|
|
Post by phillip on Jan 17, 2018 17:45:01 GMT
Hey all, it's been a while. What Pumpkin has told me that the forum relaunch will be handled professionally by a department of a larger media company, which I probably shouldn't identify here. Sadly, they didn't mention any timeline regarding this relaunch. I will pass on everything we've done to them. If you worked on the forums with me, you may receive an email from WP sometime in the future via the email you used to set up your Slack account. I certainly would've liked to have the forums up and running by now, with everyone's old posts in some sort of online archive, but at least it seems that this community is set to be handled much more competently in the future. This will conclude my involvement with this project, so this will be my last update. If anyone needs anything or wants to chat, you can message me here. So long everyone!
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on May 13, 2017 16:52:01 GMT
I've pinged WP a couple times since my internship ended, and each time the response is basically that they're not ready yet but will be soon. I'm almost certain it's only going to be a priority after Hiveswap part 1 launches. I'm not really affiliated with the company anymore, but I'll finish the job here once they're ready.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jan 12, 2017 5:30:16 GMT
If it makes anyone feel better about the situation, I think the reason why WP is being so conservative with the server stuff is because it was a server-side problem that caused the downfall of the forums in the first place. I've gotten the impression that they want to make sure it's as airtight as they can get it before making anything public. From the company's viewpoint, compromising user data to hackers is a bigger risk than not having official forums. Of course, general organizational sluggishness and logistical shenanigans have exacerbated it, but I think this is root cause. In my opinion, the forum software we're using eliminates most of the security risk. That said, they do have far more industry experience than I do, so I might be wrong.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jan 7, 2017 4:13:19 GMT
The forum software itself is ready to go (and has been since one of my earliest messages here). We just need the OK signal from WP when they get the server up and we can probably port it over in a day. Getting the server ready involves a third party, but I'd wager that WP itself is 110% concentrated on Hiveswap release right now. I'll let you guys know as soon as I hear back.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Oct 15, 2016 17:21:46 GMT
I think MSPA Forums is completely dead now. Not coming back. RIP MSPA Forums, 2007-2016  |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Sept 5, 2016 4:14:08 GMT
yo nonevah , I started reading Homestuck when it was first released, because I transitioned from the end of Problem Sleuth. I actually found it quite boring at first and stopped reading fairly early on. After I got back in again we were pretty deep into Act 5, and since then it's been kind of on and off every couple of months I wasn't exactly an active community member, though I did have a forum account. I think a lot of the fandom just lurks like I usually do. I was doing work on Hiveswap when Andrew asked me to try to rebuild the forums, so it wasn't really out of the blue. I can't really seem to parse the last bit of your message there... I agree that you should probably get some sleep |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Aug 31, 2016 20:32:30 GMT
Not official, that's just an archive
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Aug 26, 2016 21:58:12 GMT
asdfasdf
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 27, 2016 10:15:30 GMT
Are you allowed to look into recovering old posts while you're waiting for the third party? Or is that completely access-denied until the new forum is running and public? What Pumpkin seems oddly totalitarian and secretive these days. I've been away from the scene for years, and the change is stark and strange. Unfortunately, old post recovery also depends on this third party  |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 26, 2016 20:41:34 GMT
So actually, the mods and I have been finished with the actual site design for a good while now. To clarify, we're using established forum software rather than engineering a CMS from scratch because of time and security. The next step is getting site and server security really stable, which will take time and mostly won't be in our control. Right now, we can only continue once we receive information from a third party who has unfortunately been taking quite a while to get back to us. In the meantime we're responsibly holding sweet rave parties at What Pumpkin HQ.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 11, 2016 22:24:34 GMT
Hi Phillip! Sorry if this counts as being what you can't say under a gag order, but how is the new MSPAF site coming along? Will it contain the features from the old one? We are making pretty good progress! It uses different software than the old forums, but in terms of basic features they should be quite similar. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 11, 2016 20:11:47 GMT
