COMMENTS ON NEW RULES
 

Place your comments, bitches, gripes, or whatever here. Keep in mind that they will NOT count for promotion purposes and, while they will be considered and might have some influence, this is not something which is up to the Users to decide.

Regards,

i think it's a bit hard that users in group registered can only post 1 time in 24 hours. let's say somebody who knows a lot about programming / reversing... it's a long time for such person. why does this restriction exist? is it that new members get more active?

Aaron does not need to and did not discuss the reasons for making the Rules as he did, but I can offer a good assumption as to why. We have many, many, many new registered users who thought, incorrectly, that they could immediately post a bunch of posts and obtain either attachment download and/or FTP download privileges by simply posting a bunch of short, meaningless messages of the "Thank You" type or, often, just pure random typing of letters.

The limitations on newer users require that they demonstrate some "patience" and "determination" to achive certain "privileges." Those who are here only to leech rarely have such "patience" and their "determination" is usually directed at trying to "circumvent" the Rules, rather than follow them. This is something somewhat inherent in Reverse Engineers ;) but 'these" people care only about themselves and what "they" want.

It there were not so many people interested in hammering the Forum and FTP just to get stuff they probably do not have any idea how to use, such restrictions might not be necessary.

You may have noticed that we currently have about 2600 members (not Members). Over 600 of them have joined within the last few days and you may be suprised that the database containes more than 24,000 "users" who have registered at one time or another, most of them just to get the FTP download password, back in the days when almost no one could get on the FTP because so many were hammering it.

So I agree that it is more difficult for the new user to get things done, but that will also enhance the chances that those who do "stick it out" will be of more use and contribution to the Forum over the long run.

Regards,

first of all, i just want to say these sentences shouldn't look like i want to start some discussion. i see no words that points on a "discussion". first sentence was just a short introduction, second one an example and the third and fourth why i posted: the questions why :) but you explained it very well. i didn't think about the FTP because i personally doesn't use it very often. two times a month or less. thanks for your effort JMI.

Greetings,
MaRKuS TH-DJM

May I suggest the term "Newbie" for the second class may be confused with "newbie" ?

A point. Maybe Aaron will reconsider and find the following less subject to misinterpretation. That's up to him. I don't really think those in the "Newbie" usergroup will confuse their "usergroup" with a general reversing "newbie" because the "other" categories are related only to "post count" and not an evaluation of the quality of the Posts, themselves. But any implication might be avoided if he wanted to use the following, instead:


"Registered"

"New Member"

"Trial Member"

"Member"

"VIP"

But, again, that is his choice to make.

Regards,

Perhaps "Novice" should be nice too ?

Regards and greetings to all the staff

"Novice" means the same thing as "Newbie".

Regards,

I find the new rules too much restrictive but very good and effective for this "dark age". Aaron and JMI are right...lots of people are only singing up to grab the ftp password and download even their asses if they were on the ftp. So even if they are too much restrictive I think that they will to their job for a while at least. I experimented myself in old times the ftp beeing inaccessible for "too many users".

The only thing i find without any sense(unless pointed to some good reasons) is the password change policy every 30 days. Personallly i switched on the auto-reminder feature so i don't even have to type it. It's a unuseful thing to type every time the password...also because i don't know others, but mine is 14 chars long...so not easily guessable. But I understand that maybe Aaron that is behind the administration of this board may have reasons that are not clear to me. Any Words? ;)

I thing that it��s not quite right to forbid newly registered users to search. In my opinion a search is one of most useful features in any forum. Especially for novices!

And may I suggest to transfer ��NEW RULERS�� thread from ��General Discussion�� forum to the main page? Change in rulers is an important thing and users should see them as soon as they get into the Forum.


For me too! I thing that change password every 30 days is quite inconvenient. It has sense for FTP but for user's account...
Maybe it should call for a long password instead of it's frequent change?

why change passwd regularly
 

My guess for the reason:

If you are a member you see the FTP passwd. If one gets your passwd (s)he gets the FTP passwd in the same step.
As it is not too easy to get membership the member passwd's have to be more secure to protect the FTP pass.
Particularly when there is a commonly used remember functionality, there should be something that can limit the (most times unintentional) leakage of member passwd's.

I agree that the password change is a "pain" but it is also a very prudent security requirement, particularily if you are aware of the number of Reversing Boards which have been hacked over the last few months. While User passwords were not the direct cause of such "successes", the concept of overall attention to proper security is a "good" thing.

How hard can it be to actually "write down" your passwords in some semi-secure location where you live? As stated, your computer will "remember" your current password for you, but that means "anyone" who has access to your computer, has access to your account and, if you are a "Member" to the FTP download password. We have already had several insistances where someone who "knew" or "discovered" the FTP password posted it on some other Board for the whole world to grab. I am reasonably sure that those of you who do not have a private password would not like a return of the days when there were, in deed, "too many users" to gain access on a regular basis.

