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View Full Version : Tv Tropes hacked!?



Hippoboy
2008-09-10, 09:17 PM
okay before i start, I know this is probably in the wrong place but I didn't know where exactly to post and it applies to you guys because you quote the place constantly.

okay moving, i tried to get on tv tropes but it comes up with the message:

a Message from Qabandi,

The PHPbb forums had nothing to do with it.... I'm still here.

I've received many emails claiming they were you and asking for the sensitive information, so I hope you understand why I couldn't email the vulnerabilities to you, since I didn't know which one was you.



Create a file in C:\apache\htdocs\ that has your email in it, and I will send you the info.
and the full story of how and why I hacked your website.



peace

message end:
this seemed alarming to me so I figured 1/2 of you guys probably run the site and could allay my fears.

just don't kill me for posting in the wrong spot.

TigerHunter
2008-09-10, 09:18 PM
1. Yes, it has been.
2. Yes, this is in the wrong place.

Hippoboy
2008-09-10, 09:20 PM
1. Yes, it has been.
2. Yes, this is in the wrong place.

I knew this was the wrong palce but where is?

also who's gonna fix the site? I loved that place :smallfrown:

blakyoshi7
2008-09-10, 09:20 PM
This has been going on for a while- at first he made every page redirect to some YouTube video. They fixed that and turned off the forums, so he put "Qabandi: I'm still here" at the top of every page. Then they fixed that, so he's doing this.

It's really annoying and I don't know how he can expect this to achieve anything other than make people hate him, whoever he is.

TigerHunter
2008-09-10, 09:23 PM
It's really annoying and I don't know how he can expect this to achieve anything other than make people hate him, whoever he is.
I think that's exactly what he wants.

SteveMB
2008-09-10, 09:23 PM
I knew this was the wrong palce but where is?
Friendly Banter, I suppose.

TigerHunter
2008-09-10, 09:26 PM
Friendly Banter, I suppose.
The mods seem to have disagreed.

keeperoflore
2008-09-10, 09:26 PM
no it was not "hacked", it was "cracked"... i hate people that misuse these terms, please for the love of god, get your terms correct.

Mauve Shirt
2008-09-10, 09:27 PM
Dammit! I was reading that!

TigerHunter
2008-09-10, 09:27 PM
no it was not "hacked", it was "cracked"... i hate people that misuse these terms, please for the love of god, get your terms correct.
Words and their meanings evolve. Let it drop.

Hippoboy
2008-09-10, 09:28 PM
no it was not "hacked", it was "cracked"... i hate people that misuse these terms, please for the love of god, get your terms correct.

I'm sorry if I got the lingo wrong :sarcasm: seriously how was I to know? :smallannoyed:

snoopy13a
2008-09-10, 09:29 PM
I knew this was the wrong palce but where is?

also who's gonna fix the site? I loved that place :smallfrown:

Seems to be like the right place. TV tropes is a website and that is a medium right?

Hippoboy
2008-09-10, 09:31 PM
Seems to be like the right place. TV tropes is a website and that is a medium right?

It was in OOTS but it appears the mods are swift and stealthy.

TigerHunter
2008-09-10, 09:31 PM
Seems to be like the right place. TV tropes is a website and that is a medium right?
This was originally in the OotS forum.

Enlong
2008-09-10, 09:32 PM
Words and their meanings evolve. Let it drop.

Like the word "Ironic"?

But seriously, this sucks. I was there yesterday when it happened the first time, and got a message on the Discussion on Main Page before the crack went apewire and took over all the pages. Then I went to the forum and asked the guy to undo the crack. The site went back up, thanks to the owners of the site, but then he deleted all his Youtube profile comments... twice (or more, there's no evidence). Then I wake up this morning and find that the forum went down, but the site was still up. Now the site and the forums are down, and the last thing I want to do is support this guy's cause now. Yeah, the Youtube site was some kind of "stop the dying children" poverty thing or something, and this was apparently a way to drum up hits.

Because cracking beloved websites is a great way to endear yourself to the public.

Jerk.

Gavin Sage
2008-09-10, 09:34 PM
I was in the middle of loosing an hour down that place when suddenly I clicked and was all... WHAT???

Oye it sucks, let us hope the admins can get the site back-up before long.

Hippoboy
2008-09-10, 09:34 PM
Like the word "Ironic"?

But seriously, this sucks. I was there yesterday when it happened the first time, and got a message on the Discussion on Main Page before the crack went apewire and took over all the pages. Then I went to the forum and asked the guy to undo the crack. The site went back up, thanks to the owners of the site, but then he deleted all his Youtube profile comments... twice (or more, there's no evidence). Then I wake up this morning and find that the forum went down, but the site was still up. Now the site and the forums are down, and the last thing I want to do is support this guy's cause now. Because cracking beloved websites is a great way to endear yourself to the public.

