Make the "don't use sudo" explanation clearer.

1 files changed, 45 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7b5026e0e..b116709f4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 This is just enough info to get you up and running.
 
-More info available via `man npm`.
+More info available via `npm help` once it's installed.
 
 ## IMPORTANT
 
@@ -16,14 +16,54 @@ To install npm, do this:
 
     curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
 
+## Permission Errors
+
 If it dies with a "Permission Denied" or EACCESS error, then that probably
 means that you are running node in a shared root-owned location.  You've
 got options.
 
-Using sudo with npm is Very Not Recommended.  Either chown the folder that
-is your node install prefix, or set up a `.npmrc` file pointing `root`,
-`binroot`, and `manroot` to folders that you own.  (The .npmrc is just an
-ini-formatted file, so you can use any editor to do this.)
+Using sudo with npm is Very Not Recommended.  Anyone can publish anything,
+and package installations can run arbitrary scripts.
+
+### Option 1: Take ownership
+
+This is good if you have a single-user machine.  Run this command once, and
+never use sudo again to install stuff in /usr/local:
+
+    sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local
+
+You could also give your user permission to write into that directory by
+making it group-writable and adding your user to the group that owns it.
+
+### Option 2: Don't leave $HOME
+
+Install node in `$HOME/local` and npm will default to living right alongside
+it.  Follow the steps in this gist: <http://gist.github.com/579814>
+
+### Option 3: Customize npm to your heart's content
+
+Create and edit a file at `~/.npmrc`.  This is an ini-formatted file, which
+you can use to set npm configs.  Do something like this to it:
+
+    cat >>~/.npmrc <<NPMRC
+    root = $HOME/.node_libraries
+    binroot = $HOME/bin
+    manroot = $HOME/share/man
+    NPMRC
+
+### Option 4: HOLY COW NOT RECOMMENDED!!
+
+You *can* just use sudo all the time for everything, and ignore the incredibly
+obnoxious warnings telling you that you're insane for doing this.
+
+    # you must REALLY trust me to do this!
+    curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh
+    sudo npm ls
+    sudo npm install please-pwn-my-machine-kthx
+
+If this causes horrible things to happen, you can't say I didn't warn you over
+and over again until everyone got sick of hearing about it and told me to shut
+up already.
 
 ## More Fancy Installing