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

[TheCotMan]

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

Making changes to the forums layout to diagnose an automation problem.

Expect to see the forums change and "look strange" over the next 30 minutes.

[TheCotMan]

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

Spoke to DT last night through email about this:

The following are not forums for newbie to hacking or newbies to defcon.
The following forums are for the *organizers* of what could be 2 new events at Defcon.

If either devolves to either a "Hacking for Newbies" forum or "Introduction to Defcon for Newbies" forum, then I have no problem with closing them. The mods discussed the potential for either of these kinds of forums and the answers was the opposite of support. FAQs answer most newbie questions. Those questions not included in the FAQ or other forum threads can be asked in the normal Defcon planning forum.

The initial idea for a "New to Defcon" or "Surviving Defcon" or "Defcon Orientation" event lead to an off-site mailing list and discussion. By creating [forum=466]a forum for this event[/forum] I am not saying that planning of this event must happen on the forums. This can be planned wherever the organizers want to plan it. Heck, I'lleven provide links to their planning space, and do so in the description of this forum. What making this forum says is this:
DT or someone else has authorized this to be an official or unofficial contest or event.

From the thread on the discussion of a "New to Defcon" or "Surviving Defcon" or "Defcon Orientation" event came another idea: "New to hacking" or "Introduction to Hacking" or "Introduction to Defcon Presentations" or "Defcon 101 Presentations" or "Speed Talks for the masses." By creating [forum=467]a forum for this possible event[/forum] I am not saying that planning of this event must happen on the forums. This can be planned wherever the organizers want to plan it. Heck, I'lleven provide links to their planning space, and do so in the description of this forum. What making this forum says is this:
DT or someone else has authorized this to be an official or unofficial contest or event.

People may be organizing these separately, or together.

In both cases, if resources are needed(like room space, or information added to the program, or other items, each event's leader/organizer will need to contact the appropriate people for access to resources, and validation that they actually have the resources they are requesting.

Understand that the Leaders/Organizers of both of these are not guaranteed status as *forum* Leaders/Organizers for these contest/event forums. Forum Leaders/Organizers are selected from people that can be trusted to be reliable and trustworthy. The review process can take from 1 to 3 weeks, and it usually won't even start unless one of the mods has met the person at some point in time and can vouch for them.

When I know the forum user name used by a leader/organizer, and have verified it, I may create a post in a contest/event forum that establishes a name or names of people who can be considered authoritative with answers they post about their contest event. (This is to help defeat subterfuge attempts when there is no published forum leader/organizer, but obviously doesn't prevent them.)

This weekend, I will be going through and closing all contest/event forums for which there is no announcement of intent to have it/them at Defcon 17, and no thread activity by possible participants. This should leave behind only forums with expected matching contests and events expected at Defcon 17.

Enjoy!

[TheCotMan]

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

Forum Private Messaging (PM) system changed:
Forum Contest/Event Leaders/Organizers and Forum DCG Leaders/Organizers now have a maximum mailbox size of 150 messages (sent and received) which has moved up from a maximum of 80 messages.
Admin/Goon/Mod PM moved from 200 or 400 to 500.

[xor]

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

Spoke to DT last night through email about this:

The following are not forums for newbie to hacking or newbies to defcon.
The following forums are for the *organizers* of what could be 2 new events at Defcon.

If either devolves to either a "Hacking for Newbies" forum or "Introduction to Defcon for Newbies" forum, then I have no problem with closing them. The mods discussed the potential for either of these kinds of forums and the answers was the opposite of support. FAQs answer most newbie questions. Those questions not included in the FAQ or other forum threads can be asked in the normal Defcon planning forum.

The initial idea for a "New to Defcon" or "Surviving Defcon" or "Defcon Orientation" event lead to an off-site mailing list and discussion. By creating [forum=466]a forum for this event[/forum] I am not saying that planning of this event must happen on the forums. This can be planned wherever the organizers want to plan it. Heck, I'lleven provide links to their planning space, and do so in the description of this forum. What making this forum says is this:
DT or someone else has authorized this to be an official or unofficial contest or event.

From the thread on the discussion of a "New to Defcon" or "Surviving Defcon" or "Defcon Orientation" event came another idea: "New to hacking" or "Introduction to Hacking" or "Introduction to Defcon Presentations" or "Defcon 101 Presentations" or "Speed Talks for the masses." By creating [forum=467]a forum for this possible event[/forum] I am not saying that planning of this event must happen on the forums. This can be planned wherever the organizers want to plan it. Heck, I'lleven provide links to their planning space, and do so in the description of this forum. What making this forum says is this:
DT or someone else has authorized this to be an official or unofficial contest or event.

People may be organizing these separately, or together.

In both cases, if resources are needed(like room space, or information added to the program, or other items, each event's leader/organizer will need to contact the appropriate people for access to resources, and validation that they actually have the resources they are requesting.

