Forum Upgrade

Forum for discussion of narrow-bandwidth mechanical television

Moderators: Dave Moll, Andrew Davie, Steve Anderson

Forum Upgrade

Postby Andrew Davie » Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:49 pm

Dear NBTV forum members
If you're reading this you will be seeing the new forum. I have taken the recent hacking of the forum pages as a warning, and upgraded the software from the 2007 installation to a 2014 installation. We should be much more secure and harder to hack. Of course, there are going to be things that aren't quite as you expect. Sorry about the lack of notice, but our situation was dire; we had someone with access to the "secure" files and data and I didn't know how they achieved that. I think we are much safer now, as the new software closes many backdoors that have been discovered over those 8 years.
So, hopefully things are all OK. But if you find any problems, please post them in this topic, so that a) I don't get flooded with personal emails and b) others can see that the problem has already been reported.
I will get the "look and feel" sorted out sometime soon. But for now I think we are safe enough assuming all is OK and it's business as usual.
PS: I have migrated all old messages and images. Hopefully everything is still as expected :)
Cheers
A
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby M3DVQ » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:22 am

Was the database breached, and if so should password/email combinations be considered compromised? :?:

Even if not, people should probably take this as the nudge they need to go and make sure they use unique passwords everywhere. It's something I'm guilty of, I used my "simple" password here that I have on various other accounts too. :oops:
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Andrew Davie » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:28 am

I cannot say for sure. Best for everyone to reset their passwords, I would say. I know the passwords are encrypted and should have been safe. I expect the code snippet added to the PHP and HTML files (the only stuff that was modified as far as I could tell) simply accessed an external site which apparently tries to install malware on the visitor's machine. But compromised security is compromised security, and I would advise everyone to change their passwords just in case. I simply don't know for sure, and that's reason enough to be prudent.
Cheers
A
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby M3DVQ » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:34 am

Andrew Davie wrote:I simply don't know for sure, and that's reason enough to be prudent.
Cheers
A


Indeed, better safe than sorry.

Like I say, it's something I've been putting off doing anyway, so this is the nudge I needed to get on and secure all my accounts! :)
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Harry Dalek » Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:02 pm

Hi Andrew
I like the look for the forum ,might be a silly Question but does this do any thing different to the old one apart from keeping trouble makers from hacking it and looking pretty ?
:mrgreen: Mr green is new :)
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Andrew Davie » Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:36 pm

Harry Dalek wrote:Hi Andrew
I like the look for the forum ,might be a silly Question but does this do any thing different to the old one apart from keeping trouble makers from hacking it and looking pretty ?
:mrgreen: Mr green is new :)


LOL actually I have no idea :)
I've seen a few things that seem new -- I suggest you have a play and see!
Cheers
A
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby gary » Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:15 pm

Oh dear, the forum icons no longer seem to indicate new posts...
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Steve Anderson » Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:53 am

Well, they do here, they slowly pulse red/black...but you do need to be logged in it appears...instead of the yellow 'flag' previously...

In addition if you just hover over the title at the first screen post log-in ("Off-Topic" for example) you're informed if there are any unread messages/postings or not...

Steve A.
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Dave Moll » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:55 am

No pulsing here - just appear steady red.
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby gary » Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:32 am

Steve Anderson wrote:Well, they do here, they slowly pulse red/black...but you do need to be logged in it appears...instead of the yellow 'flag' previously...

In addition if you just hover over the title at the first screen post log-in ("Off-Topic" for example) you're informed if there are any unread messages/postings or not...

Steve A.


Ok, that may be the problem then, a pulsing icon will probably not be picked up 50% of the time in Firefox's speed dial.

I have had a look but I don't see any "user" settings available for that particular feature - if any one knows of same please let me know.
gary
 

Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Andrew Davie » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:07 am

gary wrote:I have had a look but I don't see any "user" settings available for that particular feature - if any one knows of same please let me know.


This is a forum-wide setting, not a user one. The forum can be configured with any of a number of 'styles'. If you search google for 'phpbb style' you will find many of them out there, with demo forums you can visit to see what the style looks like in actual use. I'm open to changing the forum style to another; let me know if there's one you really like and we can see how that goes.
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby gary » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:34 am

Thanks Andrew, I suppose this little issue has little or no relevance at all to other members. I like to use speed dial for all of my "well visited" sites as it allows me to spot updates quickly and easily without actually having to visit the site - it works well and I thoroughly recommend it, but I can hardly expect the style of the forum to be changed just to suit me. ;-)

I tell you what would be nice though, given that there are so many styles it is probably possible to have a customized background (I say that without having confirmed it). Said background could have a few transparent images of things like Nipkow disks, mirror drums, Mirror screws, old picture tubes etc etc.

Perhaps members could send in any images they have that would likely be of interest to others and someone could collate them on to a background - it may even be possible to have the background "showcase" a different aspect of NBTV every, say, month. Yah! just a thought...
gary
 

Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby gary » Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:25 am

Since there have been a few more posts added recently I have been able to confirm that the icons do no longer highlight new posts either with colour or pulsing.
There is no indication of new unread posts whether I am viewing it via speed dial or by visiting the site despite being logged in.

I must admit I did think I saw a flash of colour in speed dial but it may have just been my imagination.

There does seem to be something new - when you go into a forum the newer posts have scrolling lines within the icon and a red asterisk showing on that icon - after reading the new posts the scrolling and asterisk remain.

So, as far as I can tell there is no indication of new, unread posts as there was in the the previous version.

(I am using Firefox V 28.0)

It has been my experience of late that many "look and feel" anomalies are due to the designers attempting to target those pesky mobile devices.
gary
 

Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby Andrew Davie » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:03 pm

I am also using Firefor 28.0 and I *do* see the icon go red when there are new posts to view.
How about giving it a go without speed dial, Gary, and see if that's the issue?
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Re: Forum Upgrade

Postby gary » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:52 pm

I think I see the problem, if I do a screen capture and zoom it up I see that the outline of the icon and faux text is "reddish":
R = 197
G = 82
B = 111

Alas my eyes are just not colour sensitive enough in the red-green spectrum to pick up such fine lines, especially in speed dial, but also at full scale - I thought you meant the interior was red (as the last version was, albeit yellow).

I can see the moderators and posters names as red quite clearly but I really have to stare long and hard at the outline of the icon to make out that it is a different colour, to me they all look bluey-greyish, at least at first glance.

Oh well, mea culpa I suppose...
gary
 

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