Happy 2008 everyone!
Apologies for the forum downtime, but a bunch of pretty scary security issues arose shortly before new years and, rather than trying to fix them all in a mad rush, I thought it best to take a deep breath, take my time and (try to) do it properly.
I also wanted to take some time out to have a bit of a think about the future of the site in general.
While I like this site and have generally enjoyed creating and maintaining it (with heaps of help from Simon Harrison) it has become quite a drain on my time recently due mostly to security issues. I have learned a lot about this side of things lately (and even find it perversely kind of interesting) but I still have a lot more to learn and now realize that security is kind of an ongoing thing.
One option would be to turn things over to a professional web developer/designer. These guys are expensive though, so doing this would also likely mean simplifying the site, possibly to static home/shop/etc pages and an off-the-shelf public forum, with product updates served via a simple BUID based login system.
This would simplify my life a lot and probably be the sanest/most professional thing to do, but hey, since when have I ever been accused of being either!
I still have a ton of cool ideas for web based stuff I'd like to do (way) in the future, probably in the shape of a brand new site, so for now anyway I'd like to keep my hand in.
Therefore, the site will remain as it is for the immediate future. We've plugged all security holes we know of and will continue to chase up issues as they arise, as no doubt they will. Gallery submit is still disabled as I'm waiting for someone to 'audit' my changes before going live, but it should be back soon.
Good luck with everyone's projects for 2008!
Apologies for the forum downtime, but a bunch of pretty scary security issues arose shortly before new years and, rather than trying to fix them all in a mad rush, I thought it best to take a deep breath, take my time and (try to) do it properly.
I also wanted to take some time out to have a bit of a think about the future of the site in general.
While I like this site and have generally enjoyed creating and maintaining it (with heaps of help from Simon Harrison) it has become quite a drain on my time recently due mostly to security issues. I have learned a lot about this side of things lately (and even find it perversely kind of interesting) but I still have a lot more to learn and now realize that security is kind of an ongoing thing.
One option would be to turn things over to a professional web developer/designer. These guys are expensive though, so doing this would also likely mean simplifying the site, possibly to static home/shop/etc pages and an off-the-shelf public forum, with product updates served via a simple BUID based login system.
This would simplify my life a lot and probably be the sanest/most professional thing to do, but hey, since when have I ever been accused of being either!
I still have a ton of cool ideas for web based stuff I'd like to do (way) in the future, probably in the shape of a brand new site, so for now anyway I'd like to keep my hand in.
Therefore, the site will remain as it is for the immediate future. We've plugged all security holes we know of and will continue to chase up issues as they arise, as no doubt they will. Gallery submit is still disabled as I'm waiting for someone to 'audit' my changes before going live, but it should be back soon.
Good luck with everyone's projects for 2008!