As to where the "NEW RULES" might best be displayed, I did give that careful thought. It can not "appear" on the "Main Page" unless it is a separate Forum or part of the title. While it could be made a separate Forum, I do not have access to do so and wanted to put the information up where it would be viewed. Most of the Board's activity takes place in the "General Discussion" Forum, so I put it there. ANYONE who has not read these new RULES would arrive at the General Discussion Forum with this Thread marked with an "important" marker and it showing as a "new" Thread. One can "lead" readers to the Thread, but we can't "make" them read it, without making it like a "license" for software, where one has to click "I agree" to "continue." And how many times have you actually read what you were agreeing to, before you just clicked "I agree"? It is a fact that the vast majority of the "members" do not post at all and only read the Forums.

I do agree that everyone, including guest should be permitted to "SEARCH" the Forums and I recommend to Aaron that he permit them to do so. This would permit the widest sharing of information, to whose who may lack the skill or the courage to post, but want to start the learning process.

Regards,

The Search feature in vBulletin is probably the most resource-intensive feature available to normal users. I can see why it's probably not a great idea to give the people who are most likely to search straight away access to it, it could slow the server down pretty easily.

I personally feel the search -must- be available to users, you really can't respond to an ill-asked question with:

"Have you Searched for the answer to your question?"

If you restrict the very way someone who wants to learn, could effectively use this resource.

The anology would be akin to openning up a library, allowing people to come in, but not allow them to look around for books.

To me the most resource-intensive feature of this board is the evident continuing need to have to point the blind towards correctly searching for their answers. (Thank you for taking the time).

If you take away there ability to search? How can one expect them to see?

As far as loading the server by search requests...

We come from all countries,
all ends of this earth,
along an electronic medium,
travelling at the speed of light thru fiber,
joining us as one great nation,
time and distance showing limitless bounds
along its endless travel...

And I'm sitting at a breakpoint in the debugger looking at a stack trace ...
...so I got time to wait...

My 2 cents,
-bg

<S Novym Godom/Happy New Year/Xin nian yu kuai/Sun nien fai lok/Bonne ann��e/La Multi Ani/Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu/Buon Capo d'Anno>

Why this way ?
 

Hello everyone

I think that posts count isn't a good way of validating users.
maybe post contents be a better way.

By this way every new user has to post any unvaluble content just for being able to download and ...

now I'm not able to download just a crack tutorial so how can I have any idea about that ?

At last, Excuse me for my poor English
I'm not a native

Hello JMI!

May I suggest one rule? 10 (or whatever else) posts limit doesn't make sense, imho. You should permit to download (FTP or attachments) only for users, that were registered at least 1 month ago (also with 10 valueable posts or created threads, not replies) for example. This will limit users whose only goal is to get download permission (as you can see, I was registered long ago, but do not have such permission by this time). And 1 post in 24h limit is too sad (I will not answer anybody else this day)... you'd better limit byte count for downloading attachments (forum credits, like in FTP), for example.

All these modifications can be easily doen with VBulletin, AFAIK.

Best regards, pp2.

p.s. happy new year to everybody!

For what it's worth I think the current membership policy is fine.

I guess I speak for the other active members who has not posted a response on this thread!

Happy New Year to all users...IMHO, the machine is starting to eat itself...why not divorce the FTP from the forum and be done with it...perhaps the forum will become a place to freely share info without having big brother suspiciously vet every post as if users were always attempting to circumvent needless rulez...but then again, there wouldn't be much use for overseers...power plays...blah.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight!

n0iTaL

The search restriction is too severe to novices.
I heard of "ExeTools.com" for a long time, but the forum closed the registration at that time. Today I am searching something and Google led me to a post of the forum, and I just found that the forum allows registrations again.
So, in my opinion, those numbers of posts are a large knowledgebase to users like me. Not to search is a pain to me, because that means I have to browse the boards screen by screen.
By the way, the periodical password changing is another pain to me, I think.

Nothing against newbie's
 

I have nothing against newbies or leechers or whatevers,
but i agree with JMI "THE BOSS IS ALWAYS RIGHT"

This is probably the most common method of password hacking.

Rather than write it down or save it using a password saving program, use something you will remember.

I recommend 8 minimum to 20 Charaters maximum

Use common sayings like your pets name(s) Mixed with numbers such as your phone number area code or prefix, zip code, member number, and-or underscore and dashes, the key is to break up common words with other information, this nearly eliminates the possibility that someone could guess you password even by brute force attack, or that you forget it

Such as:

gamma740_open385
Get546Window459Text-A
lima098-_zebra06you
Flush89Instruction78_Cache
spot-8_wilbur

There are endless possibilities, the key is to structure your password so its easy to remember.