Jerk.

What is his 'cause' and I think a 'what the hell' is in order for that fool.

Masked Jedi
2008-09-10, 09:36 PM
He'd better hope the site's up by tomorrow.

Otherwise I'll have nothing better to do than start hunting this punk down.

Tormsskull
2008-09-10, 09:39 PM
I gotta say, that's pretty funny. Hacking is a bad, bad thing, but the fact that someone was able to do that and the owners of the site don't know how to fix it gives me a chuckle.

Enlong
2008-09-10, 09:43 PM
I gotta say, that's pretty funny. Cracking is a bad, bad thing, but the fact that someone was able to do that and the owners of the site don't know how to fix it gives me a chuckle.

They fixed it.
Twice.
The problem is, they haven't quite isolated the exploit this guy is using, to shut him down for good.

doliest
2008-09-10, 09:43 PM
.....who Is This Madman Hacking Our Forums!?

Tonight On Dateline!

Fri
2008-09-10, 09:43 PM
So how long until it's all 'Hell hath no fury like a bunch of geek scorned?'

Really, hacking the geek bible is a stupid thing to do.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 09:44 PM
Oh my God, hacking a wiki. That's incredibly ****ing brilliant programming work there, ace.

Okay, okay, I'm sure he actually did crack the PHP rather than anything user-editable, but any wiki is going to have huge gaping security holes the size of a hallway. Congratulations, Mr. Qabandi, I award you 1/10. Try again on something challenging, like a public corporation or a bank.

Executor
2008-09-10, 09:44 PM
Well god dammit!

I loved TV Tropes :smallfrown:

And now this bastard... URGH! I want to punch his face into pulp! God damn him! I say we round up the lynch mob and have a good old fashioned hanging with this "Qabandi" bastard!

What was his cause? Anyone have the video?

Rogue 7
2008-09-10, 09:45 PM
Aye, just for that I'm going to go out into the bush, find a starving child, and eat food in front of him, all while ensuring he doesn't get any. What can I say? I'm a petty man.

Why would he pick This wiki?

doliest
2008-09-10, 09:46 PM
Doesn't this fool know anything!? This is obviously a comedy, and from the looks it's going to be a 'revenge of the nerds' with a smackering of 'political commentary'.

Enlong
2008-09-10, 09:49 PM
Aye, just for that I'm going to go out into the bush, find a starving child, and eat food in front of him, all while ensuring he doesn't get any. What can I say? I'm a petty man.

Why would he pick This wiki?
Because if he went after the Other Wiki, he'd have all of everyone bearing down on him.

With TV tropes, he and/or his supporters can say stuff like (and I quote)
"Babies are dying and all you NERDS care about is a site that will be back up in 10 minutes?!"

I just wish I knew how to flag a user himself on Youtube.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 09:49 PM
Hm. He left an email address. He obviously wants to see our hatred delivered in text form.

I wonder if he accidentally left any traceable info with hotmail...doubtful, but it never hurts to check.

Rogue 7
2008-09-10, 09:52 PM
He did? Where? I'm tempted to flame him back to the stone age.

doliest
2008-09-10, 09:53 PM
With TV tropes, he and/or his supporters can say stuff like (and I quote)
"Babies are dying and all you NERDS care about is a site that will be back up in 10 minutes?!"



Yeah, but if he says that, we can sit back and say, "Yes, yes we do, screw the babies, just give us back our site."

Seraph
2008-09-10, 09:54 PM
I vote that once we find out his personal information we load his computer with illegal varieties of porn and notify the relevant authorities.

Enlong
2008-09-10, 09:54 PM
He did? Where? I'm tempted to flame him back to the stone age.

I... would say check any of the TVtropes pages, but, surprisingly, we're back!

Now to wonder where this is gonna end up tomorrow.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 09:55 PM
He did? Where? I'm tempted to flame him back to the stone age.It's in the title of his fake page, dood.

EDIT: Okay, they fixed it. Neat.

But don't send him mail. That's exactly what he wants. Attention. That's the only reason anyone would ever crack a not-for-profit site (Scientology doesn't count as not-for-profit). If we flame him, he wins.

Rogue 7
2008-09-10, 09:57 PM
It'd make me feel better. Sorry for being so blind- my eyes skip past the title.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 09:58 PM
Losing to a basement-dwelling troglodyte in a contest of maturity makes you feel good?

