For you Ezboard Vets

[Lance Casey]

http://p223.ezboard.com/bclubgroundzero


http://p066.ezboard.com/bthejedilounge

A little blast from the past.

No posts though.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yep, EzBoard just had a bit of a meltdown and wiped a lot of posts.

BTW - this was posted in the wrong forum (I moved it). The RP Discussion for is just for discussing stuff related to role-playing (surprisingly ;)) - everything else goes in either General Discussion or the Box Office/Media forum.

[Yog]

Ezboard got h4x0red

http://p079.ezboard.com/fezboardimportantannouncements.showMessage?topicID =505.topic


ezboard Attack Update - 06/03/05 Dear ezboard Family,

Good morning and thank you for your patience as we continue to restore your data and return our systems to normal operation.

This will be a long update, as I want to be as thorough as possible and incorporate threads from the many phone calls and e-mail discussions I have had with ezOps, admins and users in the last few days. I hope that by being open and explicit we can give you a better understanding of what has happened, where we are in the restoration process, and when we can all expect to get back to normal.

I've broken all this information into topic areas to make it easier for you to find the topic that you personally care about the most.

When will my board get its data back?
The most difficult and painful thing for me to report is that it will be impossible to restore full data on all boards. We will send out a Global Announcement once all possible restoration procedures have been completed. During this process, you can expect to see some slowness on the boards, but we’ll return to normal speeds as soon as the restoration is complete.

I realize this creates great uncertainty for many of you still waiting for data restoration, and so I want to give you the following, much more detailed description of the data restoration process we are undertaking in our efforts to get the most back we can, on the fastest time frame possible:

Data restoration began the day of the attack with the restoration of eight servers that we could salvage immediately. Sadly, no other intervention was successful at that time.

Since that time, we have been assembling data from three sources: the remaining historical backups of some 8,000 Gold and trial boards from early May, the current data recently written to hard drives since the attack, and data in RAM memory since the attack.

The actual restorations using this assembled data have been underway since Thursday afternoon, and are being done on a server-by-server basis. The process is automated and each server takes approximately 6 hours to restore. We can restore between 8 and 10 servers in parallel. To some of you this may seem like a long time to restore data on a single server. And it is. However, we are using an innovative process to maximize the data recovery and testing it thoroughly to make sure that (a) we don't erase the posts that have been made since the attack and (b) the data is being properly restored.

When this server-by-server process is complete, we have one final source of data that we may be able to use for restoration. With quick thinking and fast action on the part of your technical team we were able to do an emergency backup of active data. To be clear, this is by no means all the board post data, only the active data at that time. We will be restoring this data as a last step in the process.

We are working as fast as possible on the restoration process - believe me, the faster this is completed the happier we all will be.

What happened in the attack?
What we know is that late in the evening on the holiday Monday, May 30 here in the US, a person with significant and specific information attacked our systems. The attacker was successful in erasing historical board posts and the backup systems, which were password protected and on a separate network. They did not erase the posts of boards that were active on the system at the time.


What more can you tell me about the back-ups?
The issue was not the back-up systems themselves. Our back-up systems have been working well and are separate from our production environment. They are not accessible without inside technical information and passwords. The issue was that either through luck or (more likely) specific information, the attacker was able to delete both the historical files and the back-ups.

What are you doing so this doesn’t happen again?
We have put additional safeguards in place to reduce the opportunity for this to happen in the future. We will also be undertaking a highly detailed security and back-up audit in the coming weeks.

You should also know that we have been Alpha testing the new community software for three weeks and in addition to increased security, redundancy and back-up systems, it will have the ability to allow ezOps to back-up their communities (in addition to daily and weekly incremental backups) to their home computers in an automated fashion. For some ezOps this should provide an additional level of safety and peace of mind.

Can't you give us more frequent updates?
We have been updating you as soon as there is new information. Since the attack we have put out five global messages and have had two conference calls with ezOps and admins. In addition, the Customer Service help desk and Support Forums have been very active. On a more personal basis, Steve DeMello and I have been responding to hundreds of e-mails from users, ezOps and admins. As of 7AM PST on Friday we have responded to every e-mail that has been sent directly to the two of us.

