I am about to reveal some information about what has transpired recently, that we have not previously exposed and use that as a basis to kick off this discussion.

 

Over the last six to eight months, AVSIM has been exposed to numerous spam and DDOS attacks against our forum server. In more than one instance we have been able to identify the users from which these attacks are emanating from and almost to a man, were users who we had banned. As recently as Thursday the 27th of June, we suffered an attack from the same IP's that a well known and now banned user logged in to the forums from. That was stupid! All those previous issues with slow load times, outages, "we're updating the system" notices, etc.? Ninety plus percent of those resulted from us battling those that would deny you access for their own selfish agendas. I want to say that again; THOSE THAT WOULD DENY YOU ACCESS FOR THEIR OWN SELFISH AGENDAS!

 

These attempts have come from primarily the UK, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

 

When we caught a British user who was attempting to hack into our system, and showed him not only his IP strings, but his location, his business and other details resulting from our forensics, he immediately acknowledged his attempts and begged us not to public expose him and he promised never to do the same.

 

As a result, we learned a valuable lesson and one that we have been hesitant to put into action; that is, when we are subjected to this kind of behavior (and abuse) and we can identify the guilty, that we publicly expose them to the community and let the chips fall where they may.

 

We have over 106,000 members of the AVSIM community today, and occasionally an idiot will pop up who doesn't have to live by  the rules, considers themselves entitled beyond compare, and doesn't give a fig for the other 106,000 plus users and their access to this community. Would you want to know the details of people who try to deprive you of access here?

Absolutley. If these guys are big enough to have ago, then their big enough to face the consquenses. I have little if any sympathy for morons who feel wronged for whatever reason and decide to get revenge, ruining things for the rest of us.

 

Name and shame.

This announcement should work if it gets the hackers' attention.

 

Any ideas/ways/means to increase their awareness of this thread/post?

Absolutley. If these guys (...)

 

 

Jess:

 

There may also be girls among them.  

Post a couple of the really bad ones, then any more after this announcement.  They'll get the message.  Consider your liability if you're wrong once.

We haven't yet decided to do this, but if we do, we're going to give an "amnesty" to the prior culprits / idiots and start from the time we decide to go forward with the wall, if we decide to go forward with it.

Don't be daft olli, everyone knows girls don't play video games. Lol

 

 

Consider your liability if you're wrong once

 

If we place users on a Wall of Shame, we will provide evidence and I can assure you that they would have facts before them to substantiate our placement of them on the wall.

My own personal thought would be follow the example described with British 'user'. Confront the individual once and only once in private. If there should ever be a second instance by the same individual then by all means nail them to the wall of shame for all to witness and know them for the kind of person they are. The exception to the would be if someone caused serious problems or responded in a uncooperative way upon the first warning. In that case, fire all guns at once! Let the punishment fit the intent of the crime so to speak.

 

I have no sympathy or respect for that kind of malicious behavior. I don't understand their desire to rain on the parade. I do however, understand that they are of very poor character.

 

Best regards to all,

Mel

My own personal thought would be follow the example described with British 'user'. Confront the individual once and only once in private. If there should ever be a second instance by the same individual then by all means nail them to the wall of shame for all to witness and know them for the kind of person they are. The exception to the would be if someone caused serious problems or responded in a uncooperative way upon the first warning. In that case, fire all guns at once! Let the punishment fit the intent of the crime so to speak.

Our approach would always be to warn them with sufficient evidence to backup our accusations. If that did not get their attention and appropriate response then we would nail them to the wall, so to speak.

With all due respect Mel 'confronting the individual once and only in private' is pointless. These 'guys' KNOW they are doing wrong right off the bat! If you catch 'em, you nail 'em!

 

That's my basic philosophy on all wrong doers. We, as a society are too bloody lenient. 

With all due respect Mel 'confronting the individual once and only in private' is pointless. These 'guys' KNOW they are doing wrong right off the bat! If you catch 'em, you nail 'em!

 

That's my basic philosophy on all wrong doers. We, as a society are too bloody lenient. 

I can't argue that Ron. However, if we were ever sued, I would want to be able to say that we gave the person the opportunity to cease their attacks or whatever before we publicly exposed their activity.

My first thought was yes absolutely let us know who they are.

 

Then I realised that if you did name and shame it might have a successful result against people with something to lose such as, professionals, self-employed or members of public service. Let’s call these “soft-core” people with a grudge against AVSIM

 

Now there is the other side, the “hard-core” people with a grudge that will see a wall of shame as a badge of honour. These people will seek help online to achieve this and AVSIM might be targeted by folk who would never even knew the site existed up to this point.

 

It is a hard call to make,

 

But thank you Tom and the staff for your perseverance looking into these matters

With all due respect Mel 'confronting the individual once and only in private' is pointless. These 'guys' KNOW they are doing wrong right off the bat! If you catch 'em, you nail 'em!

 

That's my basic philosophy on all wrong doers. We, as a society are too bloody lenient. 

 

 

 

I must say that I lean heavily in favor of your point and attitude, except to differ in that:

 

 

 

I can't argue that Ron. However, if we were ever sued, I would want to be able to say that we gave the person the opportunity to cease their attacks or whatever before we publicly exposed their activity.

 

As being the wiser choice, not necessarily the most satisfying one. I agree 100% with your last sentence. 

 

Regards,

Mel

Wall of Shame +1 from this user.

 

 

Sent from my Apple communications device.

Why give them a free shot at you first? You are just going to have those extra issues to deal with if they know all that will happen is a warning. If you want it to hurt start with the first offense. I understand the idea behind it, but if the policy is put out in a way that is hard to miss would that not accomplish the same thing?