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The Corroboree
Chemakazi

EBA Reborn

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Has EBA been hacked again? I jst get a dead server page...

I thought this was interesting, its a site that lists known attacks by certain hackers, this one is a page of attacks by "FAST_VAGRANT" along with dates etc. and Ethnobotany-Australia is there.

Man, he was a busy boy that day!

http://www.zone-h.org/component/option,com...p,72.36.255.202

Edited by AndyAmine.

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can't reply atm @ eb.

most of my mod buttons dissapeared aswell with the last work that had been done to the site, so i can't make your have / want's topic sticky...

aswell the pic's i posted before and after the gallery went down there all dissapeared...

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it's been down for a few days now.

Something wrong again?

Chem?

Wish I could help...

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It's been gone now for at least 3 days from here.

I think the going down of EBA in May last year where people couldn't register has really created the boom and change here.

I didn't even know about this forum back in May when I was trying to register on EBA fruitlessly. I sought out the mods / admins through the member list then and emailed them and everyone knew about the problem but couldn't give a shit about it.

I kept trying for at least a month to get on there when I found this place.

Even when reborn it had become so stagnant and stale over 9 months that I think hardly anyone cared. The fact that it is down for almost a week with gomaos pointing it out shows that everyone in control of it has probably stopped caring too.

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EBA wont be returning.

It doesnt warrant my time and effort anymore. I spent alot of time and $ setting it up but it was hardly used by anyone in the 4-5 months it was around so ive decided not to continue with the running of it.

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Total fing bummer is there any way info can be available without the forum? it would be sad to lose so much great information.

:BANGHEAD2::(

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EBA wont be returning.

It doesnt warrant my time and effort anymore. I spent alot of time and $ setting it up but it was hardly used by anyone in the 4-5 months it was around so ive decided not to continue with the running of it.

I know absolutely how you feel there.

Unfortunately I think that that is what kind of kept people away in a sense also. There was no firm commitment made to it by the people behind it. If a forum is not frequented and posted to regularly by its keepers then why should anyone else? And if there are doubts about the long term, then people wouldn't bother starting threads and expending effort in creating posts and content for it.

Vicious circle I'm afraid. Your efforts to resurrect it were commendable, but the failure to back it up by participating or putting people who were interested in creating content in charge lead to its subsequent demise in my opinion.

The reason this forum stays as vibrant as it is, is because Torsten is an active forum 'whore' in this place. I like that vibrancy and involvement by the founder who people bounce ideas off and learn from. If that's lacking then a forum can't stay for the long term. I hope the recent measures to put the brakes on don't harm the growth and evolution of the forum. That's the real danger.

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chem, I think you did an amazing job and I know full well how frustrating it can be when it doesn't appear to be appreciated. But I think you have to give it more of a chance. It takes a while to rebuild something like that.

EBA was set up to be an alternative to the corroboree and I think that mission is as important today as it was when it was created. It has however always suffered under the very fact that was supposed to differentiate it from the corroboree - that the ownership was not connected to a business.

Running a forum consists of mainly 2 aspects. One is the financial side and two is the technical side. I think there are enough people to help out with the technical side so that you don't have to do it all by yourself. In fact, I was under the impression that the recovery was based on several people admining EBA so as to avoid the previous problems with admins simply disappearing. What happened to that? Why are you stuck with doing all the work? EBA could so easily become a group collaboration.

As for the financial side of it, many people have offered to help, but I can see how that can be tedious to organise. So, I am offering to reimburse all of your costs so far if you promise to keep EBA going and/or to put it into group admin. No strings attached .

Please reconsider.

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Props to torsten mighty generous & anyone else who can help out.

ths is an invaluble source of info that should not be lost.

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I know i'm a noob,

but i'd be happy help you out with the technical aspects Chemakazi.

these resources are all too important to loose, especially when your a noob.

oh, and three cheers for Torsten.

cheers, Obtuse

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cheers Torsten :worship:

Chem: I can't offer any assistance technically or financially, but I can be a regular user which is the only thing really lacking from the site in the past few months. While you're right that it was hardly used, I'd suggest that this was mainly because every time it started to gain users it went down due to technical issues. There really wasn't enough chance for people to use and enjoy the forum, and for that vibe to attract new users or reattract old ones. The forum needs to be up and completely working for a couple of months before anyone can make any judgements about how viable it is long term.

username, I would be surprised if you have any idea what was going on with the site other than what was publically posted, and I am almost offended by your claim that none of the people behind EBA gave a shit. For a long time (a year?) there was 5 or so people - the mods - who were trying very hard to keep the site going but were consistently frustrated by the 1 who actually had the power to fix things - and didn't give a shit. After that time there was certainly some attrition in our desire to keep going, so you may have caught a bit of that.

My dedication is admittedly waning but if chem and apoth can commit to it then I will be there 100%.

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creach is spot on in every respect. which is why I think EBA is viable and can be saved. EBA does not need a single person leading it as it has always had a broad commmunity support and certainly the last year or so are no indicator AT ALL of what EBA is about.