Gavin Sage
2008-09-10, 09:59 PM
He did? Where? I'm tempted to flame him back to the stone age.

I'd send him tub-girl and other such things but I'm sure like most trolls that would only encourage things.

Fri
2008-09-10, 10:02 PM
Yeah, but if he says that, we can sit back and say, "Yes, yes we do, screw the babies, just give us back our site."

This is obviously the right thing to do.

Jayngfet
2008-09-10, 10:12 PM
Losing to a basement-dwelling troglodyte in a contest of maturity makes you feel good?

Agreed, this guys a wiki hacking moron who wants the attention we're giving him, let's get the wiki fixed, quietly try to find the problem and shut him down there.

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:13 PM
So we have some jerk shoving his political views down our throats AND hacking the Nerds most holy of holy sites?



The Blasphemer shall be punished. Nerd anyway you can't just crash his computer with your mind or something? Or at least kill his youtube account?

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 10:19 PM
The Blasphemer shall be punished. Nerd anyway you can't just crash his computer with your mind or something? Or at least kill his youtube account?Only if I knew his IP address.

Without access to TVTropes' server access logs (and a good deal of time determining what if any IP-switching/spoofing algorithm he's using), my only option would be to backtrack his address through that hotmail account he left, which would be far too time consuming and unlikely to yield useful results. I'm busy with real programming right now, so I'll just leave this one to the TVTropes folks, who have all the information (not to mention the ability to press charges on the bastard, which is probably better than anything I could do to his PC).

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:22 PM
True...I just...Yeah not happy in the least with this I already have issues with people trying to push beliefs on others and that strikes a rather nasty nerve is all.

Fri
2008-09-10, 10:23 PM
My world is shattered...

First, I learned today that Tengu's seal of approval is actually worthless.

Now, I learned that Nerdo can't actually fry someone's pc with his brain.

Dode
2008-09-10, 10:24 PM
lol this thread

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:24 PM
It is a sad sad day for you Fri A sad sad day.

Dode
2008-09-10, 10:28 PM
okay okay tvtropes.org is back, the internet can go back to enjoying its wiki of incredibly tenuous connections and gross simplifications concerning pop-culture and animes, nerd-o-rama you don't need to bring ur mad hacking skills on this guy's hotmail account :smallbiggrin:

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:29 PM
He wasn't...sadly. Yeah I really hope they get this guy fast.

SurlySeraph
2008-09-10, 10:30 PM
okay okay tvtropes.org is back, the internet can go back to enjoying its wiki of incredibly tenuous connections and gross simplifications concerning pop-culture and animes, nerd-o-rama you don't need to bring ur mad hacking skills on this guy's hotmail account :smallbiggrin:

You dare blaspheme the sacred Librarium Tropiarum?

Recaiden
2008-09-10, 10:31 PM
Only if I knew his IP address.

Without access to TVTropes' server access logs (and a good deal of time determining what if any IP-switching/spoofing algorithm he's using), my only option would be to backtrack his address through that hotmail account he left, which would be far too time consuming and unlikely to yield useful results. I'm busy with real programming right now, so I'll just leave this one to the TVTropes folks, who have all the information (not to mention the ability to press charges on the bastard, which is probably better than anything I could do to his PC).

I hope he realizes that this only hurts his "cause" of ending poverty in Africa.
Such a stupid thing to do.

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:32 PM
We never said he was smart.:smallwink:

Dode
2008-09-10, 10:33 PM
I hope he realizes that this only hurts his "cause" of ending poverty in Africa.
Such a stupid thing to do.
yea dude its true, every time tvtropes.org goes down a cup of grain is subtracted from the un food relief program

black dragoon
2008-09-10, 10:35 PM
Humanitarian efforts are noble but, spamming them just PO's people to no end.

Dode
2008-09-10, 10:36 PM
Humanitarian efforts are noble but, spamming them just PO's people to no end.
did you ever consider he's just pissing people off for the sake of pissing people off and the "starving in Africa" argument is just a part of that?

TRM
2008-09-10, 10:37 PM
I like how he decided to hack (or "crack" if you prefer) a site managed, populated, and visited by a large number of computer gurus in an effort to get attention; the only possible outcome seems to be a painful loss for him as the TVtrope techno-wizards crush him into oblivion.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-10, 10:39 PM
okay okay tvtropes.org is back, the internet can go back to enjoying its wiki of incredibly tenuous connections and gross simplifications concerning pop-culture and animes, nerd-o-rama you don't need to bring ur mad hacking skills on this guy's hotmail account :smallbiggrin:Yeah, yeah, it's back. I'd still like to see more cybercrooks punushed (not starting with this guy, though, let's begin with the people who disrupt things more important that hobbies).

