Yes, it should be an opt-in but -i would annoy me to death.  Also to 
clarify -I still lets you do stupid things but it gives you a second to 
pause before you do something stupid.

Quoting Joe Hourcle <[log in to unmask]>:

> On Oct 28, 2014, at 8:11 PM, Alex Berry wrote:
>
>> And that is why alias rm='rm -I' was invented.
>
>
> Do not *ever* set this to be a default for new users.
>
> During my undergrad, I worked at helpdesk for the group that managed
> the computer labs, the general use unix & cms systems (not content
> management system ... an IBM mainframe ... one of the last
> bitnet-to-internet gateways).
>
> The engineering school set up a bunch of default aliases for their
> systems... including "rm='rm -i'".
>
> This meant that when people came to *our* servers ... they'd decide
> to interactively clean out their home directory by typing:
>
> 	rm *
>
> ... and then wonder why it didn't prompt them.
>
> ... and then come to the computer lab to complain.
>
> ... and then complain some more when we wouldn't immediately restore
> their files for them.  (our policy was technically disaster recovery
> only, but it was effectively disaster recovery, upper level
> management, or members of the faculty senate ... because restores
> from tape really, really sucked.)
>
> -Joe
>