What about voicing these concerns regarding this to the people who WERE in charge of the old site? If you don't have to power to do that then fair enough, but there has to be SOMEONE that was part of the old team that you can talk to (or even doing a game of telephone if you don't have direct access to that person yourself) that can. Gag order or no, that seems like the kind of thing that falls under the purview of "basic protection of consumer rights to privacy". This was one of the first questions I asked when I was assigned. What you see above is their reply. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 11, 2016 4:58:36 GMT
Hey, here's a question nobody's asked yet: Why in the hell hasn't there been an official WP statement about the obvious security compromise that occurred on the old forums? A hacker got into the forums hard enough to disable and completely nuke it from orbit. WhatPumpkin says absolutely nothing about it anywhere. Nothing on social media, nothing in a MSPA news post. That much I'm not blaming Phillip for. What I am blaming him for, however, is the continued silence and blatant disregard for user safety that comes with it regarding the security compromise.A hacker has gotten into the MSPAF. We have no info about how deep, and frankly I don't give a damn about the specifics of it. What I want to know is this: Do they have my email, username, and password? I assume they do, because not even a day after the forums went down initially I had several websites send me "someone tried logging into your account" emails. I'm at least safe because I never use the same password twice, but how many people can honestly say they do that? It's been months and we still have zero official, mass-viewable word about how much info was actually stolen. This was frustrating beforehand but now that WP's Official Forum Guy has said thisobsidalicious The only piece of information that was told to me, and that I'm allowed to say is that "old forum data was compromised." This is pretty vague to me, and I think that was the intention. ...it's gone from frustrating to brazenly disrespectful and dangerous.
Setting aside the fact that it's dumb to not tell your current forum tech what happened to the old forum, we know now that there was a breach (and it's clearly gone beyond "forums were broken and then deleted" if they're going to be that vague about it) and we haven't gotten anything said to us, the people affected, about it. You have a list of our emails. Send something. You don't even have to explain anything, just say "forum data was compromised" exactly as you just did. You can't rely on a newspost on MSPA or a post on social media to get this news out because it affects every single person who ever signed up for the forums, including the thousands of people who no longer care about or check the MSPA website. What Pumpkin owes us that before they owe us a new forum to neglect. It's easy to understand your frustration and anger, but unfortunately I cannot do anything on this front. I want to clarify that I have never been the "Official Forum Guy"—I am merely tasked with launching the new version. Managing the security issue and the PR with the old forums are not things that have been assigned to me. I've used this site mainly to recruit a new team of administrators and moderators, and have only posted here out of my own volition to partially assuage growing discontent and assumptions about the fate of the forums. I have released just about all the information I am allowed to disclose. I cannot access the old forums until after the release of the new ones (that includes the list of emails you mention), and even then I am only assigned to try to recover old posts. You probably won't find this response satisfactory, but nonetheless I suggest that you bring up this topic again on the new forums once they launch so it's more visible. In the meantime, I'll make sure to convey any other information about this that is released to me. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jul 10, 2016 17:32:55 GMT
Hey phillip, IK your busy re-building the fourms or some shit, but can we get a update on hiveswap? Can you tell us if your in a gag order or not? ZIIIIIIIP ^+++++++^ |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 4, 2016 19:17:16 GMT
Question: If the forums are being revitalized in their new incarnation, is there a chance that the Roleplay/Collab and Games forums could make a comeback? I personally was very sorry to see them go when that occurred, the reason given seemed to be "lack of moderators", although as I said at the time this could have been easily fixed by recruiting additional community moderators, as I'm sure many people would have been willing. Comeback as in just have those sections/categories in place? I can't say for sure but I'll probably be able to just make such a category and get the necessary mods if there is enough demand. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 4, 2016 4:16:06 GMT