If you are looking for ways to get up to date information fast I recommend reading p079.ezboard.com/fezboard...ouncements first. Please read the materials already available before contacting CS -- the response queues are pretty full, as you might imagine.

What can you tell us about the attacker?
I can tell you that we have suspects, we have evidence and we are working with the FBI. I can also tell you that we will be working to have the attacker punished to the full extent of the law.

While we do have evidence, we can always use more, good, factual evidence. We are offering a $5,000 reward to the person or persons that provide us with factual information that leads to the direct arrest and conviction of the attacker. We are not interested in conspiracy theories, finger pointing or childish pranks. We are interested in information such as community postings or blog entries where the attacker is bragging about the attack and other factual, real information. Please e-mail information to legal@ezboard.com. When you e-mail please provide a link to the original material AND a screen capture of the original material or at the very least, copy and paste the original material into your e-mail. Please be smart, ethical, law abiding and honest about the way you find the information your provide to us.

Now the fine print: A reward will be paid to the person or persons that deliver to legal@ezboard.com information that leads to the direct arrest and conviction of the person or persons that attacked ezboard.com earlier this week. Should more than one person provide identical or substantially similar information that is used for the arrest and conviction of the attacker, the reward will be split equitably amongst the providers of that information.

Will you be providing Credits for Gold Boards?
Yes we plan to provide credits. We need to understand the scope of the data restoration before we decide on the amount of the credit. I would anticipate further news on credits to be available in the next week.

What happened to my Community Chest Balance?
The Community Chest balances were deleted as well, but we do have a back up of that data from a few days before the attack. We need to recalculate the actual Community Chest balances by taking the balance as of the date of the backup, adding Community Chest contributions and subtracting payments from Community Chest. We hope you agree that restoring Community Chest data is a second priority to getting the board posts restored

Please don't worry about your Community Chest balance, it will be restored and updated.

So, where do we go from here?
First let me say that we at ezboard are deeply sorry about the attack this week. The person that did this to us probably had a great chuckle when they pressed the send key to initiate the attack. Little did they know that they would affect so many lives in so many ways. I have heard from cancer patients, historians, mothers and schoolteachers about the way that their boards were damaged and were of vital importance to them. What the attacker did was take a great big piece of many peoples lives including the folks here at ezboard. For that, I hope we catch the attacker and return the favor by taking a bit of their time - behind bars.

We are working to restore the boards as fast as we can. We know your trust in ezboard has been deeply shaken. Now we are trying to rebuild that trust, and are realistic that this will be difficult and take time.

We plan to keep messaging you on our progress. Some of you may have already seen data restored as we started the process on Thursday. Please check p079.ezboard.com/fezboard...ouncements for updates.

In closing, we are working to get systems back to normal and believe that they will be back soon. We are fixing the security and backup processes now and will be performing a security and back-up audit in the coming weeks. Thank you for being an ezboard user, and for reading this, and we hope that you will continue to use ezboard. Let’s put our communities and our network back together, and bring the attacker to justice.

Sincerely,

Rob

Robert Labatt
CEO
ezboard, Inc.

robertlabatt@ezboard.com

[Dasquian Belargic]

Tut tut. Certainly makes me glad that we bailed out of EzBoard a long time ago.

[General Ceel]

Ezboard Forever! :smokin
........................................

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
Tut tut. Certainly makes me glad that we bailed out of EzBoard a long time ago.

THANK GOD, and AMEN.

[General Ceel]

Ezboard offers more benifits than it does drawbacks. My site is getting 10,000 hits a day, and yet i've had to spend zero cash on advertising. You can't beat that. All in all the system has been quite stable the last few years. The current problem, caused by the hacker was really beyond the control of anyone. I suppose they could have a better back up system, but thats about it. I love not having to worry about sending payments directly to a host for my server usage, I love not having to program my own updates, and I like being able to visit thousands of communities without ever having to create a new account or logging in again. Sure there are some pretty funky features out there for other systems, but its not the features that make a community, its the members. And when it comes to members we have plenty, and we make due with what features we have to the best of our ability.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

... well if you're going for quantity over quality, yes you win.

