Mapcore Trojan

[-Stratesiz-]

Any day would be good. How many months will it take? Just because Firefox is not exposed it does not mean that it's ok to spread malicious code that has probably infected countless potential, new users.

I guess noone gives a shit anymore. Okthxbye mapcore.

[Thrik]

I honestly don't know what to say. Mojo just seems to have gone completely AWOL, and I haven't seen him since my last big rant in this thread. He said he was going to work on it weeks ago, but he never did.

I do want to fix this, and I've even put the time into putting up a non-infected version of MapCore on another host, but without Mojo's help it's no good. All Mojo would have to do is point the domain name servers towards my hosting and we could have an infection-free MapCore up immediately.

IMO running a community requires you be able to respond to problems like this within days, not "at the weekend" (which never seems to come). I have respect for you Mojo, but you aren't doing a very good job of running this community. You've let it spiral to the point where regulars are leaving, and again I dread to think of how many people have actually been infected and/or just left as soon as their virus software alerted them.

If you haven't got the time then I urge you to let me take over handling the forums' hosting and whatnot. Managing websites is my day job, as well as big forums.

[dux]

lol this is epic fail.

[FrieChamp]

Thrik this is not Mojo's fault, it's Mike's.

[Thrik]

Don't they work together? Can't they just talk to each other? Even if Mike does own the domain and pay for the hosting, moving it to another host is literally a 5-minute job. I know because I've done it countless times.

Whoever's to blame, the fact is that there's a major administrative bottleneck that makes resolution of problems like this incredibly slow. We're over the two month mark that this issue has been ongoing now, whereas it should have been sorted out within a week or so at the very most (and would have been if it were my community).

I don't hold any contempt for Mojo or Mike over this, but from a professional standpoint this is really bad management and something needs to change -- I'm thinking about this community and whether or not it dies rather than individual people. I've not even seen Mojo since our last conversation, when he told me he'd be moving it that very weekend.

Neither Mojo nor Mike is to blame. They just clearly don't have the time to look after MapCore appropriately, which is understandable but they ought to act in the interests of what is a good community and make sure there is someone who can take care of it.

[Fletch]

Okay, first of all, chill the fuck out people. Nobody could have foresaw the host would have their entire network compromised and fail so utterly at getting rid of it on their side. Yes, Mikey and Pat are working on getting things moved over, but real life has a way of getting in the way of things. We're pretty much in crunch right now, and Mikey is pretty sick on top of that, so it's not like there's a huge pot of spare time that either of them is working from.

As far as people bitching about Mikey having the domain, just shut up. He's kept this site going out of his own pocket and never bitched about it. He's certainly got other things he could spend that money on, but he chooses to keep it up.

[Thrik]

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make. I appreciate the work Mike and Mojo have done, and Mike deserves a lot of gratitude for funding the site, but if they don't have the time to maintain it I can do so. I have no problem with funding any hosting costs necessary.

The simple fact is that online communities have to be looked after or they die -- the personal circumstances of the owners are pretty much irrelevant to that fact. We've already had numerous long-time MapCore regulars who have outright refused to visit because of the trojan issues (Did you notice?), and any new members who visit and hit virus warnings are likewise going to vanish.

If it takes two months to move MapCore to another host (which I must point out again, I did in less than 15 minutes), there's a clear problem. And again, I have no disdain for Mike or Mojo about this. I know full well that running a large forum can be pressing, which is why on LucasForums we have a team of over a dozen administrators -- a number of which with domain access -- so there aren't major bottlenecks like this.

Think of this as the web equivalent of constructive criticism, Fletch. You don't need to jump to your friends' defence because I'm not attacking them. I'm pointing out factual issues. I've repeatedly offered my time and hosting just to get things back on track; it's pretty much embarrassing and I don't know what to say when people are on IRC or on the forums asking why the problems haven't been fixed.

As for the domain, I've never had any problem with Mike having the domain. Don't confuse domain ownership with domain configuration; it's perfectly possible for Mike to point the domain's name servers towards another host (this involves changing two text fields). That host can then make full use of the domain, but if Mike ever changes the name servers again that host will have no relationship with the domain whatsoever. We're should literally be talking about a 5-minute job for Mike to switch the hosting to elsewhere.

[Zacker]

Thrik seems to be providing thought through and sensible ideas. Action needs to be taken and the ones capable of taking action should be given permission to do so.

[Cybbe]

I agree as well. I'm not saying for or against anyone, but something needs to be done by someone. And fast.

[RD]

I vote for Thrik. While the current admins are also genius, they dont have enough time.

[Ginger Lord]

Last week the University I go to banned MapCore because of the trojan alerts.

[⌐■_■]

something should be done.. seriously.. :-|

[Cybbe]

Yeah, this is ridiculous. I'm thinking maybe we should have a strike. Noone posts in mapcore until the issue is resolved. That, or only posting in a certain strike thread complaining ;D

[Gorion]

As i personally don't have anything with the trojan (tried with every "major" webbrowser out there..), this should be solved. To bad mike and mojo don't come here that often anymore..

[Cybbe]

I still get it when using IE. In fact, now it won't even let me load the front page without getting 4-5 warnings. I get nothing with firefox. So clearly this is not a false positive but rather more something along the lines of a browser security issue that this trojan, or whatever it is, is exploiting.

Oh, and good job Gorion. I feel proud of you. *clap*

But just because you don't get it doesn't mean noone else do. Heard CrazyMAC mention it earlier today as well.

This is bad, really bad. And it's pathetic that a problem like this has been allowed to exist for so long on a community of this size. And I don't doubt one second that it's hurt our reputation tremendously in the process.

This community is going to die sooner or later if we don't do anything, because at this moment, the only people I see here are the ones that live and breathe for mapcore. And even a lot of those have issues with the site. How it's come to this is beyond me, but it's really something that needs to be dealt with, and now.

I fail to understand why this was not resolved two months ago.

*sighs*

-Edit-

Oh, and in case it's unapparent, Gorion, I'm saying this because you shouldn't be posting here just to say you don't have any issues.

Because by doing so, you're going to drown out all the people that actually do still have them. And that's not something we'd want if we want this to be fixed. Since I don't get the issue with firefox, I'd assume I couldn't care less whether or not it gets fixed, but we have to think like a community here, so I do. And it's about putting the priorities of everyone before the self.

This is a problem for the community. I couldn't care less whether or not it's a problem for individual people as long as it shows its presence as a whole.

Saying it's gone is just bringing false hopes and useless postcount++'s.