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Author | Topic: What Happened to Politicus Maximus? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Admin Director Posts: 12998 From: EvC Forum Joined: Member Rating: 2.3 |
This thread could also be titled, "Why Politicus Maximus was not revived after the hacker break-in."
The hackers were able to break in because dBoard software had no security features whatsoever. Making the software secure was on my list of things to do before taking the software commercial, but I hadn't gotten to it yet. So the hackers broke in and gave me a crash course on site security. Thanks to the hackers (and I mean that sincerely - they found security holes I never would have thought to plug), this site's software is now very secure, but unfortunately Politicus Maximus was a casualty. The site still exists, but I disabled it because it has the same insecure version of the software that caused so many security problems here at EvC Forum. One could reasonably argue that the odds that hackers are going to take any interest in Politicus Maximus is miniscule, but the same was true of EvC Forum. The only reason they came here was because Crashfrog had pissed them off debating abortion at some other site, and so they poked around the web for other websites Crash was using, found this one, broke in, stole his password, discovered he was using a different password at the other site, and so they decided to have some fun here. The reason I can't reactivate Politicus Maximus in its current state is because it wouldn't be just Politicus Maximus at risk but the entire server. The security holes are big enough to allow hackers to take over the entire server. I can't take that risk. Politicus Maximus could be reactivated, but there are a couple things I should explain. First, and I hope this isn't terrible news to anyone, all the old discussions and member registrations are gone. I'm sorry, but I wasn't performing backups on Politicus Maximus. All the images live on, though, since images are not kept in the database. And second, Politicus Maximus can only be revived with a new version of the software. The old version is too risky. There are a few ways to go with updating the Politicus Maximus dBoard software:
Edited by Admin, : Remove redundant signature.
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Phat Member Posts: 18262 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.1 |
Admin writes: The templated version will be highly configurable. Will EvC Forum also have a templated version?
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Admin Director Posts: 12998 From: EvC Forum Joined: Member Rating: 2.3 |
Phat writes: Will EvC Forum also have a templated version? Yes, of course. Once I have it working and debugged then I'll be upgrading EvC Forum to the templated version, which will be dBoard 5.0. Members will be able to select from among multiple styles, although the ones initially available will only change the color theme and not the layout.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
First, and I hope this isn't terrible news to anyone, all the old discussions and member registrations are gone.
I suspected that. In my opinion, there wasn't much there (in the way of discussions) anyway.
And second, Politicus Maximus can only be revived with a new version of the software.
I take that as a given. The significant question, I think, is whether it should be revived. I'll start a new post (but still in this thread) for that.Fundamentalism - the anti-American, anti-Christian branch of American Christianity
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Admin Director Posts: 12998 From: EvC Forum Joined: Member Rating: 2.3 |
Hi Nwr,
I should have referenced this Message from Perdition:
Perdition writes: Speaking of Politicus Maximus...I'd be willing to work on it some more if Percy wants to contact me to get it restarted...and if there is any interest among the posters here to have it restarted.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1
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This is, of course, opinion. It is based on my previous participation in PM prior to its problems.
The original incarnation of PM was, in my opinion, a failure. Unless a new version can do better, then it is probably not worth the effort. It was a failure, in the sense that participants never reached a critical mass and discussion rarely got as hot as political discussions can do. It was a failure because there was more political discussion in the Coffee Room at evc than in PM. I'm inclined to think that EvC members are mostly there for the science discussion, or in some cases for the theology discussions. They see the political discussions in the Coffee Room as a kind of relaxation break from their main interest. If PM is to be successful independent of EvC, then it needs an independent membership. Perhaps the 2012 campaign season is the time to try it, if that is the aim. If the main goal of PM is to keep the politics out of EvC, then I think you would need to force that. You would need to automatically add active EvC members to PM membership, and have EvC moderators reject political threads or move them to PM (if that could be made possible). My own opinion - PM was an interesting experiment, but it is probably not worth reviving.Fundamentalism - the anti-American, anti-Christian branch of American Christianity
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hooah212002 Member (Idle past 801 days) Posts: 3193 Joined: |
To add to what nwr says, I would suggest (provided PM is your brainchild, Percy) making PM a direct corollary to EvC. Basically, make it a seamless transition from one site to the other for political discussion. I, for one, post in political topics here and not elsewhere because of the level of expected discourse given the nature of EvC. I see this site as somewhere where "adult" conversation is, for the most part, expected. Yes, I am a very bad example of this with my propensity for profane language and the fact that I am nowhere near as edumacated as most of you, but it is a level I strive for. Conversely, the few times I visited PM, it felt disjointed. It didn't feel as though there would be any semblance of valid discourse.
That's just my 2 pesos, take it with a grain of salt.Put the FSM back in Chrifsmas
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Dr Adequate Member (Idle past 284 days) Posts: 16113 Joined:
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Out of interest ... how did EvC get started? How, indeed, does any forum get started? Why would anyone want to join a forum that doesn't have any members?
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Percy Member Posts: 22392 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
See
EvC Forum: About This Site
.
--Percy
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Dr Adequate Member (Idle past 284 days) Posts: 16113 Joined: |
Thanks. By the way, the pages:
Reference LibraryReligion in the News Science in the News Creation/Evolution Glossary Geology Glossary Discussion Boards About This Site Site Map ... don't have the logo ...
... and also the little yellow and black EvC thing on the browser bar isn't there.
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Percy Member Posts: 22392 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
Yeah, I know. And you're volunteering to fix this?
--Percy
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Perdition Member (Idle past 3238 days) Posts: 1593 From: Wisconsin Joined: |
Conversely, the few times I visited PM, it felt disjointed. It didn't feel as though there would be any semblance of valid discourse. I agree with you. I viewed PM as a work in progress. My initial goal was to set up some sort of structure that made sense to me. Once we got some people posting there regularly, and maybe even drawing some new blood instead of purely old EvCers, I'd start modifying as needed: adding moderators, articulating necessary rules, adding or deleting fora. Unfortunately, as has been said, we didn't get a huge population of posters. I partially attribute that to PM's quick demise at the hand of the hackers, and partially to the overwhelming success of this site. Whenever I visit other fora, I subconsciously compare them to EvC and find them lacking. Not only is the dBoard software great (and PM was able to use this) the regular contributors here are awesome, and it takes time to build a population like that. Strating from scratch is difficult at best.
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Dr Adequate Member (Idle past 284 days) Posts: 16113 Joined:
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I think the problem is that you can't start with a forum that needs people, you have to start with people who need a forum.
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Perdition Member (Idle past 3238 days) Posts: 1593 From: Wisconsin Joined: |
I think the problem is that you can't start with a forum that needs people, you have to start with people who need a forum. I agree, which is why I said I'd be willing to work on a restarted PM if the posters here desired it. If they don't, then I don't see a reason to restart it.
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Percy Member Posts: 22392 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
You might want to start with a more controversial site name - Democrats versus Republicans, for example, or Liberals versus Conservatives, or Political Revolution, or Revolutionary Politics, or Citizens in Revolt, or 99% versus 1%, etc.
EvC Forum was a dud for its first year and I used the time to build content, which I don't think I need now. Wikipedia, Firefox, Chrome, etc., didn't exist in 2001. --Percy
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