Announcement: We're Partly Back

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Thanks to a stellar effort from our volunteer support staff (thank you all!), we're partially back.

Things you should know:

You'll see a new screen when you login. It's OK. It's just AW checking to see if you're a bot.

cloudflare.jpg


We're back but we're still working on things. The server will be a bit slow.

Some members won't have access at all.

* We're being hit really hard by bot nets.

We may have to turn it off occasionally.

We really appreciate your patience.

Please use this thread to report AW issues with posting, etc.

Please don't post them anywhere else; there's just one of me, and I'm already swamped.
 
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Lakey

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Thanks so much for all you folks do. I missed this place and the great discussions I get to read and be a part of here. (Of course I am on deadline this week, so the timing was probably pretty good for me...)

:e2coffee:
 

JJ Litke

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Yay!

Any chance we'll ever find out what the fuck happened? A few days in, I started thinking about hacks and what kind of personal info someone could access through AW.
 

Chris P

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Amazing, all! Great work and so glad we're back.
 

RedRajah

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I wanna blame the RWA, but that's 'cause I already have the tinfoil hats made... ;)
 

MacAllister

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We weren't hacked, I promise. :)

But this one took some serious overtime to solve. Thank you for your patience, everyone!
 

AW Admin

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A few days in, I started thinking about hacks and what kind of personal info someone could access through AW.

Not much. We deliberately don't ask for much; the minimum required by law, frankly.

The email addresses and birthdays are only visible to SuperMods and Admins.

They're hidden by a hash in the database; if you access the database directly, they look like nonsense.
 

MaeZe

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Hooray! Love you all, missed everybody. Hope all you Aussies are safe.

Good thing it was a slow news week. :e2bouncey
 

JJ Litke

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We weren't hacked, I promise. :)

But this one took some serious overtime to solve. Thank you for your patience, everyone!

Okay, whew. It went on long enough that I'd started to feel sure that's what happened.

Not much. We deliberately don't ask for much; the minimum required by law, frankly.

The email addresses and birthdays are only visible to SuperMods and Admins.

They're hidden by a hash in the database; if you access the database directly, they look like nonsense.

Good to know. Passwords were one of the things that I kept thinking about, forgot about birthdays.
 

AW Admin

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Passwords are hashed too; that's not like being encrypted, but it stops the casual browser.

That said, I'm going to remind people:

  • Use a Password Manager
    1Password or Last Pass are both good.
  • If you don't want to rely on software, get a notebook, write down your passwords with the date and put it in a safe place AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER. Like a bookcase.
  • Do Not Reuse Passwords.
  • Anywhere. Ever. At all. Every single password must be unique.
  • Don't use real words. Not in any language. Use a mixture of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Use at least 11 characters. Create a strong password. See Google's advice.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Too long without this site and I'm an Absolute Wreck. Thank you for all you guys do. :)
 

frimble3

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Thank you so much for all your hard work (all of you) and over the holidays, too!
Have to admit, I didn't think 'hacked by criminals' so much as the political threads annoyed someone, who, because they couldn't get into the big government servers, messed with us, just for LULZ.
I have missed you all so much. Especially when I hear stuff on the news, and automatically want to come here for multi-sided international information and interpretation.
 

Stytch

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Thank goodness, I was having withdrawals. Good job, all involved!
 

Maggie Maxwell

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Anyone else hear angels singing?

Oh no, that's just the hard working admins and support team.

Wait no I think I was right the first time.

Thanks everyone for your hard work!
 

be frank

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Yay, we're back! Thanks for all the hard work to get it back up and running!!

And Happy (slightly belated) New Year! :D
 

shortstorymachinist

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Okay, whew. It went on long enough that I'd started to feel sure that's what happened.

I was thinking that too, what with some of the trolls we get around here. Glad to know it wasn't malicious.

Thanks to a stellar effort from our volunteer support staff (thank you all!), we're back.

Thanks so much, hamster boss and company! It's great to be back and I appreciate all the work it took :D
 

MacAllister

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Thank you so much for all your hard work (all of you) and over the holidays, too!
Have to admit, I didn't think 'hacked by criminals' so much as the political threads annoyed someone, who, because they couldn't get into the big government servers, messed with us, just for LULZ.
I have missed you all so much. Especially when I hear stuff on the news, and automatically want to come here for multi-sided international information and interpretation.

That's actually not a bad guess, but probably not just some bored rando looking for lulz.

Specifically, it was a botnet(s) overwhelming the always-adequate-before server defenses. Then hardening our security created some software issues we had to figure out. Thank heavens for the extremely competent IT volunteers who keep this site up.

We're currently examining some more increased security measures, and potentially moving to a different forum software.