VOD Subscription eMail ???????????

[julesandtash]

If VOD is still around this time next year I will be very surprised.
It has been dying a slow death since the last BBB with progressively less posts. Sometimes the 'todays posts' tab doesn't even fill a page.

I think the whole thing needs a decent re-vamp if it is going to keep going

[julianf]

I think its unfortunate that Paddy seems reluctant to communicate the issues he is having with the forum itself.

On the one hand its run like a charity, asking for 'voluntary' donations, but, on the other hand, its run like a secret business venture.

Id like to see the forum survive -  I think most of us here have probably made donations in the past, and I, personally, would do again, but only if i actually thought it would make a difference...

[petep900]

Lot of work in the background over on VOD

After a stern talking to Paddy has given some Mods just about total access.

The situations are being addressed

Paddy also mentioned he is going to use real live cash to get
someone to trawl the membership database etc and clean the thing up.

Before you all ask - it ain't me - I'm working on it for nowt as usual

[therecklessengineer]

Lot of work in the background over on VOD

After a stern talking to Paddy has given some Mods just about total access.

The situations are being addressed

Paddy also mentioned he is going to use real live cash to get
someone to trawl the membership database etc and clean the thing up.

Before you all ask - it ain't me - I'm working on it for nowt as usual

I've done this several times over the course of VODs existance. It takes all of 10 minutes - and 5 of that was googling the SQL code and backing up the database.

[Tony]

What form of optimisation does he have in mind?

Purging old users with zero posts?

[petep900]

starting off with any members that have not posted since 2009 and 0 post members,
although this are being manually checked before deletion


therecklessengineer
I am aware of backing up etc and doing it that way but can't see how I can target groups of members that way
The membership database is a mess and membership is wide open to spammers via hotmail, yahoo etc.

[therecklessengineer]

As far as I can recall, you apply a filter to the members table by post count, click select all, then delete!

Likewise for all members who's last post date stamp < date stamp for 31st December 2009.

It can be done from inside the forum software by using SQL commands - but I always preferred to use the myphpadmin page.

[julianf]

Im slightly confused - how is purging old users going to control bandwidth?

[petep900]

Im slightly confused - how is purging old users going to control bandwidth?

It's part of a bigger plan

Get rid of the waste of space  and then tune the thing up

Tighten down registration, links etc

Paddy is also looking into the Amazon Problem

Purging users on it's own will not decrease bandwidth

Like I said the thing is a mess

[1958steveflying]

Im slightly confused - how is purging old users going to control bandwidth?

It's part of a bigger plan

Get rid of the waste of space  and then tune the thing up

Tighten down registration, links etc

Paddy is also looking into the Amazon Problem

Purging users on it's own will not decrease bandwidth

Like I said the thing is a mess

Pete why is he so hell bent on not moving to a cheaper server with more bandwidth ?

[petep900]

Im slightly confused - how is purging old users going to control bandwidth?

It's part of a bigger plan

Get rid of the waste of space  and then tune the thing up

Tighten down registration, links etc

Paddy is also looking into the Amazon Problem

Purging users on it's own will not decrease bandwidth

Like I said the thing is a mess

Pete why is he so hell bent on not moving to a cheaper server with more bandwidth ?

Not a bloody clue

But I told him he is an idiot for not moving it or even splitting it off onto it's own url

The package he has is terrible

[McDuff]

I have just returned from my regular work trip (in the land of snow) and now I have access I was amazed at the restricted opening times. I hope this improves as the site has been a great learning curve of knowledge and until recently very friendly

[knighty]

I still don't understand how/why the forum is using so much bandwith ?

I'd be surprised if the whole database is more than a few gigs ?

[CHUNDER]

I have only this to say VOD is a private forum we tend to forget this Paddys choice of hosting is his.
He is happy with the hosts they  reduced the cost  significantly about three months ago .
As for the software package its definitely not cutting edge but he is used to it and understands it a little .
He fears using another package that may go tits up on him .
As for these latest attacks I am not in the privelidged position of knowing how they came about .
Weather they could have been avoided or not .

As for a subscription Email I have not received one but it has crossed my mind that it may not be of paddys doing
Unfortunately sites being hacked is not a new phenomenom and the age of the software pakeage is irelavant in this respect .
What one has to ask is it just a random attack by internet nerds who get a kick out of sutch behaviour
Or is it a deliberate attack on the home brewing community and if so who would wish the forum ILL .

Agri or one of their competitors or a dis chufed member or former member .
For my money I wiuld put it on a nerd who thinks its fun to frig with forums because they can .

[Tony]

Unfortunately sites being hacked is not a new phenomenom and the age of the software pakeage is irelavant in this respect .

Actually, it's very relevant.  Keeping up to date ensures known vulnerabilities are closed and thus minimises risk.

I don't know why everyone thinks the VOD software is out of date - it isn't - it was updated quite recently.

What one has to ask is it just a random attack by internet nerds who get a kick out of sutch behaviour
Or is it a deliberate attack on the home brewing community and if so who would wish the forum ILL .

Agri or one of their competitors or a dis chufed member or former member .
For my money I wiuld put it on a nerd who thinks its fun to frig with forums because they can .

In the list of high usage IPs that paddy posted, the top one also browsed here and was using software to download content for offline browsing.  It was someone in the UK, no doubt with no ill intentions but an interest in bio.

The quantity of data used was pretty minimal by the standards of most busy sites, but the hosting paddy uses is rather limited so it became a problem.

Can't comment on the other IPs and how they used bandwidth as I don't have access to the logs but if it was a deliberate attack it certainly wouldn't be below the level of the primary consumer!

So it is hard to attribute malicious actions to what has happened.