Understand that the Leaders/Organizers of both of these are not guaranteed status as *forum* Leaders/Organizers for these contest/event forums. Forum Leaders/Organizers are selected from people that can be trusted to be reliable and trustworthy. The review process can take from 1 to 3 weeks, and it usually won't even start unless one of the mods has met the person at some point in time and can vouch for them.

When I know the forum user name used by a leader/organizer, and have verified it, I may create a post in a contest/event forum that establishes a name or names of people who can be considered authoritative with answers they post about their contest event. (This is to help defeat subterfuge attempts when there is no published forum leader/organizer, but obviously doesn't prevent them.)

This weekend, I will be going through and closing all contest/event forums for which there is no announcement of intent to have it/them at Defcon 17, and no thread activity by possible participants. This should leave behind only forums with expected matching contests and events expected at Defcon 17.

Enjoy!

Ever consider a career as a lawyer. TheCotMan ESQ

xor

[TheCotMan]

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

Ever consider a career as a lawyer. TheCotMan ESQ

xor

I really have to be explicit and up-front about the purpose of those forums.
The mods discussed forums for newbie, and there was no support -- there was the opposite of support.

If the mods won't support a space, then it would be left to the few mods interested in it to support it. If there are not enough mods to support it on their own, then it can't exist as a moderated space. Additionally, spaces need a minimum of moderation to avoid problems. This is what the /dev/random forum is for, and we don't really need to duplicate it again.

The forum is run by volunteers, who enjoy the time they spend here. It is a very bad idea to make the space they enjoy with fun into something they don't want. The details outlined in the quoted post are explicit statements of intent and purpose for the new space, with notice of risk on attempts to re-purpose them to something that mods don't want. With this, there is transparency and full disclosure of cost and benefit and no surprise later if the purpose of those spaces are changed.

Almost all of the changes we've made to the forums have been made to target specific kinds of rule issues. Converge went through all of /dev/null to categorize problems, and we re-wrote the rules to make them more understandable, provided links to the rules in the various email messages we sent to users during the sign-up process, and added 2 search forms for people to search the forums before asking questions answered in other threads. The waiting period also encourages use of the search option so users can find answers on their own instead of duplicating existing threads, or asking questions that are in the official or unofficial Defcon FAQ.

We do what we can to make is possible for fewer mods to work, and allow them to spend more time doing non-mod things.
This is why we continue to decrease the number of mods through attrition and not add much in the way of new ones. Right now we have 11 mods (8 mods + 3 admins) which is about 5 less than when I started as an admin. (We have no "vanity" mods.) I think we've only added 2 mods since I've been admin, though it might be 3. I know Thorn and Neil were added, but I'm not sure about the 3rd user.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance on the forums some time on Sunday. They will be down for up to 2 hours.

I don't know when, yet. It will probably be in the evening.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance on the forums some time on Sunday. They will be down for up to 2 hours.

I don't know when, yet. It will probably be in the evening.

7pm, pacific time. Servers will be down for 1 to 2 hours.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance completed.

Please let me know if you see something broken or strange on the forums which wasn't strange before this maintenance cycle.

Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

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

1 known issue: Replies to blog posts provide a color for box fill/background which is ugly and doesn't match the theme.

What else?

[TheCotMan]

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

1 known issue: Replies to blog posts provide a color for box fill/background which is ugly and doesn't match the theme.

What else?

While being amused by blog and replies to blogs, the ugly background that appears in some blogs was identified to only appear in replies a user makes to their own blog post, or replies to their own blog post comments.

It was css, and has now been changed from #FFCCFF to #181818 to better match the current theme in Defcon Main, and Defcon Legacy, and still show that the original creator of the blog is actively replying to blog comments or their own blog. I also changed the fonts for that background to be #99aaaa instead of #889999 so the difference in contrast between font and background both increase.

If this gets broken with future maintenance, then I may need to re-apply the same customization.

You have a different idea? Go ahead and suggest an alternative. I just chose something that doesn't hurt my eyes as much as the new feature/change from the last upgrade did.

[TheCotMan]

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

Are you still seeing network problems when connecting to the forums or other servers in the defcon.org domain?
Try restarting your web browser, and if that doesn't help, let us know.: reply or send an email to defconforums@gmail.com

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance cycle on the forums should begin tonight around 7:30pm Pacific time and may last up to 2 hours, though will probably be completed by 8:30pm.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance cycle on the forums should begin tonight around 7:30pm Pacific time and may last up to 2 hours, though will probably be completed by 8:30pm.

Maintenance postponed. More when We have more information.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance postponed. More when We have more information.

Forums will be down from 1:00am pacific time until 3:00am, but might be back as early as 2:00am.

[TheCotMan]

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

Forums will be down from 1:00am pacific time until 3:00am, but might be back as early as 2:00am.

And we are back. Please report problems or strangeness here.