Amiga.org
Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga.org site announcements => Topic started by: System on January 15, 2004, 02:03:26 PM
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Thank you all for your patience as of late with the maintenance and upgrades to Amiga.org. Phase 2 of our three-phase plan is about to begin.
Important information follows, please read more
Of the three phases, Phase 1 was to upgrade our hosting system to make it more stable and ready to migrate towards the future. Lots of upgraded server libraries and software. You might have noticed short periods of slowness or downtime while we adjusted the new software. Sorry for any inconvenience. Phase 1 is complete and there have been no substantial reported problems in about 5 days.
Phase 2, which is set to begin in the next day or so brings Amiga.org itself the first real, major upgrade since we began running Xoops in 2001. We currently run a highly customized version of Xoops 1.3.x and we'll be upgrading to 2.0.5.x (or 2.0.6 if we get the chance).
What this means is;
- More features such as nested comments and "individual event notifications", meaning that you can enroll to receive updates -- either by PM or e-mail -- on individual events such as forum or news threads.
- New possibilities such as user blogging (your own personal Amiga.org page), events handling, team work coordination, and more.
- Uniqueness
Xoops 2.x also means that we can alter the site to make it much more personalized and much more unique than the other copycat sites which have sprung up as of late. Our system won't have to look and feel like every other Xoops site out there.
- Improved compatibility with older browsers
The Javascript used natively by Xoops (which, sorry, we can't get rid of) has also been improved and in testing with Amiga browsers, actually seems much more compatible than the Xoops 1.3 Javascript.
Now for the caveats...
Syndication to be replaced with more capable system
The current "syndication" block will be removed from the new system. We don't know yet, but we don't think it's compatible with Xoops 2.x yet. Xoops 2.x comes with it's own RSS feed schema which will be both prominent and more usable.
E-mail forwarding has been permanently disabled. I know for some of you, this is a major hassle and I apologize. You will need to change your e-mail addresses on any mailing lists or subscriptions that you currently have.
Essentially speaking, the new server upgrades brought a new control panel which is incompatible with manually managing e-mail forwards (as we had done earlier under the old server software).
The day we started the upgrades (and e-mail forwarding was disrupted) I became instantly aware of several major issues with providing such a free service. First and foremost is the sheer amount of SPAM that was being processed by the server. Even with SpamAssassin loaded, I'm still processing about 20,000 spam messages every day which it doesn't catch.
Even more troubling is the fact that several of you (and I know who you are) have been misusing Amiga.org's free e-mail forwarding to spread keyfiles and other pirated/pornographic materials, placing Amiga.org in very real danger of being permanently shut down due to DMCA and other law violations.
*If* I can find a way to bring Amiga.org's e-mail forwarding back, it will have to be in a manner that is both voluntary by the user and controllable by the administrative staff.
Comments? Constructive suggestions?
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Hope things dont blow up :-o Good luck :-)
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Comments:
1) Thanks for the information, Wayne! Sounds like the site is on its way to some very good upgrades!
2) Permanently ban the people that have been spreading keyfiles and pirated software. Don't even give them a warning.
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I won't miss the mail forwarding but I hope the site design don't change too much. I kinda like it. :-P
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Remember to repair the damages after the smoke has disappeared :)
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ugh, lots of work ahead for me then changing my email address :-( But nevermind, I shouldnt complain as it was a free service. Just means I am going to have to get my arse in gear and sort out my domain and email forwarding which I have payed for but the stupid registrar is really really sh*te.
As for the pirates, ban them outright... theres no excuse for that sort of behaviour and they dont deserve a warning. I certainatly wouldnt warn, just remove. You wouldnt warn your pizza box your going to throw it in the bin would you... and those people are trash just like the pizza box :-) anyway I ramble... must get on.. laters.
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I cant wait for the new site.
:-)
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Thanks for letting us know. Will be looking forward to the new features very soon. :-)
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I'd really like each post to have a post number on it, so you can see what number the last post was before you check the latest posts :-D
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Wouldn't filtering attachements help with the DMCA stuff?
I don't get any spam through AO because I don't post the address publicly. Maybe there could be a new rule about how people use there AO addresses so spam isn't generated at all. Like, no posting it to newsgroups or to porn sites, etc.
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ok i hope AMIGA users is beeing the key to this update and that we wont be forgotten , i for one RUN ONLY AMIGA and i use IBROWSE 2.3, and if amiga.org gets even worse when it comes to compbility , yucky well then i will most likely be telling everyone about this everyday :)
you have hereby been warned :)
anyway lookin forward to see the new design and i wish the team the best of luck with it..
