COMMENTS ON NEW RULES

[JMI]

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,

[MaRKuS-DJM]

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?

[JMI]

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,

[MaRKuS-DJM]

Originally Posted by JMI

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.

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

[Michel]

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

[JMI]

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,

[Michel]

Perhaps "Novice" should be nice too ?

Regards and greetings to all the staff

[JMI]

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

Regards,

[TmC]

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.

Originally Posted by TmC

... thing i find without any sense... is the password change policy every 30 days. ... I understand that maybe Aaron that is behind the amministration of this board may have reasons that are not clear to me.

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?

Originally Posted by TmC

...behind the amministration of this board may have reasons that are not clear to me. Any Words?

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.

[JMI]

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,

[Eleven]

Originally Posted by JMI

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.

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.

[bgrimm]

Originally Posted by Eleven

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>

[oVERfLOW]

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