And no reason to flame TVTropes in this thread. While you have valid complaints, here they're only likely to spark arguments.

Dode
2008-09-10, 10:44 PM
I like how he decided to hack (or "crack" if you prefer) a site managed, populated, and visited by a large number of computer gurus in an effort to get attention; the only possible outcome seems to be a painful loss for him as the TVtrope techno-wizards crush him into oblivion.
1) Evading being traced, unless you piss off a government agency with serious authority, is incredibly easy.
2) A site that collapses due to what is most likely a PHP-injection exploit is unlikely to be populated by "techno-wizards".

snoopy13a
2008-09-10, 10:47 PM
Hm. He left an email address. He obviously wants to see our hatred delivered in text form.

I wonder if he accidentally left any traceable info with hotmail...doubtful, but it never hurts to check.

I bet it is the e-mail address of someone he (or she) doesn't like. If so, I feel sorry for the innocent person who might get hundreds of nasty e-mails and perhaps worse (I'm not that knowledgable about what things people are able to do).

TheThan
2008-09-10, 10:49 PM
I don’t really understand why people do such things. Causing pain, watching people in pain, malicious use of well just about anything always brings more harm than good.

Poison_Fish
2008-09-11, 02:34 AM
I don’t really understand why people do such things. Causing pain, watching people in pain, malicious use of well just about anything always brings more harm than good.

It's hard to understand the mind of a troll.

And I speak as one.

Just a different kind of trolling, mon.

Dode
2008-09-11, 03:33 AM
I bet it is the e-mail address of someone he (or she) doesn't like. If so, I feel sorry for the innocent person who might get hundreds of nasty e-mails and perhaps worse (I'm not that knowledgable about what things people are able to do).The guy probably just registered a free hotmail account, used it to register an account at the site and then will never use it again.

Also,

There's also a Troper IRC Channel: #tropers at irc.slashnet.org. Feel free to join up and chat! lol "irc.slashnet.org"

TSGames
2008-09-11, 03:48 AM
a Message from Qabandi,

The PHPbb forums had nothing to do with it.... I'm still here.

I've received many emails claiming they were you and asking for the sensitive information, so I hope you understand why I couldn't email the vulnerabilities to you, since I didn't know which one was you.



Create a file in C:\apache\htdocs\ that has your email in it, and I will send you the info.
and the full story of how and why I hacked your website.



peace

message end:
this seemed alarming to me so I figured 1/2 of you guys probably run the site and could allay my fears.

just don't kill me for posting in the wrong spot.
You read PHRACK a couple times, and they'll almost have you believing there's simply no good in the community at all. Examples like this don't help, either...

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-11, 04:27 AM
Well, the forums are down and from what I read (I know almost nothing about about hacking. Well, nothing really.) that should fix the problem.

It makes me sad that people like this exist, does anyone know exactly why he targeted TV Tropes?

GoC
2008-09-11, 07:04 AM
I seriously don't understand all the hatred for this guy.:smallconfused:
Taking down a wiki for a few hours is pretty "meh" and pointing to a decent cause might actually do a small amount of good.
I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...

AstralFire
2008-09-11, 07:16 AM
I seriously don't understand all the hatred for this guy.:smallconfused:
Taking down a wiki for a few hours is pretty "meh" and pointing to a decent cause might actually do a small amount of good.
I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...

I'd estimate I give about 20% or more of what I've earned either to charity or to people who I personally know need assistance. When Katrina hit, I put in half of my next four paychecks into donations. Mind, I worked my way through college, so that wasn't exactly EASY, either.

Can't say I'm inclined to give at all to a cause sponsored in such a negative way; not really inclined less, either, but there's already so much to tend to and so little cash with my current unemployment.

To all the people in this thread: reacting is what trolls want. Pretending it never happened and moving on is the best way to hurt them. Speaking as someone who gets harassing racist emails and low-grade password attempts on a semi-weekly basis.

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-11, 07:22 AM
I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...Not that it matters, at all, in any way, but I regularly donate to the RSPCB, NSPCC and RNLI as well as the whole annual Sports/Comic Relief, Royal British Legion and Children in Need donations.

Seriously though, did this guy have a point or what? I missed it but an honestly curious as to why he did this.

But I have to say that I can never agree with vandalism, of any kind, to make a point. Spray painting charitable slogans on national monuments is not tolerable, nor is messing with a website. There are proper times and places for airing these views.

