[Zope3-dev] Question: Are principals (sometimes aka users) content or meta-content?

[Shane Hathaway]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> I've been assuming that authentication services would directly or 
> indirectly
> contain principals and that, therefore, principals are meta-content.
> 
> OTOH, many sites treat members/users more like content.
> 
> I'd like to get a clearer concpetual model for this and would be
> interested in what people think about it.

Well, IMHO:

I prefer the word "asset".  All content objects are assets.  Services 
are also assets, but they are not content.  Content objects are assets 
designed for site users.  Users are assets.

Which assets are content and which are not depends on the site.  On some 
sites, users are content, but on most they are only assets because site 
users do not see or work with the user objects.

Shane