Just posting to let people know that the forum was down earlier due to the server account being compromised and sending out spam.

Work is still being done to fix it.

No user information was compromised, there was just a software vulnerability used to send spam that's since been removed.

What exactly involves the compromise? Were user account data/passwords stolen? Was the server/DBs re-setup from scratch to get rid of any possible malware/rootkits/etc.?

Cheers.

Thank you.

I was a bit puzzled when I saw the account notice, I'm glad that I at least know what it was due to.

Is everything OK? Do we have to change passwords again?

Glad the site is back up. I was more than puzzled.
http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/sad/big-tears.gif

Not gonna lie, when I saw "Account Suspended", my heart sank a bit. Then I did some research and learned that it's actually talking about the account hosting the site. :p

If anyone is suffering Post Traumatic Forum Downtime Syndrome (PTFDS), there are on-site (literally "site") pyschos that are more than willing to get into your brain.

The help is free. So no guarantees you'll feel any better whatsoever. None.

For the time being, try talking to Doctor Penguin.
(https://imgur.com/srIyzuH)

Or Doctor Bedelia Du Maurier, dual consultation with the esteemed Doctor Hannibal Lectre is also provided, and highly recommended.
(https://imgur.com/jDgOxIl)

We have the best health care system with the best staff and nurses anyone can use!
We are always with a smile!
(https://imgur.com/deOhiXy)

Happy communicating with your favorite psychologist.

phew. That really scared me.
Glad to see all is working

Thank you Jessie, For Everything.
Good to Be Back!

If anyone is suffering Post Traumatic Forum Downtime Syndrome (PTFDS), ....

ROFL
thanks for giving me the laugh of the day. :D

Thanks for the update and transparency. I was super scared that this community was going away :/

Huh. Now I can post again. Yesterday it always showed a blank page.

Thanks for the information. Keep up the good work.

Huh. Now I can post again. Yesterday it always showed a blank page.

Yesterday I couldn't post, only read. As soon as I tried posting it kept telling me my browser wanted to take me away from the page, like you would get when you type a message and then halfway decide to click a link or close the window. I couldn't post anything. Today, out of nowhere, it all worked again.

The same for me.

It Happned to Everyone.

SO- if one day, this stuff does get shut down; how will we stay communicated? Are there any other channels?

3 Posts..... That Is A Whole Lotta Communicating To Miss :laugh:

I haven't been receiving emails about new posts after the return. Was that the compromise made to prevent further spam?

So THAT'S where all those emails came from. I was thinking "what the fuck...I don't give out this email to places other than the shrine and basically work.


I haven't been receiving emails about new posts after the return. Was that the compromise made to prevent further spam?

Same here. I've just got a shit-ton of spam and no emails for thread notifications.

Everything works for me, except for one thing: impossible to validate my new avatar. I have this message: "Unable to save image"

SO- if one day, this stuff does get shut down; how will we stay communicated? Are there any other channels?

I've set up a sort-of "backup forum" during on the last down-times last year. You may want to register there and save the bookmark for later (hopefully for nothing).

http://ffshrine.forumatic.com/

I was wondering when the next shut down was going to occur...

Only a matter of time til the next one...

Can't say I wasn't happy about the down, thinking the Shrine was gone for good. You cannot blame when there's way too many stupid people, leechers and turds around here who deserved it.

But two days happened, I didn't get my music, or my friends, I was very bored, so I regret that thinking.

I've set up a sort-of "backup forum" during on the last down-times last year. You may want to register there and save the bookmark for later (hopefully for nothing).

http://ffshrine.forumatic.com/

Ah Yes I Remember This!

What? Suspension+downtime just for spam? What a disappointment. When will this place finally get closed for piracy?

What? Suspension+downtime just for spam? What a disappointment. When will this place finally get closed for piracy?

Only a matter of time...

http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lthguj4IHl1ql141xo1_500.gif

I'd be surprised if the site were still around by 2020.
I thought as well that vBulletin pulled the plug because of the piracy on this site. Was bummed out to see it was nothing but some silly spam nonsense!

So it seems I wasn't the only one who was glad at first that the place was down for good.

Too many stupid people and leechers here..

^
It isn't that at all, as far as I'm concerned (leechers are pretty much the biggest reason download-links tend to remain active for years, but I bet you didn't think of that, Einstein… Way easier to think they're bad).
I've seen smaller communities and places get closed by legal authorities (some of them even banned stuff and albums when prompted by copyright holders to do so, just like what happens here); am I to believe this place is just that damn lucky? Galbadia Hotel may be a "cemetery of .mp3s", but if I was one of those guys and didn't know any better, just getting a glimpse of GH would be enough for me to want to shut down the whole ffshrine.org domain.

You Keep Saying You Were Glad It Is Shut. People Here Are Stupid Leechers.
Why Keep Coming Back?

Honestly.

But two days happened, I didn't get my music, or my friends, I was very bored, so I regret that thinking.

Leechers have absolutely nothing to do with this subject matter at all. They're constantly referred to (constantly referred to in general) as stupid and that they deserved the recent downtime. How? If so, at all, we deserve it as much as they do. We've all committed piracy. The only difference between them and us is that we converse with each other and others on a consistent basis, they just say 'thank you' until the next one. Leechers will not be the reason for the shrine's imminent demise, it will be due to the fact that there exists download links to copyrighted material on this forum. They're not involved in this of any way, their presence here is identical to ours in the eyes of any label or to those who would shut us down.

