Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Spriter's Block - A Target Waiting To Happen

Holy shit...so, for fun I thought I'd mosey on over (I haven't moseyed in a while) to the Spriter's Block forums and test out their security. o_O Now, while I do have to give them semi-props for at least relying on cookie detection in conjunction with IP banning...yeah...that's about all they've got. First off, I was able to register a new account with a BACKWATER e-mail addy. Wow, just...WOW! I mean, honestly, if someone owns a domain, hey guess what? Yeah, they can make up an infinite number of e-mail addresses on the fly and they all lead back to one account. *nods* So, if you had ~any~ sense AT ALL you would auto ban any account creation that tried to use a Backwater e-mail addy...but then these kids don't seem too bright and their shit is all cookie cutter to begin with so I suppose maybe they just don't know *HOW* to do that. I mean the idiot owner already point blank stated that he knew fucking shit about coding so that should give you a pretty good idea of where this stain of a board stands.

So, anyway, back to the new account creation. After I created the account it took nearly TWENTY FUCKIN MINUTES for an admin to even notice...with MULTIPLE POSTS. And it took said admin about two minutes to delete all the posts out, which clearly shows that they're doing it all manually by hand and don't have any custom deletion bots...hell I bet they don't even have anything that can delete out all posts from a single user. *sigh* Tsch, tsch, tsch...these kids today. They just don't comprehend the fact that their ability to have web board is *NOT* a right...it's a PRIVILEGE, that those of my standing ALLOW them to have. So if you piss someone like me off...tsch, tsch, tsch...papa spank! ^__^

Given how incredibly pathetic and failing these kids are I think I'll just go with my first idea, of having their host dump their whole web board, rather than waste the good programming of my web bots to drive them all fucking nuts and force them to sit at the computer all day long trying to contend with a regenerative posting bot. Yes, that would be amusing, but they really don't seem to have very many people even using their shit board and, well, if there's no audience...well what's the point?

6 comments:

Mike Monaco said...

Yeah! I'm glad there's somebody out there patrolling these web boards. I mean, since you pretty much own the internet and are the only force that allows it to exist, you really SHOULD have every right to censor anything that goes up on it! Those ungrateful twerps had it coming, what with not recognizing how great you are.

Onideus said...

He, he, he...you greatly misunderstand the intent. It's not about censorship, rather it's about anti-censorship. You see I'm a Netter, a Usenet regular, and on Usenet there's no such thing as banning. Anyone can say anything they want, regardless of whether it makes some dribbling little jackass all butthurt and crying for mommy moderator. And the thing about most of us Netter is that we DESPISE the way you deficient Webbies run your lil chat boards, banning people left and right and attempting to censor everyone's opinion but your own. And as such, when a Netter like myself encounters such a web board and we get banned, well, it becomes necessary to destroy that web board by any means necessary, not for the sake of revenge, but for the sake of teaching the little fucktards that when they try to censor people online there are consequences, consequences that could result in their lil Webbie board being taken away.

Mike Monaco said...

How could I have been so blind! Boy, do I have egg on MY face! I thought for a minute that paying for web space, much like paying for press space, entitled people to certain rights. Now that I see the error of my ways, I'm going to go and sabotage the Journal of Educational Psychology and the APA for not including my original research! What right do they have to exclude my work? Thanks!

Onideus said...

LOL, you best retard on back to the real world I think. That's the problem with so many RLs and Webbies, they want to bring their fuckwitted and backward ideals onto the Internet and attempt to force them upon the existing culture...which quite frankly existed long before little ass hats like yourself even knew that the Internet existed. In fact Usenet itself predates the World Wide Web by over a decade. This is *NOT* the real world, Kiddo, this here is the Internet, and on the Internet the *ONLY* thing that matters is technical knowledge. Knowledge is power as the old cliche goes and no where is it truer than here on the grid. If you want to fight for your web boards existence, by all means, have a go at it.

There are a number of foreign based servers that will be willing to host a site blatantly breaking copyright law and with enough hazing I can probably force you into figuring out how to upgrade the shit security on yer lil stain of a Webbie board to keep me out. At that point you can have *AAALL* the censorship you want...of course, in order to achieve that you're going to have to lock yer board up so tight that it'll be an absolute pain in the ass for *ANYONE* to even post at all...in which case you lose. You lose either way, but either way you'll hopefully come to the realization that censorship, in any form, simply DOES NOT WORK on the Internet. *nods*

Of course, there are some other fun tricks I've been considering. I recently strip mined the entire archive of sprites at the sprite database...and since said sprites aren't actually owned by those that ripped them...well now, what's to stop me from building a replicate site? Oh and, BTW, my web host will only tell me to remove content if they receive an actual DMCA notice FROM the copyright holders themselves, rather than acting preemptively as the hosts in question do.

