OpLan

[chiggerbit]

I just saw OpLan's claim that someone had monkeyed with his comment, over in the lounge. You handled it well, sunny.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd add this comment that caught my eye from our (moderator) Shawnna thread to all the other board wonkiness.

Jeff wrote:

sunny wrote:

I don't know what happened with her account. I don't think I have the tools to do that, I've never tried. I wouldn't be surprised if she did it herself.


I know, it was very odd. Only an admin can delete or suspend an account, so unless she somehow hacked in it was a oddly-timed glitch in the matrix.

Like you, I assume it was just Shawnna theatrics. But on the off-chance....

[sunny]

chig, this issue is now being discussed in the Aaron Russo thread in General Discussion.

This shit just got on my nerves, excuse my language.

Please weigh in, Jeff.

[sunny]

I just received the following from et in Arcadia ego:

sunny wrote:
So et, what do you think has happened in the case of OpLan?


A combination of drunkenness and possibly someone seeing an opportunity to have some fun at his expense by using forum permissions they're not supposed to have.

I don't believe you, or any of the other mods have anything to do with this. The forum buggery points to someone with Admin permissions, for example, when it was observed that people could edit each other's posts, this is a forum attribute that can be assigned to all members via the Admin Control Panel, not by any moderators. Its suggestive that when these editing options appeared a couple weeks ago, that someone was goofing with the forum settings and then set them back in subtle play.

Unfortunately, the only way to find who has permissions they shouldn't is by doing a tasky one by one check of EVERY forum member. This was the only way we found a hidden admin account on a board similar to RI, but by the time we found it, the asshole had deleted half the forum's posts..

Jeff's in sore need of an update for this forum; this version in particular is vulnerable to what's called a 'cookie exploit'(please do not speak of this on the board, as I don't want to give other mischievous members something to consider). There's at least two versions that have come out since this one was started, and one of them is a major update that will nix just about all this crap, but the account still needs to be located else it will simply carry over.

One way to resolve that, irritating as it is, is establish new accounts and purge the existing accounts when a new board is started. That's a job as well, BUT, if Jeff upgrades to phpBB, when he logs on to the Admin Control Panel, there's an Admin Log right there on the panel that displays _any_ administrative activities, so he'd be able to spot someone very easily.

Please post this PM into the Moderator's Section for the others to read.

I don't want to push the notion that there's a back-door admin running loose in here or the members will freak out.

Cheers,
Donovan

Here is my reply:

et, thank you so much for your considered reply, it clarifies a lot for me. I think you are exactly right, someone has backdoor admin capabilities, and I will definitely post this to the mod forum.

Thank you again
Sonya

Comments?

[chiggerbit]

et needs to be added back to moderators, if he's willing.

[Jeff]

Thanks for posting that from et, sunny. I've been away from the board for a while and hadn't seen the wonkiness in the russo thread. I've been in contact with et about this, and I'll be upgrading the board in the next few days. In the meantime I'm keeping the database backed up.