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Re: System updates

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 4:52 pm
by elc32955
And... another one! Geez, 5 years of updating in a day...

On the forum index page, the last five updated threads will now appear for users to review. For some reason it's appearing below the Mchat module instead of above it. I've tried to move it but to no avail.... I originally tried to put it on the side, but with the hard delineations in this mobile-optimized style it wouldn't bump out the margins.

Also, the date/time display in the Mchat is acting a little squirrely since the upgrade, I'm trying my best to get it to behave but it seems to want to disrespect my authoritah. I'll keep at it....

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:05 pm
by elc32955
Last one for today. I've installed the PHPbb Knowledgebase mod on the system, although I've not enabled it just yet. I need to caucus with the other admins and be settled on how we implement it for maximum effect and usability before I turn it loose in the wild.

A knowledgebase is something we've been after for a long time here, now that the system is operating on all cylinders we can move ahead with implementing one. HOWEVER... it takes people to write articles, do the care & feeding, and to properly vet the articles to insure we're imparting factual information. We have many folks on-board with awesome technical knowledge that would be very good at this, we just have to work out the details.

Good things are happening!

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:44 pm
by elc32955
Hey everyone...

Just to let you know, we are still experiencing issues with outgoing site EMAIL. I just cleared a ton of bounce messages from the site mailbox. For some reason, all systems under the OATH umbrella (AOL, Yahoo, etc etc... ) are returning our site EMAIL's as they think they are spam-originated. I've submitted a request to their webmasters for white listing, and I've requested our web administrator to please change the outgoing IP for email from the system as it's an IP-based issue.

I can't tell you when this problem will clear up as only external providers can clear our IP to get the site EMAIL to it's final destination. All I can tell you is that I'm diligently working on the problem. In the meantime, if you have to password reset or anything that requires an EMAIL response to complete just please EMAIL me directly and I'll take care of it.

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:47 pm
by elc32955
Hi everyone,

I've been doing some work on the EMAIL issues over the last day or so and I do have some new information I'm going to share. So, in a nutshell here's what happened.... I was doing some system maintenance last week in preparation for upgrade of our companion forum system, the Revcon (RV) support forums to revision 3.2.5 of PHPbb when I came across a weird set of files in the root system directory of the other site that apparently spawned off a zip file uploaded by person(s) and via method(s) unknown. I didn't do this upload, so I disabled these files and put them in our trash folder for later review.

As you know, we've been having problems with forum Email for quite some time from our site. Come to find out that the IP for the forum EMAIL (which is the same IP we use for the other site being a shared webserver) was flagged for bad activity by Oath (Yahoo/AOL). I couldn't figure out why and I've been trying to get to the bottom of things along with our web hosting provider.

Well, I searched the site IP on Google and find out through tracking a few links that the files I killed off on the other site were actually a phishing plant. In this case, it was forwarding phishing EMAIL that knocked at the door of what appeared to be a Russian email server. Not targeted at our companion system at all, from the looks of the plant it was just using hosting space to do it's skullduggery. The good news is that I scanned & scrubbed the effected site as well as a complete review & scan of our site. No sign here that the phishers ever penetrated our partitioned server space, so zero impact to any of our users. Also, our web host has verified that security patches are current for Cpanel (our web control/front door) as well as changing all access passwords to that portion of the system.

So.... onto what I'm doing here as some preventative medicine. I'm preparing to kill off all the zero-post user accounts that were established before we went onto manual validation. This is a security purge to zap any bots that may have established an account and may be laying dormant long-term until being called into action. Manual validations insure an admin has to take physical action to allow an account applicant in. We do a basic review of the account application to weed out gibberish, a "WHOIS" IP check and a manual validation EMAIL. I SO hate spammers and phishing operators, they make life more miserable for everyone. So, if I inadvertently zap anyone that wants to retain account status here all they have to do is re-apply for an account and be manually validated.

As far as the site email's getting through, the flag on the system IP will have to time out for the EMAIL to start passing correctly to destinations. I've requested a global IP change, but this one will be a lot of work for the webhost. No estimate if or when that one will be completed.

Thanks,
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 9:06 pm
by elc32955
Hi folks,

One other brief update for you. I'm pleased to tell you that since the upgrade of the forum system, we are now scoring a perfect "0" as far as mobile readability errors. So, the new style/mobile optimization of the forum system with the upgrade has greatly helped. Before the upgrade many of the forum pages with attachments were tossing errors that Google didn't like. With the automatic resizing the new revision has brought to us, all of those errors were resolved.