From what I've seen the new forums will indeed be a clean slate but retrieval of the old ones is going to be another venture entirely, presumably looked into after the building of the new forums is completed. Speaking of, do we have some sort of timeline for how long it's expected to take to build the new forums? That is correct. There is intentionally no ETA. I want to avoid time pressure so we can make sure the implementation is truly secure and robust before release. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 3, 2016 20:26:34 GMT
It would be somewhat more acceptable if staff members were at least kept in the loop about what was going on, but the number of occasions in the past that large-scale forum changes or events have occurred without the staff getting any advance warning at all despite having to shoulder the blame has been a little disgusting. Yeah that's definitely something that I will be working on. Once these launch I don't foresee any significant changes or events. If they do happen, as long as I'm tasked with this I'll be sure to give ample prior notice. Just to get a better idea of what to avoid, do you have any specific examples of sudden, large changes in the past? |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 2, 2016 18:13:16 GMT
Btw, can anyone here put me in contact with tastySalamanders or banditAffiliate? I'd much appreciate the help.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 2, 2016 17:42:49 GMT
Hey, what will be the policy on users who were banned on the old forums? Clean slate? It seems like retaining the old ban list could have logistical issues. TBD, but likely clean slate. |
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 2, 2016 16:01:43 GMT
pointycatears that's something that will be out of my control. Blaperile might be able to compile and release an archive of the posts if his admin panel has such functionality.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 2, 2016 2:13:56 GMT
@ath I can't speak for the rest of WP at all, but I definitely signed an NDA.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 2, 2016 0:32:45 GMT
badatnames Basically only the stuff that I've said up to this point. I'm not sure what you mean by integration, but the new forums will have no direct connection with the old ones, for security reasons. jacquerel I am not exactly in the position to really recommend hiring decisions, but this is something good to bring up in the new forums once they're set up. Again I'm not well informed on past actions or states of the forums, but from what I've collected it seems that large changes to the forums would have been initiated by community-based admins rather than WP word-of-god type commands. This is something that is unlikely to change with the new forums. The potential involvement I mentioned before would mostly materialize as WP team members simply participating in forum discussions as normal users.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 1, 2016 23:57:37 GMT
lyla sigh My apologies for the vagueness of my answer before, but that's about all I got right now. I have very specific instructions to get the forum up first and treat getting the old data is an entirely separate thing that will occur after the launch.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 1, 2016 22:50:28 GMT
obsidalicious The only piece of information that was told to me, and that I'm allowed to say is that "old forum data was compromised." This is pretty vague to me, and I think that was the intention. As a general rule, I would recommend changing your password on accounts with exactly the same credentials, regardless of whether this means that passwords were stolen or if it is just something comparatively innocuous like they managed to change the HTML on the main page or something. The reason is that I think nobody can be 100% sure in the realm of digital security, and the fact that any sort of exploit existed in the first place puts doubt in my mind about the robustness of the version of vBulletin the old forums used. I can say one of the priorities for the new forums is rock solid stability and security.
|
|
|
|
Post by phillip on Jun 1, 2016 21:12:35 GMT
jacquerel , I'm sorry that your previous experience with WP has been so turbulent. I hope we can change your mind as time goes on. Regarding your concerns, I would agree that WP as a whole cannot dedicate a ton of resources to forum stuff (it's basically me right now). In the end though, it's only so we can quickly deliver more content (previously in finishing the comic by 4/13, and now Hiveswap), which is, after all, the reason why everybody is here in the first place, right? imglasses , jacquerel and the One Guy have good points on why we want to do the whole thing natively again. I would also like to elaborate that I hope the "officialness" lets people treat it more as a central hub for the community. At the very least, I hope it's going to better serve certain members of the fanbase compared to tools like reddit or Tumblr. As for the old posts, what I have to say is a little more tricky. It is true that the new forums will be brand spanking new (so fresh and so clean), mostly for security reasons. Does that mean all is lost forever? Not necessarily, but what happens from there is extremely uncertain and I'm uncomfortable saying more on the subject.
|
|
