PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

[skroo]

OMGFORAMZ!#!$!

Well, glad to see we're back up - sort of. Thanks for the work you guys have been putting into this - it always sucks to have to admin a box that isn't yours, but it's definitely appreciated.

[TheCotMan]

OMGFORAMZ!#!$!

Well, glad to see we're back up - sort of.

Meaning that you have the plus of comments from people you know, but then again, you also have comments from people you know? (heh)

Thanks for the work you guys have been putting into this - it always sucks to have to admin a box that isn't yours, but it's definitely appreciated.

Oh, I am not the sysadmin. I'm trying to limit my focus to just the forums and the software that supports them. In this way, I did the backup and restore of the forums software and DB as well as some /home information for some users. I've also done some scripting for automation of forum backups, but the present sysadmin is the person in charge of the box and OS.

[cindy]

Where is the "Hall of Fame"? (or something like that).

[Voltage Spike]

Where is the "Hall of Fame"? (or something like that).

I believe you are referring to "Fucktard Hall", and it is still here. One of the moderators has moved it into a sub-category of "/dev/null".

PS: I find it strange that vB Code has special markup for linking to threads and posts but no such facility exists for forum links...

[Thorn]

Mail should be fixed, and at least works for me.

Yup, the email notification just worked for me with Voltage Spike's last response.

[TheCotMan]

Where is the "Hall of Fame"? (or something like that).

Fucktard Hall was recently moved into a subsection of /dev/null.

We have expanded /dev/null sub forums to better classify the kinds of problem posts that seem to occur all-to-often on the DefCon Forums. (Click on /dev/null to see the subforums of /dev/null)

This is Converge's idea, and is a really good one. He has been spending a lot of time, working through the existing /dev/null posts to classify them into the new categories. With something like 12000 messages, He still has a large number of messages to examine, but last I checked, we made it back to 2004.

As part of this process, any /dev/null posts (and /dev/null subforum posts) do not count towards a user's postcount. This is causing people with /dev/null posts to see their postcount drop as their posts are classified into the new categories.

These changes could potentially help us with a number of issues:
1) People who value high postcount won't be able to easily get more by flaming, posting no-value posts, asking questions without doing some research, etc.
2) Though postcount is still not a measure of skill or knowledge since there is a social and organizational aspect to the forums and thoughtful questions still "count, it will at least not "reward" and hopefully not encourage wasted content from people who value postcount.
3) There is emphasis of what common topics are not desirable through the names of the /dev/null subforums.

Like many things, we are trying something new. If it does not work, we can try something else. Whatever we do, we won't make things better by doing nothing.

[bascule]

...it always sucks to have to admin a box that isn't yours

Any box I didn't personally install is useless to me!

[TheCotMan]

PS: I find it strange that vB Code has special markup for linking to threads and posts but no such facility exists for forum links...

Is this a request to have that feature added? More important, would you use it? ;-) Let me know. I think it would be trivial to add it.

Yup, the email notification just worked for me with Voltage Spike's last response.

Thanks for the confirmation Thorn. :-)

Any box I didn't personally install is useless to me!

Heyyyy.. Did you install google boxen or are those useless to you? ]:>

...

Today is technically Oct 29. This means that THE PURGE of Forums accounts older than 2 years with zero posts and accounts with unconfirmed e-mail addresses and zero posts created on or before Sept 30, 2005 will be purged tomorrow (Oct 30.) If users want their old usernames back, they can reapply, on a first come first serve basis.

"End of line."

[Voltage Spike]

Is this a request to have that feature added? More important, would you use it? ;-)

I simply thought it odd that it wasn't a standard part of the vB code. As for adding it, I will merely comment that the above post was the first time I ever felt like linking to a forum since I've been here and the workaround (i.e., using a URL) was rather easy. When linking to posts or threads, though, I tend to use "post" and "thread" since it seems more appropriate.

[TheCotMan]

I simply thought it odd that it wasn't a standard part of the vB code. As for adding it, I will merely comment that the above post was the first time I ever felt like linking to a forum since I've been here and the workaround (i.e., using a URL) was rather easy. When linking to posts or threads, though, I tend to use "post" and "thread" since it seems more appropriate.

Heh-heh. Ok. Maybe someone else will use it. It is now added and in FAQ: vB Code with an example of how to link to [forum=10]the rules[/forum]. (Commenting about the rules here is no indication they have been broken here, I just needed a sample/demo and the link here to the rules is a demo of the new "[ forum ]" tag.)

In other news: THE PURGE of all forum accounts with unvalidated e-mail addresses and accounts inactive for more than 2 years with a zero postcount is completed. A DB backup was conducted before THE PURGE and then once again right after it.

The first day the forums came back after the most recent restore there were brief interruptions in network service. This is only stated so that it is understood these were not OS issues, but networking and I received no report of them happeneing again.

Problems? Bugs? Let me know.

[astcell]

I think we ought to move fucktard hall to www.fucktardhall.org so that we can send employers/spouses/idiots right to that page to find their troubles rather than invite them to the rest of our board. Could that be done, maybe as a mirror for that one section?

[TheCotMan]

I think we ought to move fucktard hall to www.fucktardhall.org so that we can send employers/spouses/idiots right to that page to find their troubles rather than invite them to the rest of our board. Could that be done, maybe as a mirror for that one section?

Any forum title can exist as a URL. As an example, if someone is running a contest, and has their own forum they would rather use, we can have something that looks like a forum here actually be a link to another website.

Is this what you are looking for?

[TheCotMan]

A problem has been reported with new user registration. It seems with the move to the new OS Install, the image generation software is not working.

For now, image verification has been disabled until it can be fixed.

[astcell]

Any forum title can exist as a URL. As an example, if someone is running a contest, and has their own forum they would rather use, we can have something that looks like a forum here actually be a link to another website.

Is this what you are looking for?

Sure. Why not register the link and point it to the forum?

[TheCotMan]

Sure. Why not register the link and point it to the forum?

Heh-heh. Why don't you put it up for a vote? ]:>

Also, I can't find an owner for that domain. Do you mean
http://www.fucktardhalloffame.com/ ?

We'd need to get permission to move stuff over there.