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

[TheCotMan]

Yeah. We've got enough feedback on this. The 1px border addition to each alternating color table td has been removed.

No need to keep this up for the last 4 hours. Feedback is pretty much one-sided. Reverting back to the "vertical view" with avatars to the left without the extra 1px border for <td> in css.

[TheCotMan]

In about 2 weeks, we will be having another round of account purges. From this point on, we may have monthly account purges without notice for the following:
Any accounts over 30 days old, with zero postcount that do not have confirmed e-mail addresses associated with them

We may have an annual purge of accounts that have a zero postcount and no activity for over 2 years. (This means accounts with only /dev/null-ed content that are inactive for over 2 years may be purged too.)

In other news, GM1 accepted an offer to act as a Leader/Organizer for the unofficial DC14 event called SushiCon that is entering its 3rd? 4th? Year as an unofficial event.

I'm hoping this new Leader/Organizer title and organization of events into subforums makes things easier for people to organize events, and attendees to become informed and particiapte. If it works, these event forums will probably be re-used each year, just like the Ride and Room sharing sub forum.

[TheCotMan]

Many people work together to contribute to make the Toxic BBQ work. Often when you ask any of the people that work to make it happen, "who is in charge?" they respond with more than one name.

We've asked Siviak to see if he was willing to contribute to the Toxic BBQ through the forums as well. He has accepted title on the forums for the Toxic BBQ as "Leader/Organizer" to make stickies, open/close thread, and have access to tools to make organizing this unofficial event easier with the forums.

This does not mean he is the only organizer/volunteer. It only means he is contributing to the event in more ways than before.

Thanks Siviak, and welcome! :-)

[TheCotMan]

Vyrus has accepted the forum role of "Leader/Organizer" in the Amateur CTF subforum.

I won't be making more announcements on who is Leader/Organizer of these contest/event subforums. You can find out if someone is a forum contest/event leader/organizer for any subforum event/contest by visiting it and looking in the lower right hand corner, in the box "Leader(s)/Organizer(s)"

These users aren't mods, and can't ban/unban, but they can organize/edit/open/close/stick/unstick threads and delete posts in these spaces to make it easier for them to control delivery of contest/event information.

If you need more information on this forum title "leader/Organizer" see the above post that gives details.

[Deviant Ollam]

problem with &quot;read&quot; thread status

has there been a change to the code with cookies, etc. that controls whether threads appear "read" or "unread" ? starting last night or so, i am getting a lot of the phenomenon where coming to the forums shows me there have been new posts in a few places, but they're all in threads that i know i've read. right now, for instance, Xodia's signup post in the BCCC registration thread keeps being flagged as new in Mozilla, but i've viewed that thread repeatedly now. anyone else getting this sort of situation? i know it used to happen some time ago, but all that has been working perfectly for ages, at least it has for me.

[TheCotMan]

has there been a change to the code with cookies, etc. that controls whether threads appear "read" or "unread" ? starting last night or so, i am getting a lot of the phenomenon where coming to the forums shows me there have been new posts in a few places, but they're all in threads that i know i've read. right now, for instance, Xodia's signup post in the BCCC registration thread keeps being flagged as new in Mozilla, but i've viewed that thread repeatedly now. anyone else getting this sort of situation? i know it used to happen some time ago, but all that has been working perfectly for ages, at least it has for me.

This has been a problem since I joined the forums. (No. I did not cause it. :-P ) There have been cases where the update-on-threads-visited gets busted at the client for certain threads.
(No matter how many times you visit, the thread continues to appear to be "unread")

"Fixes"
* Log out, and log back in again (fixes it about 70% of the time)
* At the bottom, select "Mark Forums Read"

What causes this? I am not certain what causes this in all cases, but here are some things that seem to make it happen:
1) Client date/time changes
2) Server time/date changes
3) Being logged in with your account from multiple machines or different web clients at the same time
4) Maybe even logging in with two sessions in the same client (one ssl and the other non-ssl)

Beyond that? I do not know. I have not been able to reliably duplicate it, even with knowing the above items sometimes tickle this bug.

Maybe someone out there has been able to reliably duplicate this. If so, please post your procedure. Once I have that, and I can duplicate it, I can start looking for a cause.

Thanks!

[Second]

What is the image for at the very bottom for that I am supposed to be ignoring?