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:08 am
by elc32955
Hi folks,

Just a very brief update today. I've been watching the pictures posted by users since we updated the forum software pertinent to our old nemesis... the pic sizing issue. I'm pleased to report that this revision of the forum software works very well with pictures and auto-sizes just fine. So, I've taken down my nag messages in the forum rules sections about watching your upload size. If anyone runs into problems please let me know, but I think we've put another long-lingering issue to bed. Finally!

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 pm
by smwalker
Hey Eric,

Just noticed what I guess is a change that occurred with the upgrade a few months back. Users can no longer Edit their previous posts? I am not sure if it a time limit to editing them of if once someone reply's you lose your ability to edit the post? Any clarification?

Is that a feature you can adjust?

When writing up a project I like to edit the original post with new information so people do not have to read trough 6 pages to find out a pertinent detail.

Re: System updates

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:28 am
by elc32955
Hi Steve,

Yes, there has been a change after the system update. The new post edit feature is active for two hours after a message is posted, after that the editing capability drops off. You just have to post a follow-on message after the edit time expires if you need to modify.

The main reason for this is that some forum users (not from this system that I've seen but in other forum systems using PHPbb) like to "re-write" history, especially if there are heated topics that get discussed. Scenario.... User A calls User B a bloody idiot or other such tripe in a post chain. User B responds and it goes back & forth. User A decides to flame User B, alters the original posts with the edit function where User B was provoked and then makes administrative complaints about User B. User B then gets dumped on, suspended, or worse if the administrators don't carefully backtrack things. Or User B is artificially made to look like the idiot in public.

Other forum systems that I'm on observe the same protocols, with timed edit capability designed to let OP's correct typos or inadvertent errors in posts for a certain period of time after they are published to the user base. You can't re-write a newspaper once it hits the streets, but you can make retractions, corrections, etc... in subsequent editions.

Send me a PM and I can discuss more with you one on one. There may be a workaround here we can implement.

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:51 am
by elc32955
Hi Folks,

(Climbing up on soapbox)

I wanted to take a moment and make a post germane to any prospective users of the system, speaking to the validation process we use to give folks post access here at the New Caprice forums. Validation is a very important part of forum system administration, in a nutshell it keeps the spambots off of our backs or folks out that might want to send you links to sites to visit that might suck your personal information from your computer, plant viruses, or perhaps worse (Ransomware anyone?).

To access the system, once you complete the initial questionnaire to authenticate with us, you are contacted by a system administrator and requested to send us a live EMAIL back to prove you live, breathe, and take direction. Bots generally can't do that. If you EMAIL us back, BAM you're in. However if you fail to respond to our EMAIL, after a two-week time period your application for access is sent into the ether with the Mk1 Zapgun as we don't know you're not a convincing bot trying to get at our users. We'd had a few spam outbreaks on the system over the years we've been in service and I'm sure no one needs any more ads for personal growth hormone or SEO optimization or such clogging up our system.

We don't block out forums from outside access for readers or lurkers (except for the Lounge section), so if you like to sit back and just copy the mail you don't need an account here to do that. However, if you want to contribute to the fun here, ask specific questions, sell stuff or just plain kibitz, you will need a user account to do that. This means you HAVE TO ANSWER THE VALIDATION CHALLENGE EMAIL.

I'm calling this to your attention today because I just deleted three requests for accounts which I'm sure came from folks interested in the system that owned cars, but did not acknowledge at least two attempts to validate by our admins. The days of 30-second instant validations are pretty much over, except in rare circumstances. We take user protection seriously, that's the reason we go to so much trouble on our validations - thankfully we're still a small enough group to where we can do this. I'm looking at a system mod that will let me alter the pro forma registration agreement to more specifically spell this out when you register for access.

Most of our tenured users don't see this, but behind the scenes your admin staff is constantly working. Just like cars coming down the line..... 8-)

(climbing down from soapbox)

Thanks
Eric

Re: System updates

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:41 pm
by smwalker
elc32955 wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:28 am
The main reason for this is that some forum users (not from this system that I've seen but in other forum systems using PHPbb) like to "re-write" history, especially if there are heated topics that get discussed.
I will PM you but for pete's sake if anyone ever gets so angry on this board as to rewrite history they should probably be ejected. We are not discussing politics on this board. If I wanted that crap I could go to FB. THis board is honestly the only corner of my internet that is useful and an example of a productive community. I think features like that take away from it. But I can live with it.

Thanks for the clarification. Be sure to do my editing quickly and get more used to using the drafts feature when composing.