And of course given that, another fun trick might be to shut all the existing crap down and then to open it up with the stolen, stolen sprites along with a new message board...one that doesn't ban people. LOL So many fun possibilities really. Like when I trashed and burned the SASS message board by finding out RL info about the owner, including his sister "Shelly":
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:KIRs_sister.jpgHe was essentially blackmailed into shutting down his site lest he wanted "Shelly" to be exposed all over the grid and made fun of in all sorts of horribly cruel and nasty ways...of course, in true Internet fashion, that happened anyway to some extent, despite the fact that he shut the site down.

And if you're wondering why I went after that particular board it was because it was a "volatile" Internet group, which was basically centered around making fun of others in various horrible ways. The problem of course is that those doing the attacking were hypocrites and went against the core codes of trolling/flaming, in that you *NEVER* do to someone what you wouldn't be willing to have done to yourself...and worse. ^__^

Mike Monaco said...

Gee, I had no idea that the right to control content to a certain degree on space that one pays for was such a backwards, Victorian concept. Now that I think it, the entire internet would be a MUCH better place if all these message boards just threw out all their rules about posting and their censorship and banning policies and just switched to the format that /b/ takes! I mean, culture and norms are totally static things on the internet, right? Just like the good ol' constitution of the U.S. of A., completely flexible and written in stone, never adapting to the changes that occur in the internet.

I was also unaware that the internet existed on some plane of existence that was TOTALLY separate from the world that we live in where there is a constantly evolving culture with constantly changing social norms and rules. Could you enlighten me a little bit more on that?

By the way, I am making no claims as to fighting for or against this web board or any copyright law: I'm just talking about principle. I'm on your side, too! I mean, like I said, the entire internet would be MUCH better if there were no posting guidelines and if nobody could get banned for saying anything ever! Intellectual discussion would skyrocket and people would be exposed to new things all of the time; all of them good, too! It'd be like a second renaissance, except with LOLcats instead of free inquiry.

Also, I'm a little bit confused: what would you personally have to gain from any of these ultra cool tricks that you have up your sleeve? I was also not aware that poking fun at people equated to attempting to shut down other websites and message boards: I'll keep that in mind the next time I visit Something Awful, so that I can shut those neckbeards down for good!

Onideus said...

> Gee, I had no idea that the right to control
> content to a certain degree on space that
> one pays for was such a backwards,
> Victorian concept.

As I said, if you don't like it, you best educate yourself proper. The Internet is a lot like the old west...and showing up online without any technical knowledge is like taking a knife to a gun fight...stupid, *REAL* stupid...and don't be all indignant and frustrated when your stupid ass gets shot. Because that's a sure sign that you never the fuck should have been on the grid in the first place...or at the very least shouldn't have been trying to run a web site.

> Now that I think it, the entire internet would be
> a MUCH better place if all these message boards
> just threw out all their rules about posting and
> their censorship and banning policies and just
> switched to the format that /b/ takes!

Um...what are you talking about? /b/ bans people just as much as any other webtard filled message board. Just because they use anon posting because they're scared little pussies doesn't mean that they don't ban at the IP level every time their precious little "rules" get upset. The *ONLY* place online that is truly open and without rules is Usenet...because no one can ever own Usenet. The alt hierarchy was created for the sole purpose of creating a FREE, unrestricted medium of online communication...and it was the first, *LONG* before the world wide waste ever the fuck even came into existence.

> I mean, culture and norms are totally static things
> on the internet, right? Just like the good ol'
> constitution of the U.S. of A., completely flexible
> and written in stone, never adapting to the
> changes that occur in the internet.

The culture of the Internet is a result of the construct itself, anything else is merely a delusion waiting to be ripped apart by some big bad. As I said, the *ONLY* thing that matters here is technical knowledge...no "rule"...no "law"...no prissy little whining, finger pointing idiocy.

> I was also unaware that the internet existed on
> some plane of existence that was TOTALLY
> separate from the world that we live in where
> there is a constantly evolving culture with
> constantly changing social norms and rules.
> Could you enlighten me a little bit more on that?