Poor us.

[General Ceel]

Personally i like having a large, diverse, community where people of all levels and interests are welcome. Swfans used to be like that.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Everyone is welcome at SWfans! :)

SWFans is the cool place to hang out. You can find most of the cool people there. In SWFans you can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the SWFans motto, for example, that's how laid back it is there. Show up if you want to have a good time. Another good reason to show up is if you want to hang out with friends.

[General Ceel]

Swfans USED to be that way. But i haven't seen that kind of spirit here since early 2001.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
Everyone is welcome at SWfans! :)

SWFans is the cool place to hang out. You can find most of the cool people there. In SWFans you can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the SWFans motto, for example, that's how laid back it is there. Show up if you want to have a good time. Another good reason to show up is if you want to hang out with friends.

Gotta love the FYAD motto. It's not just a motto, its a life mantra :cool


Originally posted by General Ceel
Swfans USED to be that way. But i haven't seen that kind of spirit here since early 2001.

Cite it as creative differences and go back to TGC, then. Why did you come back, aside from advertising anyway?

[James Prent]

Everyone should be glad to know that to compensate for the loss of threads in our recent archive, the staff has been diligently filling our forums with spam threads. Hooray the staff!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by General Ceel
Swfans USED to be that way. But i haven't seen that kind of spirit here since early 2001.

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, what with not being an active member of the community, but I'm sorry you feel that way. The consensus amongst our members (old and new) is about the community is a positive one - particularly about our recent board revamp and renovation.

[General Ceel]

Cite it as creative differences and go back to TGC, then. Why did you come back, aside from advertising anyway?

I didn't come to advertise. Wow, you people are still bitter.


I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, what with not being an active member of the community, but I'm sorry you feel that way. The consensus amongst our members (old and new) is about the community is a positive one - particularly about our recent board revamp and renovation.

I came to that conclusion straight from the horses mouth: 4 to 6 members of Swfans whom i've always been in contact with. As for the so called "revamp" they are not impressed, and agree with me in the feeling that the so called "reset" is a betrayal of what Swfans has always been about.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Originally posted by General Ceel
I didn't come to advertise. Wow, you people are still bitter.

Bitter about what? I've read the content of your posts since you re-upped and almost everything posted is an indirect advertisement for either your board or ezboard itself. If you were honest about being here, you would've diversified a little, yes?



I came to that conclusion straight from the horses mouth: 4 to 6 members of Swfans whom i've always been in contact with. As for the so called "revamp" they are not impressed, and agree with me in the feeling that the so called "reset" is a betrayal of what Swfans has always been about.

uh huh, okay

[General Ceel]

Bitter about what? I've read the content of your posts since you re-upped and almost everything posted is an indirect advertisement for either your board or ezboard itself. If you were honest about being here, you would've diversified a little, yes?

Daily Posts: 550 Daily Visits: 9100 Please Read the <a href=faq.php?s=>FAQ</a>.

Does it look like i need to advertise to you? Swfans isn't exactly the life of the party anymore. The only thing remotely like an advertisement that i've posted was an attempt to get some of the old timers to contribute to the role playing hall of fame. I don't know where you get your delusions laser brain.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Originally posted by General Ceel
Daily Posts: 550 Daily Visits: 9100 http://.....bthegungancouncil

So why are you here then? You're advertising when you clearly admitted not needing to.


Does it look like i need to advertise to you? Swfans isn't exactly the life of the party anymore. The only thing remotely like an advertisement that i've posted was an attempt to get some of the old timers to contribute to the role playing hall of fame. I don't know where you get your delusions laser brain.

Do you actually read your posts, or do you purge them from your memory when you hit the "post reply" button?