[Asbestos]

For the thread to be marked as read (at least this works for me), simply click the parent forum (Defcon Forums > General Area > Got Questions > Topic, click 'Got Questions'), then the parent forum of that, and so on until you're at the index.

It's a pain in the ass, but it works (at least for me).


EDIT: The image displays if you're viewing the forum with https, or normal. 'No' for normal (or no SSL), and 'SSL' when it's encrypted.

[TheCotMan]

For the thread to be marked as read (at least this works for me), simply click the parent forum (Defcon Forums > General Area > Got Questions > Topic, click 'Got Questions'), then the parent forum of that, and so on until you're at the index.

This is separate from the bug that comes around (for me) about once every 2 to 4 weeks, where viewing a forum shows a "new" thread, but after reading that thread, and returning to the same forum, the thread appears to still have a new post.

The thing that Devian Ollam reports is another problem that is probably related to one of these two bugs.

It's something to check though, thanks.

What is the image for at the very bottom for that I am supposed to be ignoring?

You are not obeying! You are supposed to be ignoring that! ;-)

The image displays if you're viewing the forum with https, or normal. 'No' for normal (or no SSL), and 'SSL' when it's encrypted.

Yep. That is what it does. (NO for NO SSL.) It is a test for a feature we may or may not add. this test will probably disappear as the "Proof of Concept" stage is done.

[astcell]

When the NO/SSL feature goes live I would like to submit two ideas:

1. Make the type a little bit smaller.
2. Put the NO or SSL at the top of the page so we can see it when we get here.

[TheCotMan]

I have received 3 statements (one through forum PM, one through "chat" and another through e-mail) from different users who expressed concern with inactive accounts being deleted after 30 days. I want to make sure I am clear on this:

There are two groups of accounts that we're looking to purge on a regular basis:

1) Accounts with unconfirmed e-mail addresses AND zero posts AND no activity for 30 days.
(This helps to purge spammer accounts, and account created with bogus e-mail addresses.)

2) Accounts with a zero postcount (as a result of no posts, or all posts being /dev/null-ed) AND no activity for more than 2 years.

Let me know if you have questions. :-)

When the NO/SSL feature goes live I would like to submit two ideas:
1. Make the type a little bit smaller.
2. Put the NO or SSL at the top of the page so we can see it when we get here.

Great Ideas. Maybe make it part of something near the top that better matches the present color scheme.

[Deviant Ollam]

my latest HTTPS weirdness

so, i'm using the HTTPS connection to the forums exclusively now. since i told mozilla to accept the certificate permanently there hasn't been much weirdness... except for the fact that now (starting this morning for me) whenever i visit the site i get this message...

... it's kind of along the lines of the famously silly error messages that some computers will generate (you know... "floppy disk drive not enabled... insert disk #1 to activate it" or some such self-contradicting nonsense.)

anyone else ever get this? why would it just be starting now?

[Thorn]

so, i'm using the HTTPS connection to the forums exclusively now. since i told mozilla to accept the certificate permanently there hasn't been much weirdness... except for the fact that now (starting this morning for me) whenever i visit the site i get this message...

...<snip>...

... it's kind of along the lines of the famously silly error messages that some computers will generate (you know... "floppy disk drive not enabled... insert disk #1 to activate it" or some such self-contradicting nonsense.)

anyone else ever get this? why would it just be starting now?

I've been getting it whenever I use the https. It's been consistant for months. My browser is FireFox 1.07.

[TheCotMan]

This has to so with "self signed SSL Cert strangeness" when accessing the site with https.

People not using MSIE (or MSIE with non-standard settings) often see an error message like the above each time they start a new web browser (after reboot or browser exit) and browse to the forums over https.

Eventually, when This Goes Into Effect people may need to exit their browser and start it again (in order to "forget" about the self-signed cert) or uninstall the self signed cert if they installed it.

OTOH, when it goes into effect, most people won't see that message and it will be fixed and we'll have stronger security for people using https.

DT will be the one to thank when that goes live.

(For those that wonder about costs for the con, here are two other costs that are paid for by our con fees:)
* License to run the forums
* CA Signed SSL Certificate

[TheCotMan]

Forum Down-Time (Maintenance) starting 7pm pacific time

Forums are going to be down for maintenance ~2 hour (maybe less) starting at 7pm pacific time.