Adopt a noob program

[Defective Flamesuit]

Why go to college and pay all that tuition when you can get the same information from a public library combined with the Internet? Because let's face it, it's a much quicker learning process when you have someone to guide you down the right path.

The college example doesn't really apply here because you earn a degree after completing college, but that doesn't happen for HTS members. I understand your perspective completely that you shouldn't put in loads of time to teach someone if they aren't going to put in effort to ask the right questions, but sometimes they can still be putting in a good deal of effort and simply not know what the right questions to ask are. Neither am I suggesting you put in your own time and become a mentor yourself; I am merely making a supporting case for the program because I think it would be beneficial to HTS as a whole, especially its more novice community.

[Goatboy]

Why go to college and pay all that tuition when you can get the same information from a public library combined with the Internet? Because let's face it, it's a much quicker learning process when you have someone to guide you down the right path.

wat

Last I checked, you can't get a degree from a library. And unfortunately, most companies care more about degree and certs than actual talent and knowledge.

[fashizzlepop]

I understand your perspective completely that you shouldn't put in loads of time to teach someone if they aren't going to put in effort to ask the right questions, but sometimes they can still be putting in a good deal of effort and simply not know what the right questions to ask are. Neither am I suggesting you put in your own time and become a mentor yourself;

If you put in effort, you will undoubtedly find the right questions to ask.

Again, no one here is going to spend their free time teaching any specific person on this forum, apart from answering their questions.

And there is a difference between a library and a good question and answer.

[the0nlyb0ss]

To me, from a noob standpoint, it would be useful to have a mentor so he can "show me the way" at times. Because sometimes, I progress and progress, then I think to myself, "Now what? What next?"
There's such a vast amount of paths you could take that it becomes really confusing for the beginner because he has no idea where to turn. I don't like being spoon-fed, it makes me feel like I'm not learning at all.
Although fashizzlepop can attest to the fact that I've made more than one pointless post, I've also showed interest in furthering my knowledge by asking meaningful questions.
I would really like knowing that there will be someone to turn to when in doubt to point me in the right direction. To me, a mentor would be a great idea.

[Goatboy]

In a way, everyone here is a mentor.

I did a presentation once on the importance of teaching. You don't have to be a professional, paid tutor to teach someone what you know. You don't need to preach to an audience of 100. You don't need to be a master. All it takes is for someone to ask a question.

[insomaniacal]

If you need occasional, "real time" and personal answers, hop on the IRC and join the #help channel. More often than not, there's people lurking there that will at least point you in the right direction.

[fashizzlepop]

To me, from a noob standpoint, it would be useful to have a mentor so he can "show me the way" at times. Because sometimes, I progress and progress, then I think to myself, "Now what? What next?"

That's when you go the noob B route and say:
"I have learned yadda dadda dadda. I am interested in yigiddy yogiddy. What might I try next?"

Yet again, all you have to do is ask a smart question. If you ask stupid questions you will get flamed on IRC as well as here.

-- Wed Oct 13, 2010 3:51 pm --

To me, from a noob standpoint, it would be useful to have a mentor so he can "show me the way" at times. Because sometimes, I progress and progress, then I think to myself, "Now what? What next?"

That's when you go the noob B route and say:
"I have learned yadda dadda dadda. I am interested in yigiddy yogiddy. What might I try next?"

Yet again, all you have to do is ask a smart question. If you ask stupid questions you will get flamed on IRC as well as here.

[sanddbox]

Actually, it has nothing to do with availability of members. There are several reasons why we constantly reject this idea that nearly every user proposes:

• Ask whoever you deem to be 1337 h4x0rs if they had a mentor. Chances are, they didn't. Look how they turned out.
• This forum is a lot more active than you think. While it doesn't get as many views at the main site, HTS is the largest hacking website in the world. Many members of HTS have had friends show them HTS...in fact, I recall Goatboy mentioning someone wrote "http://hackthissite.org" on a whiteboard in his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting roomcollege class. (lolirony).
• You already have the resources to get your questions answered. If you have a question and can't find it on google or need some more help, ask on the forums. We answer tons of questions daily. Don't expect us to be your personal fellatio machinementor.

[littlemayhem]

I hope you don't mind me putting my view in - I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or reply to what's been discussed here.

I totally agree that those who really want to learn will find a way, mentor or not, and that it's been agreed upon on numerous occasions that such a program wouldn't work for HTS.

However, as a noob, I think it would be great to have a newbie guide to help, well, guide. Not a 14621 page document with a step-by-step guide, but a sort of written accompaniment to the basic challenges and onwards in terms of what to learn. For example, a page that sort of say "basics: you should have working knowledge of HTML, unix ... etc." with a list of suggested languages and the levels needed. For somebody like myself who wants to learn, I have no idea where to start - what language out of the hundreds? Should I learn it to an extensive level at first go, or should I just start with a working knowledge that I can build on if needed?

There's a great page called How To Become A Hacker that gave me a guide to what languages I should start learning, but having something like that - even if in dot point - would be awesome for noobs. Typing the words "GOOGLE IT FIRST" at the top of the page would be useful if the type of person who asked questions that they could google would read the guide, but they probably wouldn't. Anyway, maybe I should start a new topic for this? It's not something I could put together myself - because I don't know anything - but if even one person who's a decent hacker - one of the mods or admins - could write a dot point list of things, I'd be happy to ... um, well, help.

ETA: I know there's all the articles and lectures, but just a one-page "start here and here's some stuff to try in a roughly useful order" to guide us would be great.

[r-ID]

http://www.hackthissite.org/user/view/r-ID/

Where to start?
1)Learn every aspect of hacking techniques:
Cross-site scripting
JS Injection
SQL Injection
Remote file inclusion
Buffer overflow
Directory traversal
Privilege escalation
And many more.

2)Learn:
C, C++, Assembler, more, more, more
3) Learn web technologies:
php, asp and others

4) Learn cryptology, encoding methods:
SHA, MD5, AES, RSA and others.

5) Use tools, write tools. practice.

Usefull stuff:
phrack, Hacking exposed, security lists, wiki, google