Starshipmodeler hacked!

QUOTE: [i]b p.s: cmtaylor.. In the time I was there. I never knew of anyone trashing any so called experts work..

I won't go into details but let's just say that a few individuals set themselves up as self-appointed experts on a particular subject (who in fact knew little that hadn't been 'acquired' from other members), and started offering items for sale at prices that seriously undercut a number of professionals. When confronted, the individuals became extremely offensive, to the extent of sending abusive PMs

Well I was unaware of any of that business thankfully, as I didnt have anything to sell! ...As for every day participation, I enjoyed the boards, and like anywhere in life, I had the odd dissagreement with one or two. But it was never malicious in any way... I probably pretend I am an expert. But talk to me long enough, and you will soon learn that I am indeed an idiot!

At the risk of getting myself into trouble.. There was indeed alot advertising, on those boards, both directly, and in-directly.. I have no problem with a review system. But when you have members that are friendly with each other, giving reviews and testimonials in their posts, it becomes a little transparent.. If anything, if people wanted to sell their products, it should have been through the sites shop in order to help fund it!

I also understand that John and Linda had their work cut out for them, and understand that they did their best, but I think it kinda got out of hand for them to police every single thread?

The fact that there were members admiting that they had bought something from someone, and had either never seen it, or have waited years to see what they had already paid for, and no customer service. Should have prompted warnings on the boards, and or an immediate halt to any reference of their products!

People seemed blinded by the fantacy of owning a certain model, that they were prepared to be duped, or even left in the cold in the slim hope of having it!... That should never be the case for anyone, or any board allowing it!

To the friends I made there. Thank you, and we will definately keep in contact. To the people that didnt like me. Oh well.. You can come here now and yell at me!

Chris in Japan

Man, I had a real bad at work I came home to relax and see what the guys are up to on SSM and damm no site... this just wants me to spit nails, how many are registered ? if each of us were to donate $ 10.00 maby this would help John and Linda get this site up and running sooner...Im in who's with me ? Is there an address available ? Karl

I agree that there just seems to be more of a "family" atmosphere here. There are a few egos over at SSM, but as in life you just learn to steer clear of those people. I will miss going there too every day, but I'll live. Maybe we should all contribute to John and Linda. Remember the old saying, "you don't know what you have 'till its gone".

QUOTE: Originally posted by fructose I hope they can recover at least some of the data. There was a lot of information there, and it would be a shame if it was totally unrecoverable.

Over at the Hobby Talk forum Linda posted that none of the old forum was lost. They lost control after the hacker locked them and their moderators out of the forum. They pulled the plug but she suggested that the old forum might be put up breifly for us to download anything we needed to save. She also said the forum would be restored with newer, more secure software. I hate to wait but it's nice to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Here you go starman.
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/store/donate.htm
I'm with you! 10 bucks is nothing compared to all the resources that are available on SSM

QUOTE: [i]Originally posted by Captain_Mills I have the same kind of forum. I wonder if mine is as hackable as his is...

In a word...Yes.

There was an explotation that showed up a coupla weeks ago. All you need to do was spoof the proper URL and you had admin privledges.

QUOTE: ... its better late than never! Welcome...

Thanks for the welcome Chris.
Having only gotten back into modeling again in the last year, I find these online communities very helpful. Starshipmodeler was the first site that I found due to the fact I was building the Star Wars AT-AT as my first venture back into the hobby. Since then I have also done a few armor builds as well, which lead me to the armoramma site. Once I came upon this site though I was thrilled to find one as all encompassing for all genres. I'm glad to finally have landed here.

I have been here less than a year myself, and have loved every minute of it!.. All subjects covered on the one site is just great for me, as I model, or have modeled in every subject covered at one time or another.. I mainly hang out at the Aircraft, Helicopter and Sci Fi sections. But as I am stop starting on a Japanese war ship, I sometimes check in on the ships page!.. Believe me when I say that everyone here is respectfull, generous, and most importantly polite.. You will be made to feel at home..

Chris in Japan

Thanks balta1, I'm making a check out right now for $ 10.00, the great ideas that one finds here is a great asset to our modeling and I'd hate to see it end. Karl

Heh, yeah we do tend to get stuck in the "SciFI is it" rut over at SSM. Somebody ran a poll asking what else they did (maybe that was you), and it was interesting how few folks at SSM do just SciFi models. Not all of them are like me (I'll build almost anythign that catches my eye), but most of people build stuff outside of SciFI.

Heck, there was even an thread started over at ARC about SSM being hacked. It amazes me the breadth of folk who are at SSM.

I'm not saying' all other forums are inferior, it just happens to be my perfered. I also show up here now & again, MascrossWorld, HobbyTalk, and occasionally ARC.

Hey, there you are! I've been looking for the rest of the refugees. :)

The SSM boards will be back soon. None of the data has been lost. It will be converted to the new board if at all possible. In the meantime, we plan to bring the old board back (maybe today but probably another day or two) in read-only mode so that you can get your private messages and any thread info that you can't live without (like maybe where to buy that ugly shirt for the WF party).

After that, the old board will be converted to the new board (looks like vBulletin at this point) and life will go back to normal.

Thanks for the donations, BTW. It helped to know that the money was there for whatever option we chose. We're going with an ISP that has unlimited bandwidth. We've used speakeasy.net for other sites and have been quite happy with them and their support. So moving the boards there makes sense.

See you soon,

Linda

Hi Linda. That's great to hear! It was like a punch in the chest the other morning when I went to the SSM site.

Keep up the great work.!

QUOTE: Originally posted by LindaSmile Hey, there you are! I've been looking for the rest of the refugees. :)

Yeah...we kinda all over the map.

heck, I'm running on three different forums just to keep me happy. Tried to remember what Cap'n Bob's site was, so I could visit it too.

Hi Linda, Welcome to FSM. Thanks for the heads up on the forum. I'm really missing my SM fix.

QUOTE: The SSM boards will be back soon. None of the data has been lost.

Good to hear from you Linda, I will be glad to visit the SSM forum again, even though I'm mostly in to the traction boards I still like the Sci- Fi stuff....trolleys and spaceships woha...that's a strange combo, oh well...it works for me...later. Karl

Starship Modeler is temporarily back up.

http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-bin/phpBB2/index.php

OOOHHHH! Good news at last!

I just hope the FSM forum is secure. I'd be bummed if I didn't have any forum to turn to!

Dave