The need for Change

[Gatito]

@sanddbox

I don't really blame you for inactivity and trolling really wasn't the right word, my bad. I don't feel like arguing either as I understand your position and it's really not my place to tell you to be more active. It's just that this place is getting a little dull lately and a amount of your late posts are like "some comment OP's stupid bla bla,LOCKED". I'm pretty sure that if the forums were more lively moderating would be more fun and you could for a change engage the conversation as a fellow member rather than the mod locking and banning stuff. And yes it's pretty easy pointing fingers when you don't have much to point at, in this case community or staff, and pointing your finger at others rather than yourself is easy too, yet I'm sure a healthy amount of members want to contribute here but find it a bit difficult to do so. Mods/Admins should help create such a friendly environment. I don't mean to say HTS is bad at doing this, but there's room for improvement.

As of acevic's lecture, in my humble opinion, from the outside it looked like the staff was slacking off and didn't care at all...(putting Goatboy's will to help aside).
But past is past, whatever, my suggestion is to post a official/unofficial topic with the tittle "LECTURES ARE BACK!!! NEXT WEEKEND" or something, providing enough time to generate and observe interest, and also preparing/testing technical aspects. Of course with the lecturer's approval. As for me you can place me to the attending list right away of course.

As to Goatboy, he's very secretive (as am I) with his contact information so it's not easy to get a hold of him. I think I have a phone number that belongs to him, but I'm not sure; I plan to call it in a few days. Still, Goatboy's personal life is his personal life, and I'm planning to, for the most part, let it be and decide himself if he wants to come back.

I'm not sure if you were addressing me or the forums in general but I agree(who doesn't?), it's his life he can do what he wants with it.

[acevic]

@sanddbox

I don't really blame you for inactivity and trolling really wasn't the right word, my bad. I don't feel like arguing either as I understand your position and it's really not my place to tell you to be more active. It's just that this place is getting a little dull lately and a amount of your late posts are like "some comment OP's stupid bla bla,LOCKED". I'm pretty sure that if the forums were more lively moderating would be more fun and you could for a change engage the conversation as a fellow member rather than the mod locking and banning stuff. And yes it's pretty easy pointing fingers when you don't have much to point at, in this case community or staff, and pointing your finger at others rather than yourself is easy too, yet I'm sure a healthy amount of members want to contribute here but find it a bit difficult to do so. Mods/Admins should help create such a friendly environment. I don't mean to say HTS is bad at doing this, but there's room for improvement.

It's annoying to repeat Goatboy over and over but I still say that everyone should follow him in terms of the moderation protocol. As for sanddbox, I don't think he is doing a bad job assuming all the parameters he has to work under. My post was targeted towards the higher levels of HTS staff who are apparently not involved around the HTS community. As a matter of fact, sanddbox was the only one to come forward and converse with me on IRC when it came to certain important suggestions I had for HTS. Even though the suggestions never went through (it was mainly due to his authority related restrictions), I was very happy that someone from the staff lent a listening ear to constructive feedback. As for fashizzlepop, I have noticed that he has put up his utmost efforts in trying to keep the forums alive. Its not really these two moderators who are to blame in any way (also assuming the absence of the lead moderator). HTS needs more staff and more involvement from the higher levels of administration. I have also noticed the absence of other moderators on the forum (tgoe, insomniacal, etc.).

As of acevic's lecture, in my humble opinion, from the outside it looked like the staff was slacking off and didn't care at all...(putting Goatboy's will to help aside).
But past is past, whatever, my suggestion is to post a official/unofficial topic with the tittle "LECTURES ARE BACK!!! NEXT WEEKEND" or something, providing enough time to generate and observe interest, and also preparing/testing technical aspects. Of course with the lecturer's approval. As for me you can place me to the attending list right away of course.

I am happy to contribute to HTS at any time (subject to my availability). Gatito's idea for advertising the lectures is very good and will get through to most users. On a personal note, as repetitive as it is, I would love to have more contributors on the lecture. IRC is a hostile zone when it comes to advertising and hence I suggest that one of the staff carries out that part since I am relatively new to IRC.

As to Goatboy, he's very secretive (as am I) with his contact information so it's not easy to get a hold of him. I think I have a phone number that belongs to him, but I'm not sure; I plan to call it in a few days. Still, Goatboy's personal life is his personal life, and I'm planning to, for the most part, let it be and decide himself if he wants to come back.

I'm not sure if you were addressing me or the forums in general but I agree(who doesn't?), it's his life he can do what he wants with it.

Goatboy is badly needed for HTS. Even though it is eventually his choice whether or not to come back, I suggest someone does try to contact him regarding this to see if it would be possible for him to do so.

[Vulpine]

I am happy to contribute to HTS at any time (subject to my availability). Gatito's idea for advertising the lectures is very good and will get through to most users. On a personal note, as repetitive as it is, I would love to have more contributors on the lecture. IRC is a hostile zone when it comes to advertising and hence I suggest that one of the staff carries out that part since I am relatively new to IRC.

I think it would be a good idea to ask Kage about leveraging the HTS Twitter feed to help advertise for lectures.

I'll need to search for your old lecture post, but what kind of help would you need?

