I'm convinced...now more than ever

originally posted by: KKLOCO
The reason I bring this back up is - look at the copyright at the bottom of this page. It says 2024. How is that possible, if no one has been in on the back end, since last year?

That's probably done in code by adding the current year.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: KKLOCO
The reason I bring this back up is - look at the copyright at the bottom of this page. It says 2024. How is that possible, if no one has been in on the back end, since last year?

That's probably done in code by adding the current year.

Yes, that’s exactly my point. I thought no one has been into the back end since June of last year? So how does he copyright some how get changed to 2024?

a reply to: KKLOCO
a reply to: kwaka

This is still where we are at:
What happened, what we know, what we don't know

originally posted by: ksihkahe
I had no idea that you saw the backend.

I did not.

Last I knew it was a crash and entirely broken until somebody fixed it. It wasn't working and the pw reset failed. Is that not trashed and entirely broken? I assumed they were only speaking to the username and PW portion of the db.

As far as I know, what happened was a hack (or an attempt) in which someone changed all passwords to a specific password and did the same to the recovery emails.

I don't have access to the database, but from how things happened that was my assessment of the situation, based on my personal experience in working with databases.

If somebody messed with the database aside from the person that got access back then that's information that hasn't been presented to me previously. I was led to believe the ultimate issue was a crash/maintenance issue after many different theories about a hack or Darko making some error. It doesn't explain how some of the things I'm mentioning at the end of this reply were changed.

If it was Darko making some error then he could correct it, as database access is independent from forum access. The access to the forum is controlled by the forum code, the access to the database is done by some kind of control panel that usually has a kind of admin interface to work with the database. That's how the database for the forum is set up before the forum can work.

After posting I was reading back through this thread and saw that this account was discussed. It requires a + sign where the space is and it was you that pointed that out. Now that I can view the account none of the other account information matches. I'm not sure why you're saying that a space is a space when you were the one that pointed out that in an URL... a space is not a space, but a +. It's obviously pointing to something when the space is there and it isn't the member page.

A space is a specific character in code or in the database, on an URL is a different case, as URLs allow (or should allow) only a subset of the ASCII characters, with the non-allowed characters needing to be encoded in some way.
In the case of the space, it can be encoded as a "+" or as "%20", but, apparently, the forum code does not decode "%20" to space, only "+".

Were spaces not allowed in account names previously and were enabled by one of the updates? It was discussed when it first happened, but I couldn't tell you where. Seems superfluous at this point though.

Spaces have always been allowed. The name of one of the oldest members, the late William One Sac, has two spaces in it.

If it was the result of somebody messing with the database, that still doesn't explain the applause (which is a mod function not an admin function, no?) or the posts that occured before the registration date.

It explains it because someone messing with the database could easily change the join date.
The applause was given at the time of those two posts on the Mud Pit threads, on April 2023, the real date (apparently) that account was created.

The only person that has been able do things like that previously is the same person that got Djarums and DTOM back in.

It could have been that person (who admitted to having changed the last login date for Darko and another account) or it could have been the person that hacked the database and changed the passwords and recovery emails.

originally posted by: ksihkahe
As I pointed out, shortly after moderation ceases, GoDaddy or whoever is fielding the registration complaints will probably be forced to mothball the site if the owner isn't responding.

IIRC, that is something we had thought would happen.
ATS was in just that position last October.
IIRC nothing like that happened during the Lockout.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
Yes, that’s exactly my point. I thought no one has been into the back end since June of last year? So how does he copyright some how get changed to 2024?

The forum is not done in HTML, it's done in PHP. PHP creates the final HTML that the server sends to the browsers.

The code just needs to have something like:
All content copyright <?php date("Y")>, AboveTopSecret.com

PS: I don't really know PHP, the above may be wrong, but I hope it gives you an idea of what I mean.

a reply to: ArMaP

As far as I know, what happened was a hack (or an attempt) in which someone changed all passwords to a specific password and did the same to the recovery emails.

If the person in control of the MrsDarko account knew what this password is, it is one way they could of kept this account going after the crash.

As for the mod activity, things are hazy. I do remember feeling some hope with some of the things going on at the time that someone still had some limited control. Not enough to stop all the trolls, but some database access to stop the worst of it.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: KKLOCO
Yes, that’s exactly my point. I thought no one has been into the back end since June of last year? So how does he copyright some how get changed to 2024?

The forum is not done in HTML, it's done in PHP. PHP creates the final HTML that the server sends to the browsers.

The code just needs to have something like:
All content copyright <?php date("Y")>, AboveTopSecret.com

PS: I don't really know PHP, the above may be wrong, but I hope it gives you an idea of what I mean.

No, it doesn’t. You have a way of over complicating responses, to very simple questions.

Please answer for us dummies out there:

Does the ATS site have coding capabilities to automatically update the copyright date?

If it does not, then that means that what’s being said is wrong - there is someone altering code on the back end.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
No, it doesn’t. You have a way of over complicating responses, to very simple questions.

Sorry.

Does the ATS site have coding capabilities to automatically update the copyright date?

1 - I do not really know the code of the forum, I have never seen it, so I can only assume what it does based on what I know is possible;
2 - It is possible for the code to include a command that injects the current year inside the HTML code;
3 - Even if not part of the original plan of the changes to the code, anyone that has to change a copyright notice at the start of every year will try to automate the process.

a reply to: ArMaP

Thank you for a somewhat simplification of an answer. Your answer also tells me that you don’t specifically know if the copyright gets automatically updated, year to year.

Which brings us back to original query - who is updating the back end?

I’ll give you more tidbits. My own site was created in 2021, through WordPress. The copyright at the bottom alway reflected 2021 until recently - when I hired someone to do updates. They manually changed the copyright to 2024.

Someone is updating on the back end. I don’t believe ATS’ ancient coding system has an auto update for copyrights.

Where are you, SO? You can squash this conversation with your input.!

a reply to: KKLOCO
www.php.net...

a reply to: KKLOCO

i've been using the php date function to update the copyright dates on my sites since about 2005 ....

i think you're making more of this than is actually the case.

btw, almost every programming language has a date() function.

Everythjng that can be shared has been. We will update a thread if/when new sharable information is made available.


Closed.