.

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  I assume that the issue is something like tractable to this, like
     printing everything in colour even when it isn't needed.