Goatboy is badly needed for HTS. Even though it is eventually his choice whether or not to come back, I suggest someone does try to contact him regarding this to see if it would be possible for him to do so.

As much as I enjoy reading Goatboy's highly informative posts, I feel that it would be much more efficacious to focus on our own solutions instead of looking to others to provide them for us.

[acevic]

I am happy to contribute to HTS at any time (subject to my availability). Gatito's idea for advertising the lectures is very good and will get through to most users. On a personal note, as repetitive as it is, I would love to have more contributors on the lecture. IRC is a hostile zone when it comes to advertising and hence I suggest that one of the staff carries out that part since I am relatively new to IRC.

I think it would be a good idea to ask Kage about leveraging the HTS Twitter feed to help advertise for lectures.

I'll need to search for your old lecture post, but what kind of help would you need?

I'll do that.

Lecture post.
I would not use the term "help", rather additions to the lecture. I will be covering the stated topics and a few more. I would like people to join me rather than doing a solo because in my opinion solo lectures are just creepy lol.

Goatboy is badly needed for HTS. Even though it is eventually his choice whether or not to come back, I suggest someone does try to contact him regarding this to see if it would be possible for him to do so.

As much as I enjoy reading Goatboy's highly informative posts, I feel that it would be much more efficacious to focus on our own solutions instead of looking to others to provide them for us.

Suggestions? In specific?

[Vulpine]

Your lecture thread seemed more appropriate for that topic, so I went ahead and bumped it.

Suggestions? In specific?

There have been a few community projects that never took off, i.e. A HTS book, a community FAQ containing an aggregate of "Where do I start? / You start here" information, to name a couple... There's no reason why people can't breath life back into these. Even Goatboy's recent idea of writing a vulnerable web server that could be used to illustrate particular vulnerabilities (a basic server can be written in 10 minutes). Most of us just got lazy or distracted by personal obligations, though. My recent forays into pen-testing labs have even got me thinking about customizing a HTS HackThisLiveCD type of project. We've got tons of options.

The semester is almost over, so I think I'll start working on that FAQ draft again...

[mShred]

My recent forays into pen-testing labs have even got me thinking about customizing a HTS HackThisLiveCD type of project.

Elaborate..?
I was thinking about submitting a few articles but, as Vulpine said, we're all guilty of being somewhat _lazy_. I've liked the idea of a FAQ too.
As for lectures, if I'm not busy then I will definitely make point to attend and offer whatever I've got.

[Vulpine]

Elaborate..?

Not unlike Damn Vulnerable Linux, but with our own flavor to it and some potentially narrower objectives to be completed. No root access. Just something that people could download and play with at their leisure. No definitive answers, solutions being limited only to an individual's personal level of creativity and knowledge. They could just be VMWare images that have been tweaked to illustrate particular types of vulnerabilities, i.e. a live example of port scanning, oh look telnet is open, connect to it and hunt for an objective, yadda yadda... Difficulty and complexity being limited to our knowledge of various attack vectors and how to patch them up.

I was thinking about submitting a few articles but, as Vulpine said, we're all guilty of being somewhat _lazy_. I've liked the idea of a FAQ too.

I was hoping to make it an open guide that the whole community could elaborate on, tweak, and submit updates for. Changes could be proposed as replies to a forum thread and Mods could make the appropriate changes to the original post as they are agreed upon. I just need to get off my ass and work out a functional outline that can built from.

[mShred]

Not unlike Damn Vulnerable Linux, but with our own flavor to it and some potentially narrower objectives to be completed. No root access. Just something that people could download and play with at their leisure. No definitive answers, solutions being limited only to an individual's personal level of creativity and knowledge. They could just be VMWare images that have been tweaked to illustrate particular types of vulnerabilities, i.e. a live example of port scanning, oh look telnet is open, connect to it and hunt for an objective, yadda yadda... Difficulty and complexity being limited to our knowledge of various attack vectors and how to patch them up.

This, I like. But how would we go about making it? I'm down for whatever help is needed. We could just build it off of a distro if that's easier.

I was hoping to make it an open guide that the whole community could elaborate on, tweak, and submit updates for. Changes could be proposed as replies to a forum thread and Mods could make the appropriate changes to the original post as they are agreed upon. I just need to get off my ass and work out a functional outline that can built from.

You could probably just post it anywhere on the forums for the mods to see when you're done. And maybe/hopefully they'd be cool with the idea.

[fashizzlepop]

Hey guys,

I'm proud you guys think so highly of this site. I really am.

I have been stuck in the web of life recently. 10 hour a day job, new girlfriend (fuck yeah), and now I'm going to Europe for 3 weeks. Hardly ANY time for HTS.

I agree with just about everything said so far. Unfortunately, my opinion is that the site will stay stagnant until the recode is finished and there isn't much we can do about that.

G2g, luv ya all. Practice safe sex.

~fashizzlepop

[mShred]

new girlfriend (fuck yeah)

Yes.

Unfortunately, my opinion is that the site will stay stagnant until the recode is finished and there isn't much we can do about that.

Hopefully when the recode is done, we'll be shredding in some more traffic and whatnot.

Practice safe sex.

No promises. Have fun in Europe though.

I'd also like to add that anyone that doesn't want to put up lectures can also submit articles to the main site. Everyone loves new articles.