D-Jester:

The general rule of password "hacking" is that people generally leave their password in some "unsecure" location, like on a sticky attached to their monitor or under their keyboard. The premise of my comment was that they keep it in some "semi-secure" location. The only problem with your suggestion is quantity. I personally have at least 25 different passwords which I frequently use, and while it is fairly easy to remember one or two or even seven or eight, it becomes more and more complex and the numbers of them grow. It would be extremely dangerous to use the "same" password for more than one reasonably critical use.

Regards,

I don't think Aaron's out of line in any way.. :D
I belong to many other forums and they place similar restrictions on new users as well..

what happens if you post more than allowed
 

what happens when you post more than allowed compared to your registration-status? I noticed my reply-post didnt came up as it should and havent for hours (a reply to windasm danger post in generel). Does this post get 'posted' after some time has passed or is this just lost? (If the post get deleted without the users knowledge, this would just course frustration to the users).

And what do I do, count the hours when I'm allowed to post again?

(I even dont know if this post is gonna appear)

Why not only allow the FTP for senior-members or some like those who have posted and been registered for a long time (like 6month). There are users who like to discuss and dont care about the FTP (I am one of those).

Posts from new members go to a "Moderation Que" awaiting either Aaron's or my review before they are "visible" on the Forums. We are not here "all" the time and, therefore, sometimes they take a while to appear. Sometimes they are simply deleted "before" they can appear. Sometimes they are posted and "then" disappear.

Regards

The different members classes are those done automatic or also "judged" by Aaron or JMI, because i noticed people with 11 post who are trial member and people with 15+ post "still" are new member etc.

Would`nt it be handy if new members could send a pm to site admins/owners if they have a question? (maybe it aint enable 4 new members because the admins would get to much pm`s?)

For instance i wanted to know how strict the ftp upload rules are, it says programming/hacking apps only, but some apps are`nt really programming/hacking apps but could be very usefull, apps like: VMWare_Workstation_V4.5.2_MULTIOS-BiN
But i dont have pm rights 2 ask if they are allowed and i dont wanna fill ftp with unwanted/unneeded stuff ofcourse.

"After a New Member has been a member for 7 days and has 7 Posts, they are eligible for promotion to "Trial Member."

Usergroup "Trial Member" have limited rights. They may only create 3 Threads and 3 Posts within a 24 hour period. "Trial Members" may search and upload and download attachments."

Is this still the current policy?.

Can I also express my frustration at the 'posting delay', several times now I've answered threads only to find that when my reply finally is moderated, the thread has moved on or someone else has answered the question already, it makes some thread flows very disjointed.

I know you guys are busy folks and I understand the reasons why you moderate in this manner (hence why I'm not asking you to consider some other approach to prevent abuse, since I'm betting you've looked at all the options anyway), however, is there any possibility you can appoint some extra 'post moderators' just so posts don't take 8hrs or more to appear.

Regards

CrackZ.

While my posts may or may not turn up eventually, is what it is!
I think think the initiative is good, there's alot of sites with.. uhm..submaximal content, so some quality-control is in order, wich in turn may motivate the 'dedication' of new users....

Why search and atachment download options are disabled?
This make newbies can't learn anything, nor search a tutorial or download it if they can find it.

I think restrictions should be hard to be a Member,but we sould be able to discuss other user's atachments.

My biggest problem with the current rules is not being able to search the board. All it does is make it harder to find topics and causes duplicate questions to appear.

Reviews of posts are good before they appear on the board. I assume it is only for new members? Moderation of every groups posts would be excessive.

I'm quite against frequent changing of password every 30days since I had a hard time getting my password resetted due to a glitch in the "Password Retriever Email server".

But if Aaron is firm to implement this, maybe he need to ensure that timezone of the forum and his email server are correctly in order not to cause unnecessary hiccup again.

I can be quite sure that the "I have forgotten my password" link to become very useful
:P

my 2cents

Hi
I don't know here is for asking this question or not,But I want to know is there
any other changes in an senior account with junior account except their titles? :rolleyes:

sincerely yours

I haven't looked at all the details of the options settings in vBulletin for a while, but I believe that there is no difference until one gets to VIP status. I haven't reviewed VIP privileges recently either, so Aaron may have changed them, but generally the major difference is that there is a "VIP only" Forum, but is does not have a lot of posts. Most things posted by VIPs are found in the general Forums. Aaron may have given them additional right to the ftp, but I'd have checked that recently either.

Regards,