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

[TheCotMan]

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

The media server seems to be down for me. Tried from a few different boxes.
https://media.defcon.org/

I checked with DT, and it is a know problem with work being done to address it; it may take a few days.

In the mean time, the bittorrent server is still working for media content, if you do not want to wait for service to be restored to media.defcon.org. (It may be over 2 days, if this helps.)

[TheCotMan]

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

In one of the many upgrades of the forum software, a feature for user-specified limits to age of threads to display was set to be 2 week, denying most new users, default visibility to old threads. I've changed this default setting for all users to display all threads, regardless of age. Thanks to Hackajar for this report. Most of us mods have accounts so old, we never saw this 2-week limit in-action.

There are still forum-restrictions on age-display, but they are only for places like Fucktard Hall, /dev/null not for all other forums.

If you do not like this, you can change your user settings to use a different default age restriction for old threads.

Contest "Absolutely Nothing Suspicious Happening Here: An Evil Maid Project of Rift Recon DEVGRU" forum deleted -- not going to happen after-all.

Forum re-name: XHour is X-Hour (fix) in "TD Francis X-Hour Film Contest"

Forums for "Villages" have been moved to a new sub-forum (like contests, or events) giving us 4 classifications under:
https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=767
1) Contests: https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=768
2) Events: https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=769
3) Social Gatherings and Parties: https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=770
4) Villages: https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=835


Feedback welcome!

-Cot

[TheCotMan]

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

Significant changes to the web services used to present the forums to you have been completed.

Please let us know if you see something is broken.

If you cant post here, because it is that broken, email us at defconforums@gmail.com

Thanks, and hopefully we won't see any problems.

-Cot

[TheCotMan]

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

It has been a month without new posts to the "DEF CON 22 end Beyond" forum: https://forum.defcon.org/forumdisplay.php?f=839

It has been closed, and archived in the Forum for past DEF CON.

[TheCotMan]

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

forum.defcon.org going down for scheduled maintenance at 8pm pacific time. It may be down for up to 4 hours.

[TheCotMan]

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

forum.defcon.org going down for scheduled maintenance at 8pm pacific time. It may be down for up to 4 hours.

Wheeee!

That was fast. All upgrades and maintenance completed. This was a collection of significant changes. Please report problems here, or if you can't post: defconforums@gmail.com

Thanks!

Returning to normal service.
-Cot

[TheCotMan]

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

Starting at 3pm pacific time, will be doing normal maintenance on forum server. Should be back in ~1 hour or less.

[TheCotMan]

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

Starting at 3pm pacific time, will be doing normal maintenance on forum server. Should be back in ~1 hour or less.

Maintenance completed. Now checking stuff like: can I post a reply to an existing thread?

Please report any problems with def con forum service here, or if unable, to defconforums@gmail.com

Thanks!
-Cot

[TheCotMan]

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

Major work on the DEF CON forums on Sunday probably starting around 1:30pm (pacific time) , lasting for 4 hours or more.

Expect them to look different. We will have a thread asking for feedback on how to make the forums look better. My priority in working with this with Jeff now, is to get the big move and work done EARLY, so we can fix interface and tiny stuff over the days and weeks that follow.

If it looks bad, blame me for rushing the switch many months before DEF CON instead of having downtime much closer to con, but have things look good right-away. Then, after blaming me, report what could be done to make it look better after the major work is finished.

Thanks!
-Cot

[TheCotMan]

Hello!

After support for from (Dark Tangent) we have the forums moved to a new server, running a new OS, and new install of all software.

Some words of notice:

Not all features have yet been enabled
The Style/Themes we have had for ~10 years and upgraded with each upgrade are not compatible and require too much effort to modernize. They have been tossed. We are making new styles/themes. Feedback on how they are broken is welcome. I will be working on these on my own for the next few weeks.
Please provide feedback and constructive criticism as you find it.
I already know about the text color in this edit box, as I compose this response.

Primary issues are those that harm functionality.
Secondary issues are those on aesthetics, and one shade of a color vs another.

Thanks and good luck!

[TheCotMan]

Hello, one of the changes suggested by DT was to disable the User Promotion process. We have seen a long decline in use, and new users are not replacing old users that stop visiting. There may be an increase in spam.

All users in L1, L2, L3 and L4 are now all "Member" and the default settings for "Member" should be the same as L4.

If you are unable to post as a new member, or long-standing member to notify me of trouble, please email me: defconforums@gmail.com

If you can post, and wish to report troubles with access please let me know of the problem so it can be addressed.

In other news, 10 forum accounts have email addresses associated with them which are now invalid. Most of these users last accessed the forums 8+ years ago. Because they subscribed to forums for email updates, I am getting bounces for their subscriptions. I've switched their account status to "waiting for email confirmation" and avoid being identified as a spammer.

[wrøng!]

It appears with the new forum has come new (and longer) URIs for each thread. The old format used to be https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=123456, where the new format is https://forum.defcon.org/forum/SECTI...TITLE?p=123456.

This makes it more challenging to dynamically build links from the response of https://forum.defcon.org/external. Is there any configuration option that will rewrite or redirect a "naked" thread ID request to the longer URI?

[TheCotMan]

It appears with the new forum has come new (and longer) URIs for each thread. The old format used to be https://forum.defcon.org/showthread.php?t=123456, where the new format is https://forum.defcon.org/forum/SECTI...TITLE?p=123456.

This makes it more challenging to dynamically build links from the response of https://forum.defcon.org/external. Is there any configuration option that will rewrite or redirect a "naked" thread ID request to the longer URI?

It was on my list of things to check. This was once a feature for "Search Engine Optimization" and defaulted to on. When disabled, we had the older "show post" or "showthread" which included shorter URL. I've not found it yet, but it is something I will be looking into.

[wrøng!]

The answer came to me in the form of the e-mail notification that you responded! It appears we can use https://forum.defcon.org/node/123456.

[astcell]

I don't know if I'd cut at 2 years, I see a few names of users who are not posting who are very definitely still active. Or if so, can we have a tick-box on the user account to avoid any scraping programs cleaning out the nest here.