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

[TheCotMan]

0) Search
1) skype image broken, now fixed
2) new leaders/organizers users added
3) RSS ?

0)
Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas to make search work. The final (knock on wood) incarnation is actually a combination of 4 or 5 people's ideas, but was initiated by Octalpus. If you like that near search form, then you might want to consider thanks (perhaps in the form of beer or other beverage) at Defcon to the following people: Octalpus, Xodia, tacitus, Voltage Spike, and one or more other people I am probably forgetting.

1--
A user pointed out a problem (in private) with the "skype" image not being loaded properly in ssl sessions. (Instead the alt tag information was being displayed, and that broke formatting.)
This (skype) image (near the other IM images when looking at profiles or users' posts) should now be fixed.
Thanks to the user that reported it. :-)

2--
Welcomes to Lost and Neural who have good reputations on the forums, are well liked by many at the con, and are active enough both be leader/organizers to their contest subforum recently renamed to "Net Appliance Challenge" We'll wish them good luck on the first year for this contest.

Welcome to UberSchnitzel who is just starting out on the forums, but who has made a good enough impression on a long-time goon and moderator to get sponsored/vouched by them as Leader/Organizer AND pass our other criteria for consideration. UberSchnitzel is Leader/Organizer for the Contest subforum, "TCP/IP Enabled Device and Peripheral Contest." Good luck to you too on this 3rd? 4th? year for this contest.

3--
Assuming there are no disagreements, it looks like RSS for forum posts/threads will be turned on for testing. If there are problems, it may be turned off. We'll know more after it is running for a few weeks.

How to use it:
Add one of the four URL to your favorite RSS client:
RSS protocol v0.92* over plain text http:
http://forum.defcon.org/external.php?type=rss

RSS protocol v2 over plain text http:
http://forum.defcon.org/external.php?type=rss2

RSS protocol v0.93 over SSL-based https:
https://forum.defcon.org/external.php?type=rss

RSS protocol v2 over SSL-based https:
https://forum.defcon.org/external.php?type=rss2

If you use the http links, then I believe your client will probably offer http links-to-threads instead of https links.
If you use the https links, then I believe your client will probably offer https links-to-threads instead of http links.

With any of the above sample rss links, you should be able to append "&forumids=1,2,3,4" (no double quote) to limit the RSS feed to the forums with forum ID of 1, 2, 3 or 4 -- assuming we have forumsID with those numbers. New posts are limited to what a "guest" user can read.

Thanks to Bascule for bringing up this suggestion here. If you like RSS, consider thanks to Bascule for suggesting it here.

About RSS:
Firefox supports an extention for RSS:
http://sage.mozdev.org/

I heard there is support for RSS in Opera

There are also RSS stand-alone clients:
http://blogspace.com/rss/readers
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-reader-linux.htm (for linux)

Assuming there is no disagreement, this will probably be activated some time tomorrow or Sunday in the late PM.

For keeping the forums running, find a mod (other than me) and ofeer them a beer at the con-- they'll likely be dealing with more asshats as we get closer to DefCon and will probably need several beers at DefCon to help them forget..

That's all for now

[accident]

Fucktard Hall has non-closed threads and was not (ro)

liek zomg yuo forgot to lox it!!!! yUo = t3h hUrp.

[TheCotMan]

liek zomg yuo forgot to lox it!!!! yUo = t3h hUrp.

(Above posted as a reply to a post in Fucktard Hall -- a space that was (ro))

Yep. I am "teh hurp" for that one.

When Fucktard Hall was relocated to a top level group, the permissions were automagically altered to inheirit the permissions of the group insead of retaining what they were before the move.

Permissions to Fucktard Hall have been fixed and are being tested.

Thanks for the bug report.

[accident]

(Above posted as a reply to a post in Fucktard Hall -- a space that was (ro))

Yep. I am "teh hurp" for that one.

When Fucktard Hall was relocated to a top level group, the permissions were automagically altered to inheirit the permissions of the group insead of retaining what they were before the move.

Permissions to Fucktard Hall have been fixed and are being tested.

Thanks for the bug report.

ahh, my bad. i just wanted to make fun of you. :p i actually contributed something? damn. haha. good work anyway.

[converge]

cotman was pwned

[TheCotMan]

Forums down for maintenance Jan 31, 2006 at 7:00am (Pacific Time.)
Expect downtime should be 1 hour or less.
Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

Forums down for maintenance Jan 31, 2006 at 7:00am (Pacific Time.)
Expect downtime should be 1 hour or less.
Thanks!

Done. If you notice any strangeness in the forums, please let us know.

[TheCotMan]

Forum rules updates to include a link to The Official DefCon FAQ in two places.

Hopfully, this combined with the 7 day waiting period for new users will help avoid people signing up to the forums to ask questions like:
Is DefCon really cancelled?
Is there a minimum age to attend DefCon?
or any of the other FAQ.

In other news, if you have been experiencing problems accessing the forums over the past week, feel free to post your problems in a reply here over the next 24 hours. Please report the time it happened in Pacific Time.
Thanks!

[TheCotMan]

RSS Seems to be working fine. RSS image links have been added to the bottom of the page. Location may change, and images being used may change, but whatever happens, they are there now.

[TheCotMan]

Leaders/Organizers

I'm a week late with this, but here goes...

Xodia and Alentrace are working with their DCG to organize a PokerCon this year. Though they are orginizing this with others, Xodia has been selected as the a "forum leader/organizer" for the PokerCon space even though they are both organizers.

A new forum user was nominated by a Goon and Moderator to be the forums leader/organizer to LPCon. The user comes highly recommended by the previous organizer of Defcon's previous LPCon, Kai. After lack of opposition from the mods, DOC-LPCon is now forum leader/organizer for the LPCON subforum. This new user is DOC-LPCon.

Congrats to Xodia and DOC-LPCon who are forums leader/organizers for ther respective subforums, PokerCon and LPCon.

[klepto]

The CERT still does not work correctly still on firefox or mozilla on linux & bsd.

It still keeps saying the same errors that I mentioned previously in this thread.

*Just tried it on Windows too.....nada*

[TheCotMan]

The CERT still does not work correctly still on firefox or mozilla on linux & bsd.

It still keeps saying the same errors that I mentioned previously in this thread.

Thanks for the reminder. DT reads these threads and his response is the one you want.

[The Dark Tangent]

Cert Alert!

Thanks for the reminder. DT reads these threads and his response is the one you want.

My fault.. dropped off my radar.

I'll buy one for forum.defcon.org and www.defcon.org this week. I'll post when they are all installed and stuph!@#

[TheCotMan]

Information was recently provided to us that Thorn will be running what was "The Wardriving Contest" but is now will probably be called "The Wireless Contest"
Thorn is now also registered as a forum leader/organizer for that contest subforum.

Thorn has been around with these forums (and others ;-) for a long time. He has a great reputation, and many old-timers know him quite well.

Welcomes to Thorn. :-)

[TheCotMan]

A welcome a-board to Priest, who has been running the Spot the Fed contest and is now a Forum Leader/Organizer for the Contest & Events subforum "Spot the Fed."