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

[TheCotMan]

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

I stopped forum login earlier today to diagnose a trouble item reported here:
https://forum.defcon.org/project.php?issueid=40

This maintenance was unscheduled and unannounced because I was worried about troubles with the DB and did not want changes to a potentially busted DB to cause more data to be lost than could be avoided. There were no DB problems, and forum service was restored after about 45 minutes when I found the cause for that issue.

[TheCotMan]

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

I've seen at least one tweet from one person announcing their plans to work on their contest/event for Defcon 19. Nearly one month has passed since anyone updated the Defcon 18 and Recovery forum, and over 1 month since anyone posted to any of the contest/event forums for Defcon 18.

Forums for [forum=486]Decon 18 Contests/events[/forum] has been closed and moved to "Past Defcon Content"

Same with [forum=535]"DEFCON 18 and Recovery"[/forum].

Defcon 19 forums are still open for planning, discussion and contests or events. These were opened after leaders or organizers announced plans to return to Defcon next year.

If you want to see a thread copied or moved from one of these recently closed forums to a Defcon 19 forum, please reply here and state which thread should be moved or copied and where it should be moved or copied.

[TheCotMan]

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

Rules altered: spamming

We had no rules that specifically addressed "spam" with respect to PM.

5. Spamming, Power posting, and Advertising Altered to append the following:

Spam in PM:
Spam that mods may choose to take action upon if sent in PM:
* Illegal issues: threats of violence, [requests or offers] of illegal [service or products], scams
* Unsolicited Advertisements
* Mass PM messaging, such as with automated programs

(If the annoying PM is none of the above, then don't expect any reply in PM if submitted in private, or in /dev/null (where all reported PM and posts go) once it appears there. As a social problem, you can choose to ignore the user, instead.)

If the PM you received is one of these above things, then you can report the PM using the link "report this" found in the PM, top-right as a link. When you report the PM, provide the following:
* Your permission to look at the PM and other messages in the same thread (part of any response, including any responses)
* If privately submitted, your permission for me to discuss this with the other mods
* The date and time of the PM (if you "report" the PM, which goes to /dev/null, this is done for you when you report it.)
* The subject of the PM (don't alter the subject of the PM when you report it, and this is done for you when you report it.)

Your reported PM are PUBLIC, meaning the person that sent you the PM can see your report, too. If you prefer to report in private, you can forward the PM to TheCotMan with the above items, including permissions specified.

[TheCotMan]

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

When you report a PM or post using the link in a PM or post for, "Report Post ", you will see the following warning printed after the text field for you to type your comments about the reported PM or post:

"This is ONLY to be used to report rule violations. NOTE: your report will appear in a public thread in /dev/null automatically!"

This has been this way since Reported Post by A when Tacitus suggested:

Would it be worth considering adding a "this report will be publicly posted" warning to the report post page?

and that feature was added just before 11-10-2008, 12:15 PM.

[TheCotMan]

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

Nikita asked for a new forum for discussion about content provided by speakers like as seen here:

https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc...erscorner.html

The forum is:

[forum=557]Speaker's Corner[/forum]

Description:
"Leave feedback, and start discussions on the short stories, talk teasers, technical info and words of wisdom from our DEF CON speakers Past & Present. (site.)"

As of this posting, there is no content in that forum, but you are welcome to add content. Same rules are a most of the forums, and please use that forum for content related to the topic.

[TheCotMan]

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

Added this line to the guidelines for "Value Added News":

* If you copy/paste any copyrighted material, provide appropriate citations such as long (unshortened) URL to original story.

Technically, it is covered under rules on not posting things that are illegal, but it makes sense to be explicit under the "Value Added News" section.

[TheCotMan]

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

Forum created for returning contest [forum=559]Defcon Social Engineering Contest (The Social Engineering Capture the Flag: SE CTF)[/forum] after getting word from DT that he heard it was coming back.
Description:

Returning to Defcon 19, the Crew at Social-Engineer.org is challenging you. We are inviting those of you who think you can use ethical social engineering skills to stretch your limits as a social engineer. A unique blend of information gathering, planning and attack vector execution will challenge the very core of every participant. This will be a different SE challenge as our focus is not on who can “get” the target the worst, but a true display of SE talents. (site)

Forum created for returning event [forum=558]Be The Match Foundation - Bone Marrow Drive[/forum] after we received word from Grendel on their intention to bring it back to Defcon 19.