The Internet (do note the capitalization), is a largely text-only medium. Within such a medium you lose upwards of 90% of communication. Things like body language, gestures, tone, facial expressions, even body odors, which all affect how we perceive and communicate in the real world are lost within this environment. Because of that incredible loss you can *NEVER* take anything online with any true degree of seriousness. You can *NEVER* be certain that what you are seeing online is real in any sense of the word. Anyone can claim anything online and even emerging technologies like video communication can be easily edited, staged and manipulated in a whole variety of ways. This is what separates the Internet from the "real world". The real world is "real" in the sense that you can be reasonably certain of what it is that exists and whether or not it's real or fabricated. Online it is absolutely *IMPOSSSIBLE* to tell with reasonable certainty what is and what isn't real. The entire art of trolling in fact revolves completely around that core concept and seeks to manipulate, control and destroy those RLs and Webbies who wander online unaware of the existing culture.

It's rather ironic, in that most of those like yourself believe that trolling is all about being annoyed or having someone who doesn't agree with you...when in fact *REAL* trolling is exactly the opposite. It's your online "friends" that you should be most concerned with. It's *SO* very easy to butter up some sloppy ass n00b.job like yourself and get to be yer "good buddy" on the grid...and of course, over time, you'll be duped into trusting that person without a second thought, believing firmly that there's *NO* way they could possibly be evul or nefarious, what with how they slurped up yer ass so good. *snicker* At that point, it becomes *SO* very easy to use your RL emotions (that never should have been brought online) as fun little play toys.

> By the way, I am making no claims as to fighting
> for or against this web board or any copyright
> law: I'm just talking about principle. I'm on your
> side, too! I mean, like I said, the entire internet
> would be MUCH better if there were no posting
> guidelines and if nobody could get banned for
> saying anything ever! Intellectual discussion
> would skyrocket and people would be exposed
> to new things all of the time; all of them good,
> too! It'd be like a second renaissance, except
> with LOLcats instead of free inquiry.

There are several people, myself included, actively working to make the Web more like Usenet. We believe this can be accomplished via the use of cookie cutter constructs. The web as it exists today is not the Internet that existed a decade ago. It used to be that only those with large amounts of technical knowledge could even create a website, however due to sites like Geocities and Angelfire (some of the first) the era of "cookie cutter Internet" came about. The cookie cutter web boards that were first developed were developed with banning features, which has led us to the backwards state of things. As such, it's believed that if newer, easier, superior, cookie cutter constructs can be created WITHOUT that feature then the Net can be shifted back to its true origins of an open medium of communication.

I myself am working on a fully skinable Flash based construct, 100 times more efficient than existing Webbie boards (that rely on databases for message storage), the construct I'm making stores messages within XML files and the processing which currently is done via PHP server side (eating up tremendous amounts of server resources) will instead be done client side within the Flash construct itself. Basically meaning you'll be able to run a full blown message board even on some $5 a month hosting jobbie.

Here are the current test prototypes:


http://www.backwater-productions.net/_test_platform/forum_entry_load/

http://www.backwater-productions.net/_test_platform/Forum_Template/

Although the construct won't have banning it will have what Usenet has...blinders, or filters, that can be setup to block certain posters messages from your personal view of the construct. Rather than censor others you're basically allowed to censor YOURSELF and to prevent yourself from seeing posts that upset you in some way.

> Also, I'm a little bit confused: what would you
> personally have to gain from any of these ultra
> cool tricks that you have up your sleeve?

Fun, mostly. It's highly entertaining to disrupt the preconceived notions of n00b jobs regarding the Internet and the more *SRS* their Internets business is, the greater the entertainment in breaking them.

> I was also not aware that poking fun at people
> equated to attempting to shut down other
> websites and message boards: I'll keep that in
> mind the next time I visit Something Awful, so
> that I can shut those neckbeards down for
> good!

If you can get their websites and/or message boards shut down, then that's all apart of the game. It's not about seeking revenge or vengeance though. If that's your drive then you clearly don't understand what the Internet is all about...you take it seriously. And if you take the Internet seriously...then you can be broken, quite horribly in many cases. SA is actually one of the better Webbie based volatile froups, mostly in that their regs will often poke fun of themselves and don't try and hide the fact that they're usually not much better than those they make fun of. Other places, like PoE (Portal of Evil) and Special ED (Encyclopedia Dramatica) are quite infested with massive levels of hypocrisy and seek to cover up their shame as often as possible, which makes them much better targets for trolls and online performance artists like myself.

Once again though, you should *NEVER* do to someone what you wouldn't be willing to have done to yourself. Even I've had my sites under attack and a few years ago even switched to a different provider because of those attacks in order to better protect my sites. Again, those with the most intellect and technical knowledge are those that "win" online.