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

[TheCotMan]

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

Next Tuesday (or possibly sooner) I will be altering the permissions on the forums to permit new users to post with less waiting, and open up forums like "Drunken Banter" and close off other forums from posting (such as Community Talk.) I'll also make other changes to include more restrictions that should help decrease risk of DoS against this forum software, but obviously, not eliminate it. Most forums directly related to Defcon 18 will remain open. Those that are closed won't be hidden, but won't permit new posts or threads.

Please let us know if you see problems or bugs, and if you are unable to let us know through the forums, send us an email at defconforums@gmail.com

The first part should be complete. All new users only have to wait 24 hours after email validation with new accounts before they are able to post new threads, or reply to existing threads.

[forum=143]Drunken Banter[/forum] should be enabled now, and I think even a user with confirmed email should be able to post without waiting 24 hours.

As requested, the forum for the [forum=486]Forum Meet[/forum] should now permit users to post with no imposed forced lurking period. This will revert back to the normal and usual setting after Defcon.

[forum=26]Rides and Room Sharing[/forum] is more open, too.

I expect spam and stupidity to increase and we will deal with it eventually. There is no need to reply to spam as it will eventually disappear along with any replies. Things will eventually be taken care of even if it takes a little longer than usual.

Soon, forums unrelated to Defcon 18 will be made more restrictive or even "read only" until after Defcon.

More changes will also be applied.

[TheCotMan]

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

More changes to the configuration of the forums have been made. Please report bugs or trouble here or to defconforums@gmail.com

The next round of changes will restrict access to post messages to forums unrelated to Defcon 18 and will probably happen tomorrow.

[TheCotMan]

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

Access to pics, forums and www . defcon .org was reported lost at around 12:19pm today, verfified, and then reported to Jeff/DT at 12:26pm.

Jeff/DT restored access to www at around 12:40pm, and access to forums and pics verified as restored at 12:42pm.

Not bad for report to confirm to resolution while defcon is underway, no?

Thanks Jeff!

[TheCotMan]

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

"We get signal" from DT: Service interruption to pics, forums and www coming up soon.

[TheCotMan]

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

Added new forum for [forum=535]Decon 18 and Recovery[/forum] to cover things happening now at Defcon and after Defcon.

Both it and the [forum=485]Defcon Planning[/forum] forum will be open for a short time after Defcon so that active threads in planning can be copied to the new forum to allow conversations to continue.

[TheCotMan]

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

Some time on Monday, I will be reversing the changes in the forums and re-introducing the usual forced-lurking period. Anyone that has been promoted before reverting the settings will keep their access, but new signups/email confirmations will have to complete the normal waiting period as outlined in the thread on forced lurking period.

[TheCotMan]

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

Most changes have been reverted. Rides & Room Sharing is still open. Drunken Banter is still open. Both will close tonight or tomorrow.

[TheCotMan]

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

I'm leaving them open one more night because I am too lazy to close them now.

in other news, I promoted all newly registered users (aka "lurkers") since yesterday afternoon to full access to post new threads or reply to existing threads, thus bypassing the required waiting period. I'll probably regret that.

[TheCotMan]

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

Another round of bypassed waiting period for all new users. I might do this again unless we get a jerk in this bunch that decides to poop in the hallway and try to clean it by kicking it around after adding hot water.

Drunken Banter and Rides & Roomsharing closed until next year.

[TheCotMan]

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

An album/group has been made for Defcon 18 images on pics.defcon.org. The same credentials you have for your forum account will work on pics:

https://pics.defcon.org//showgallery.php?cat=542

-Cot

[TheCotMan]

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

I'm impressed. Still no crazy crap posts after 3 days of manually bypassing the waiting period for all new users... this is really amazing. I would have bet against this every time and lost money each time.

Just did it again and we're all playing "chat roulette" to see if a dick shows up with a crap post from this last batch of new users promoted to full access. ...

I might keep doing this up until Friday night, which would be the last night of this.

[TheCotMan]

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

Please let me know if you get PM-based spam by forwarding me the spam in a PM. When you do, please also:
* Let me know you have received a spammy message by PM
* Give me permission to inspect the spammy PM in your PM Inbox (don't delete it yet.)
* Give me the title of the spammy PM
* Give me the forum user name of the user that sent you the message.

Obviously, I don't need your password, and none of the mods or admins should ever need or ask you for your password. You all probably know this, since this is a "hacker forum" but some of you willingly give up personal information on Facebook, so, how can I be sure? ;-)

If I am notified of this, given the above required information as described above, I'll query the DB for the exact message title, sender, and then look at the contents of the message. If it is commercial spam, I'll probably ban them outright. Other kinds of spam? Not sure. It would depend on what kind of spam it was.

I mention this because some spambots recently hit the forums sending out PM to about 35 different users and was trying to PM spam more when I received the spammy message. The user was banned, other measures taken against the user, and then I found all PM they sent to users and purged them from their account PM inbox. This will likely be more common as we move forward.

If you don't give me all 4 pieces of information, I won't do anything about your spam in PM. Thanks for your help in keeping the forums as free of spam as we can. I might update the rules of create a thread in Rules about spam on the forums and what to do.

[The Dark Tangent]

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

Excellent job Cot.

[TheCotMan]

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

Excellent job Cot.

Thanks man.:-)

Coming this Friday, probably some time after 6pm (Pacific time) : Scheduled Forum Maintenance.

Forums will be unavailable for 1 to 2 hours. When I have a more accurate time, I will reply here again with details.

[TheCotMan]

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

Access to the main defcon website and dctv is unavailable right now. Access to pics and forums is fine, zippy and working well.

DT has been notified of the unavailability of www.defcon.org