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Collaborative databases (Wikidata, TheMovieDB, VNDB, etc.) all use serial identifiers. What is the problem with this? These websites don't want to hide how many

by ldjb 4y ago

Collaborative databases (Wikidata, TheMovieDB, VNDB, etc.) all use serial identifiers. What is the problem with this? These websites don't want to hide how many entries they have (they tend to promote them), and it doesn't really matter if you iterate through all the numbers – the data is available through open licences anyway. I think there are many situations where you don't want to expose predictable identifiers, but there are also examples where predictable identifiers may actually be beneficial.

indymike 4y ago
> What is the problem with this? It causes meetings with people who think all predictable identifiers are a problem.
aniforprez 4y ago
If your data is public and can be scraped anyway, obviously a serial identifier doesn't matter. If your data is sequestered between accounts or has tenants all sharing the same database or API, that's just one accidental permission error away from being able to scrape every single record. If your customer's data is meant to be private, simply easier to generate unique IDs for each record. Plus it makes it incredibly easy for competitors to see the size of your business simply by signing up for an account and looking at the IDs.