As for not being the "life of the party", I guess we don't get as many hits and posts as other spamalot forums. Don't really care to be honest. I'm satisfied with the content here, and since the reset, doubly so.

[Daria Nytherciria]

Originally posted by General Ceel
Daily Posts: 550 Daily Visits: 9100

Because it bears repeating...


Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
... well if you're going for quanity over quality, yes you win.

[Severen Morkonis]

Originally posted by General Ceel
Daily Posts: 550 Daily Visits: 9100 Please Read the <a href=faq.php?s=>FAQ</a>.

Does it look like i need to advertise to you? Swfans isn't exactly the life of the party anymore. The only thing remotely like an advertisement that i've posted was an attempt to get some of the old timers to contribute to the role playing hall of fame. I don't know where you get your delusions laser brain.

Those of us that are here, like it here. If you dont like it here, you see that X at the top pf the page, click it its that bloody simple. This was supposed to be a fun thread to bring back some old memories and i think i speak on behalf of all of us when i say that your propaganda is unwelcome.

[James Prent]

And, from TGC's own FAQ (I'm sherlock holmes!):


F. Advertise only in forums where advertising is allowed. Ads found in other forums will be deleted promptly.

You'll notice we have no advertising forums.

[General Ceel]

There is a difference between an Advertisement and a Sig with a link in it.

[General Ceel]

Spamming in regards to advertising is the act of posting links, images, or advertisements to sites that are not owned or hosted by SWFans or a SWFans.net member. This is not permitted and any site that you post such material from will likely be upset that you're stealing bandwidth from them. If you post an image from an outside source, and 50 of our members click on it, you have just increased said outside site's bandwidth by 50 times. This is not polite and is considered a form of stealing, as bandwidth is costly.


In regards to my sig, it is not a violation of the terms because as you can see, i'm a registred member of Swfans, and the link in the sig is to a community that I own

[Nathanial K'cansce]

I have an urge to say burninated.

*reads Ceel's sig*

[Lilaena De'Ville]

In regards to your sig, it is a violation of our policy. Your selective reading missed the highlighted portion that I so kindly pointed out to you previously.


You may also not post links to other roleplaying forums. SWFans does not pay for bandwidth so people can register and advertise sites elsehwere. Members who post threads to outside roleplaying communities will be banned immediately, and any thread with a link to an outside roleplaying community will be closed or deleted immediately.

The Gungan Council is another RPing board, is it not? Furthermore, I emailed you the explaination of your violation, because it is not the Staff's intent to make this a public discussion. Keep all further questions or comments on this subject to PM, or email.

[General Ceel]

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Afraid of a little competition? Last time i checked posting doesn't create bandwidth, visiting does. If you are so cheap that you feel a need to keep your cost down you might want to make your site invitation only, and allow nobody to view it without a password.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Originally posted by General Ceel
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Afraid of a little competition? Last time i checked posting doesn't create bandwidth, visiting does. If you are so cheap that you feel a need to keep your cost down you might want to make your site invitation only, and allow nobody to view it without a password.

We don't have any problem covering our bandwidth costs, and we're not really interested in competing with other forums. There are people who clearly like the way TGC does things, and there are others who do not.

So maybe get over it, stop worrying about plugging your ezboard, and contribute to the community. If you're not about that, leave. We're not really interested in going out of our way to please General Ceel, or his "in the know" friends. You've got your own forum for that, thanks.

[Yog]

Originally posted by General Ceel

Ezboard is great, sw-fans sucks etc..

http://www.thegjo.com/forum/macros/huh.jpg

[Shawn]

In regards to the signature matter: We get plenty of people who register simply so they can post "Click the link in my signature!", thus why the rule is in place. And we're not in the habit of making exceptions to our rules. I think most of us here are aware of TGC and know where to find it, at any rate.

Otherwise, this discussion is just going in circles. Different services may suit different people's needs, but we're quite happy with the freedom and flexibility that vBulletin provides us. You're obviously happy with the features and services that Ezboard provides you. There's really nothing further to say on the issue.