We need to keep in mind that the shrine is extremely prone to downtimes every couple of months (or every couple minutes, or days, if we regard database errors); be it for lack of [funds?], hackers (or anything alike to what prompted the removal of the like button), or the substantial termination of the shrine by legal authorities, as a result of... piracy. On the other hand, if threads consisting of material published by Var�se Sarabande persist, I surmise in order that would warrant the dissolution of this place as well. I assume we're at the last straw with that label.

The only thing we can do to prevent the conclusion of the shrine is to simply comply with and follow the currently active and all possible future restrictions of posting and downloading any prohibited material, as per request of any composer or record label. By them asking for the removal of their music, they're letting us off hook, and / or giving us another chance to continue being, and not reporting this website to the authorities.

Yet, there continue to be slip-ups - YET, to my astonishment, we are still online and have been up-and-running for all these years... [2001?] - 2016. We should really be eternally grateful that we are still here, because we could be *snap* just like that.

I'm sure that I've stated this before many times, but the primary reason that I am still here and continue to visit and browse the shrine is because of fellow friends I have here. It isn't so much for downloading music anymore, I've either already gotten everything I need (or want), and any future uploads would be the only thing in addition to reside here for music... that and any more of DAK's film mixes, or SonicAdventure's deluxe editions, or any other possible future upload that's either of a rare official release, or a custom album, or gamerip, or sound version - whatever.

Another issue that I spot is that since I'm almost entirely here for friends and such, and babbling on with them (:laugh:), the shrine still has the likelihood to be shut down, and it wouldn't be accountable to the reason I'm still here, it would be owing to that other reason that I'm in part still here for. Therefore, I'll probably create an account on that forum that heidl set up for this very possibility of the shrine's demise, and in the case of any one of us being unable to contact one another, or talk in general.

But for now, we're still here, and we can still chat, and download FREE music, so let's be glad that we are still here, and enjoy it, while we still can.

Not ALL of us have "committed piracy", multiple times...

I know. Perhaps I should've said "most of us".

More like 99.99% of the current membership base

:laugh: So I wasn't too far off.

It isn't that at all, as far as I'm concerned, leechers are pretty much the biggest reason download-links tend to remain active for years, but I bet you didn't think of that, Einstein… Way easier to think they're bad).

Honestly, if it was just us lot all the time, things would get boring really quick and nothing new would pop up.

Just us bringing back bitter memories of pointless bickering over dumb stuff....

....which is why new people is always necessary.

It's clear that we're here to now to provide to the people that will eventually take our places, even if it's not our intention or goal. Everything we do now? Will just be another memory in the future. We can't stay here forever. Everyone that was here at the beginning? Gone. It was different times then. People actually talked about the namesake in the title. Could you believe that? It's thanks to people like us that it evolved into it's current state. Everything about it. As the result, it's had it's most successful run in being a place where leaks and new posts for video game / movie soundtracks are made. It will probably stay like that for the rest of the time the internet is online. Only a proper shutdown can erase this piece of history the world wide web has contained.

I've recently had the goal of helping out a new user. Though it's clear he/she wasn't very familiar with the place, he/she was bringing up soundtracks that hadn't had updates in a while. This begun to put others to bring back stuff that was decommissioned on Shrine. I even re-uploaded soundtracks I don't care for only for the user's and the website's sake.

The leechers were putting things back on the list by the virtue of asking alone.

The group of bandits ourselves alone are a rusty bunch that couldn't run everything well.

It's just the world around us that has enabled so the ship keeps on running.

.

@HunterTech:
Err… I was talking about leechers, those who don't contribute to the forum, according to someone. They often don't post, just grabbing soundtracks/whatever. Is that bad? For some, it is, but not universally so; thanks to folks like them links managed to stay active years. Without leechers, we would be forced to re-upload what we post almost every month (I'm guilty of generalizing, but I don't think most of us would bother purchasing premium memberships on file-hosting websites, so, the file often gets automatically deleted after a month without downloads).
But hey, leechers are bad and don't help any Shriner.

Stupidity at its best, or should I say worst? Hmpf. Well, maybe this forum won't be up for long, that "problem" would be solved, along with others.

@HunterTech:
Err… I was talking about leechers, those who don't contribute to the forum, according to someone. They often don't post, just grabbing soundtracks/whatever. Is that bad? For some, it is, but not universally so; thanks to folks like them links managed to stay active years. Without leechers, we would be forced to re-upload what we post almost every month (I'm guilty of generalizing, but I don't think most of us would bother purchasing premium memberships on file-hosting websites, so, the file often gets automatically deleted after a month without downloads).
But hey, leechers are bad and don't help any Shriner.

Stupidity at its best, or should I say worst? Hmpf. Well, maybe this forum won't be up for long, that "problem" would be solved, along with others.

I was trying to expand on your point, but I guess I got carried away.

Since the 30th I have not been receiving any updates from this forum. Could that be as a result of this? I am still not getting any updates.

Just posting to let people know that the forum was down earlier due to the server account being compromised and sending out spam.

Work is still being done to fix it.

No user information was compromised, there was just a software vulnerability used to send spam that's since been removed.

So is this a vbulletin vulnerability? Because while I have not received any spam I am aware of into my inbox registered ith this forum, I have recently started receiving spam on my other e-mail account (which I use for other vbulletin forums).

Bump. Are subscriptions going to be fixed?

I stopped receiving notifications for my subscribed threads on August 28th, just before the downtime.