Forum open again, but...

[coppercoins]

As we can see the forum is open again. There were corrupt files in the software that were likely corrupted by someone, not something. Access to the user directory was halted to the program, and thus nobody could get on.

Over the past three months or so we have had dozens of requests for membership by porn, poker, and drug sites to join the forum. Whether this was simply a method of spamming their crap on the board or whether it was a geniune attempt to attack the forum I cannot say, but it did get tiring and old, trying to weed out the bad applicants from the good ones.

On top of that, the data for this forum resides on the same server as the data for the rest of the site. Given that, if someone finds a loophole into the back end of the forum data, they have also found a way into the back end of all the coin data and photos we have. I cannot stand for this. This is why I wanted to make sure there was not a security breech before I brought the forum back online.

If, for any reason, I find that this forum is in any way making the rest of the site's data vulnerable to attack, I will remove the forum completely and permanently. The coin data we have here is far more valuable than any amount of interactivity we have...I'm sure all of you can agree with that.

I understand how important it is for all of us to be able to share our experiences and get answers to our questions in an atmosphere like this one. I am with all of you in the knowledge that this forum is one of the integral parts of this web site that makes it tick. If it does come down to removing the forum I will immediately seek alternative solutions - it is not my intent to take away our interaction, but my most important duty and obligation to all of us is to keep the coin data secure and available.

Bottom line is this; one more disabling attack and I will have to pull the plug permanently on the forum and seek interactivity for our members elsewhere. There are a number of sites on the internet set up as forum portholes for people to chat about their topics of choice. That may be our next direction - to have a forum, but not on coppercoins' server.

[pennyhound]

Chuck, that would be a better way to go anyways ... don't you think?

I was wandering why, you haven't gone this route befor, cause we do need these forums, and the site, that way the site itself would not have that problem in the future.

Anyway you go ... I'm sure you will have thought it out, befor hand.

Cheers on all that has happened. (good things only)

And we all do appreciate it all.

[wavysteps2003]

As much as I would hate to see the permanet deletion of this forum, I whole heartedly agree with what Chuck has said. THE INFORMATION contained on this site is the most important part of Chuck's creation and the work accomplished by him and Bob is invaluable.

Hopefully, the hakers will leave the site alone.

Well done Chuck

WAVYSTEPS2003