Back for its second year! Take part of the coolest "Bio-Hack" around... register with "Be the Match" at DefCon, and take the first step to become a Bone Marrow Donor. (site), (blog), (twitter), (FaceBook), (Sign-up/Signup).

[TheCotMan]

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

L0nd0 let me know last month that the Toxic BBQ was returning to Defcon 19, but I missed it. (Sorry Londo!)

Added [forum=560]Forum for Toxic BBQ[/forum] at Defcon 19. Sent tweet in twitter.

To anyone else that posted intent to return with your content or event, but has not seen the event or content in the forum lit, please remind me if it is not present so I can add it. Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

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

Forums will be unavailable for about 5 to 20 minutes tonight, at around 9:00pm pacific time for scheduled maintenance.

[TheCotMan]

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

Maintenance complete. Service restored.

[TheCotMan]

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

The experiment with user-joinable usergroups on the forums with a separate usergroup of r each DCG forum is finished. The overhead to maintain a new usergroup for each forum, and synchronize the access control restrictions for each forum grew too large, and required significant changes to how DB sessions worked with resource allocation.

All user-joinable forum-based DCG Usergroups have been removed, but the forums remain.

There are now only 3 user-joinable usergroups:
All-Social: (access to see and post replies in /dev/random and any other "all_social" forum that may be created in the future.
all non-US DCG: All forums for DCG that are in the US
all US DCG: All forums for DCG that are not in the US

You can join or leave any of the above to limit what forums you see, and what forums are "searched" when you use the forum search.

You can manage your user-Join-able usergroups by visiting:
https://forum.defcon.org/profile.php?do=editusergroups

Join or leave as you wish.

Because a small number of people joined these DCG-based user-joinable usergroups, and then opted-out of the "all non-US DCG" and "all US DCG" so they would not see forums for other DCG, their DCG forums would disappear without explanation or reason. To avoid confusion, I added everyone back to "all non-US DCG" and "all US DCG" -- if you don't want to see these DCG forums, visit your usergroup membership settings and choose the radio button(s) "leave group" for any groups you wish to leave, and then click the submit button "Leave Group":
https://forum.defcon.org/profile.php?do=editusergroups

Feedback is welcome, but not necessary.

[TheCotMan]

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

Received Retweet from Nikita about notice from twitter account HackerPyramid on an announced intention to return to Defco 19.

After confirming with Nikita that this was the case, i created a forum for it, and tweeted the update on it. Here is the forum announcement on this forum creation:

[forum=561]10,000¢ Hacker Pyramid[/forum]
Back for DEFCON 19 - The 10,000¢ Hacker Pyramid!!! Come and be a lucky audience member who will participate with a DEFCON Celebrity in a fast paced game of Pyramid! It may be the last Dick Clark property to be Seacrested... so we're bringing it to you FIRST! Every contestant has a chance at the FABULOUS PRIZES - all the way up to the GRAND PRIZE of 10,000¢!!!!!!! (site),(twitter.)

The CLOSED forum for LAST YEAR is [forum=498]here[/forum].

Description was copied from last year's forum with the only change being Defconn 18 become Defcon 19.

[TheCotMan]

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

Nikita announced the return of the Defcon Short Story Contest here.

A new forum has been created for it:

[forum=562]Defcon Short Story contest[/forum]
RTFR inside and submit to us a short story. The topic may be of your choosing so long as it meets the guidelines in the rules. Read threads inside for more information.

[TheCotMan]

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

If you like the latest Defcon updates, the _defcon_ twitter account is a pretty good account to "follow" because today, this was tweeted:

_defcon_ DEFCON
The #DEFCON 19 Call for Papers is now officially open! https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-19/dc-19-cfp.html

[TheCotMan]

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

It was brought to my attention that the forum "Ham License Exam" has been locked/closed since I copied it up to the Defcon 19 contests/events forums.

Sorry about this admin-fail, it was not intentional. (When I copy forums forward to new contests/events, they inherit the settings of the old forums they were copied from, and I have to manually open the forums as I copy them. I forgot to do that with this one. Luckily for the other forums, it was the only one, but unlucky for the people running this event.)

Sorry DaKahuna, JonM and DCFlux. It should now be open.

In speaking to DaKahuma, the people running this event are:

DaKahuma, JonM, and DCFluX (These are the users on the forums that would have authoritative answers about this event.)

Forum link, name and present description:
[forum=541]Ham license exams[/forum]

Want to get a license as a Ham or upgrade your license?