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Unfortunately I think that that is what kind of kept people away in a sense also. There was no firm commitment made to it by the people behind it. If a forum is not frequented and posted to regularly by its keepers then why should anyone else? And if there are doubts about the long term, then people wouldn't bother starting threads and expending effort in creating posts and content for it.

i am sorry but this statement is a load of bullshit, i personally posted quite a few post of information in the new EBA where a limited people responded, which is fair enough maybe noone really felt like responding, but to say people didnt bother posting is nonsense.

torsten that is very genourous of you.

i am sure there are many people who would like to see the site back in action, it once was a very great site of loads of info and discussions.

much like SAB.

i offer my assistnace anyway i possibly can if you ever need it.

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All valid points and noted, if it really means that much to people i will get it back up again, I guess ill give it some more time to get going, its just frustrating when the forum shits itself from a upgrade and you ask yourself is it really worth spending 12 hours fixing this if it isnt being used. Ill look at getting a few tech minded people as a group to share some tasks so it doesnt take so much of my time. Thanks for your kind offer Torsten.

Username, i generally dont get the shits with people however your cocky and ignorant posts wear thin after a while, you truelly dont know shit about what you are talking about. You are in no position to critise EBA, the admins, nor the moderators as you dont know jack of what went on. Where you there in 2005? 2004? 2003? I didnt think so. In fact who are you again?? :rolleyes:

A crew of us mostly myself, gomaos, hebew, smogs, creach and planthelper battled for a long time to keep that place going and if we didnt i doubt it would of been around in 2005, the previous admin eccles had all the permissions to do stuff and he didnt he just didnt give a shit about the site, i had limited privledges on the original site and used my technical skills and over 150hours and $200 out of my own time and pocket to get the eba database working elsewhere not for any money reward or what not just so people could have the site back, Reonstructing a 80mb sql database from hand is not for the light hearted. So if thats: quote "no firm commitment made to it by the people behind it." well what what the hell is?

Until you actually contribute something positive and usefull other than spam keep your unfounded statements to yourself.

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I dont have much to offer other than my participation, so thats what Ill do :) lets get this thing back to critical mass!

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perhaps the problem is that the title EBA needs to be left as a fond memory and a new name given to the forum?

is it possible to database the old forum but link it to a new one?

I agree as far as changing the name - we need to keep the wealth of knowledge already amassed but a cheap jazz up to change the looks and renew the vibe would be great - a new name is a good idea if only for subliminal effects, and would be a great new competition here! :lol: ! I don't think the new name concept would be a betrayal of the original ideals, and lurkers would still be able to recognise the old faces/avatars/names. If anything I think it would attract new blood.

I think it would also be good if longstanding members both there and here were to commit to adding a number of new thread/s/bumps etc per week/fornight/month. Who could resist a reborn EBA with that much action! :lol:

my $1.73 worth... :blush:

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I think instability and uncertainty are the main reasons for people not posting. That's certainly the way I felt. If we can have a multi admin set up where the eccles problem can be prevented before it arises, then I am sure people will feel more confident about posting. EBA is a valuable resource even without new posts and should be resurrected simply because of it's content. Any new posts are just a bonus.

Once I feel that there is certainty and stability I would also put EBA on the sab homepage to drive more traffic to it. The sooner this certainty can be shown the better, especially after this near death experience. I think a minimum of 3 active admin members is needed. Preferably people who can be contacted off line too, ie folks who can be found even if their email accounts go bust. There are plenty of them. Very trusted and dedicated people. Your work so far has been admirable chem, but it is all for naught if you don't get others involved.

There also needs to be some admin handover procedure. No point for people to hold onto their position if they have lost interest and are dropping off the radar.

As for the security issue, lots of forums get hacked. So what? don't use your banking password for your forum access and you have nothing to worry about :rolleyes:. if you paid attention at the time you would have seen that dozens of other forums got hacked by the same kid. It's the standard way for these assholes to make a name for themselves. They find a vulnerability then google the version number and do it to all forums they find. IPB now allows you to turn the forum version off to prevent this [reminds me that I better find the setting]. It's part and parcel of being online and it really doesn't help to bring unfounded conspiracy theories into it. Then again, you are right that many others might feel the same way, so while it might not be a valid fear, it is certainly a valid problem.

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Before there is more criticism of my comments let me just say that this thread had died for 3 days before I actually bothered to make a reasonable post on it to try and get a response. For that attention alone which seems to have sparked a revival I think people should at least acknowledge that I have done something positive.

Secondly I didn't pretend to know more about it's history beyond my own involvement with it which started in May 2006 at which time it was impossible to register or become involved. I visited the site about once a week trying to register hoping the issue was resolved. By July I had almost lost hope. I then went to extra lengths to try and contact every moderator on the memberlist who had an email listed to inform them of the situation. Here is my attempt at emailing the mods:

>To: [email protected], [email protected],

>[email protected]

>Subject: Ethnobotany forum registration impossible.

>Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 21:07:36 +1000

>

>Hi there,

>

>Just wanted to let you know that registration onto the ethnobotany

>forum has become impossible.

>

>The last members are from 10/5/2006. The registration page asks for a

>non-existent code and fails to register anyone.

>

>I wonder if this is a bug or a known issue?

>

>Regards

The only reply I seem to have kept is...

>Hey, Yeah we already know about it and are trying to get it fixed :) try

>again in the future

>

>peace

The next day I found this forum and registered. And the rest as they say is history.

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