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Suggestions? Make a premium banner system besides the one banner in place. I have heard rumblings of companies wanting to pay for additional banner space :-D
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:-o
Sounds fantastic :-D
Hope it all works ;-)
Sorry for the inconvenience
With the amount of work going on, no probs, it's well worth it :-D
/me will have a few :pint: handy for the workers ;-)
SilvrDrgn had an idea:
2) Permanently ban the people that have been spreading keyfiles and pirated software. Don't even give them a warning.
Expand this to trolls please :-)
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Hi Wayne,
some time ago (was a Sunday morning) , i've seen for a while, your new layout/buttons . . . .it looks very, very nice :-)
Good work.
Ciao
PS- for quite 10 minutes, was visible the XOOPS 2.x Wizard too (or so)
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I wish you the best for the update.
The email-forwarding was a nice service, I will miss it! Maybe you can find a way to handle the spam and bring that service back...
Good luck!
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I'm still processing about 20,000 spam messages every day which it doesn't catch.
Wow that just blows me away. SPAM has got to be the worst problem on the internet these days. I just cant help to think about how much dadta storage space is wasted on servers because of it all.
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How 'bout Jabber (http://www.jabber.org) icon next to ICQ, AIM and so on. Im not using any of them, but I use Jabber (http://www.jabber.org). I would be nice to have ability to spot A.org friends (and not quite friends;-) and chat. PSI and Jabber: nice, nice connection (http://opi.pegasos.pl/?image=23). :-)
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Best of luck to you Sir! Maybe when the new Amiga.org is up abd running my A4000 will be on the Internet! (I WILL ditch this PC!!!!) :-D
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As long as we don't miss the release of AOS4, I don't think anyone really cares :-)
Except for the ones using the e-mail forwarding (but hey, it's free).
Some people shouldn't be too quick to say "ban".
Free speach, HD crashes, etc.
There are potential legal issues with reading other peoples e-mail or parts (like attachement).
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@Wayne - could we have a secure login so that I can view the page via SSL (or similar https://). That would allow me to view the pages at work regardless of their content. At the moment I can't view pages if they contain a word blocked by the firewall :-) (I have to use a secure proxy which is bandwidth limited :-( )
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Thanks guys! I have been looking forward to many of these improvements.
But...
First and foremost is the sheer amount of SPAM that was being processed by the server. Even with SpamAssassin loaded, I'm still processing about 20,000 spam messages every day which it doesn't catch.
While spam (which is not an acronym ;)) filtering is a nice extra service, I wouldn't miss it. Let users and their ISPs worry about this themselves and offload some stress from your own server. Would the bandwidth waste really be all that big?
Even more troubling is the fact that several of you (and I know who you are) have been misusing Amiga.org's free e-mail forwarding to spread keyfiles and other pirated/pornographic materials, placing Amiga.org in very real danger of being permanently shut down due to DMCA and other law violations.
What would that have to do with amiga.org? It's a matter for the sender, receiver and their respective ISPs, no? You're not hosting or distributing any illegal material, in essence your server is just slapping an extra amiga.org line to the e-mail headers and you can't be accused of anything. The DMCA is a moronic and unnecessary law, but if someone would complain to you about an incident with an amiga.org e-mail message and refer to the DMCA, shouldn't it suffice to delete the specific user's account?
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Thanks for the info, Wayne.
Amiga.org is a great site, and I look forward to seeing the new features. :-D
E-mail forwarding has been permanently disabled.
Now I won't get my daily dose of SPAM .... :boohoo: .... ;-)
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redfox
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You're doing a GREAT job Wayne. Since day 1! :)
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I should have been more specific.
In some countries you can get many years in prison for breaking mail confidentiality. Some countries have / are in the process of extending such laws to include e-mail (among other things, to enable e-trading).
Because of the jail time involved it also means that one can be extradited (spell?) for it. Slim chance, but people should be aware of it. I don't know the specifics of American law, but in many countries there's a threshold coupled to offence giving a certain number of years to enable extradition.
This all got to do with the fact that a mailservice like Amiga.Org's essentially can intercept other countries mail.
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Jet,
There is no issue. Legal or otherwise. People were using (and in some cases taking advantage of) a free service which is cancelled. Participation is such a program is entirely voluntary and no rights were transferred to the end-user.
I am not reading the mail, simply deleting it after running through the list of headers to make sure that I'm not throwing away something by mistake. With that number being over 20,000 per day still, I'm not interested in reading the different types of spam involved.
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kool, but i hate the newbb in xoops2 :-(
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I know this never dawned on you, but you might actually BE MORE SPECIFIC...