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 07:42 AM
And that is why he's getting so much hatred at the moment. He decided that he was being proactive (or just pulling a prank) and attacked a frequented somewhat respectable wiki with rather blunt attempts at shoving his views down peoples throats. I) support when I can but, I still do not approve of this act.

Drascin
2008-09-11, 08:04 AM
I seriously don't understand all the hatred for this guy.:smallconfused:
Taking down a wiki for a few hours is pretty "meh" and pointing to a decent cause might actually do a small amount of good.
I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...

It's not hatred, more annoyance at the fact he tried to justify an obvious attempt at trolling and pissing people as a "noble cause". I'm naive as all get out and not even I believe the dying children argument had anything to with why he cracked the site.

About giving... as a college student, I don't really have anything to give :smalltongue:. Instead, I spend some of my free time doing volunteer work, because that at least I can do.

Archonic Energy
2008-09-11, 08:11 AM
I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...

What's Charity (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=17678) done to deserve my money?

:smallamused:

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 08:13 AM
Normally I just give them my blood!:smalltongue:

Gammarad
2008-09-11, 08:18 AM
What I want to know is did viewing the hacked website potentially put any Trojan on my system?

The very next time I ran Desktop Properties to change my screen size after clicking the tvtropes.org and being redirected to that video, my rundll32.exe file was corrupted and started trying to put Trojan-related changes into my registry.

Luckily I had a backup but still now I can't change my desktop resolution without it still trying to do that... so there's something else that keeps dinking with rundll32.exe even again.

Did anyone else see hints of problems? the Rootkit test passed my system, found nothing, but those things are notoriously hard to detect.

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 08:21 AM
I haven't had any issues as far as I can tell...Sounds like a question for an IT guy. We need Nerd o rama stat.

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-11, 08:22 AM
Seriously though, what was it he claimed he was doing. Please can someone tell me?

Telonius
2008-09-11, 08:26 AM
It's in the title of his fake page, dood.

EDIT: Okay, they fixed it. Neat.

But don't send him mail. That's exactly what he wants. Attention. That's the only reason anyone would ever crack a not-for-profit site (Scientology doesn't count as not-for-profit). If we flame him, he wins.

Also it's possible it's a frame-up job, for some poor schmoe that doesn't realize he's about to get spammed with 50,000 pieces of hate mail.

Blackfang108
2008-09-11, 08:42 AM
no it was not "hacked", it was "cracked"... i hate people that misuse these terms, please for the love of god, get your terms correct.

You do realize that not everyone is fluent in Hackerspeak?

I would have said "Hacked" myself. either way, it was screwed with, and that's not cool. If it was the Scientologists, it would have been cool.


I wonder if there's anyone on this forum who donates to charity...

I donate my time to MHAI, and I donate every month to Save the Children.

Tom_Violence
2008-09-11, 08:44 AM
I don’t really understand why people do such things. Causing pain, watching people in pain, malicious use of well just about anything always brings more harm than good.

I'm not really sure that hacking Tv Tropes counts as 'causing pain' too much. :smallwink:

What is the difference between hacking and cracking anyway? And why the kerfuffle over it?

AstralFire
2008-09-11, 08:46 AM
I'm not really sure that hacking Tv Tropes counts as 'causing pain' too much. :smallwink:

What is the difference between hacking and cracking anyway? And why the kerfuffle over it?

I think hackers that do legitimate business work for the most part started up the neologism of 'Cracker' in the 90's in order to refer to malicious computer work and keep the original term for themselves.

bosssmiley
2008-09-11, 08:49 AM
What's Charity (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=17678) done to deserve my money? :smallamused:

He's threatened to keep on spamming our TVs with images of big-eyed waifs accompanied by sad music and soulful celebrity voice-overs until we cough up enough £££s to pay for his new yacht (dig at the self-serving NSPCC very much intended). :smallamused:

"The emotional blackmail and buzz-killing will continue unabated until you send me one...hundred...BILLION pounds. Mwah-hah-hah-hah!"
-- Charity, yesterday

As for the subject of the OP's post. The hacker is a self-righteous t*sser of the first water. May he die alone and unmourned.

kamikasei
2008-09-11, 08:53 AM
What is the difference between hacking and cracking anyway? And why the kerfuffle over it?

Hacking a system is just playing around with it, understanding it, testing its limits, putting it to unexpected uses. You can hack on your own box or a program of your own creation. A "good hack" is something accomplished in a skillful/elegant way with unlikely tools.

Cracking is gaining unauthorized access to a system. A hacker may also be a cracker since it's a skill to learn and an application of exploring and messing around with systems, but calling cracking hacking a) taints the meaning of hacker and b) gives crackers too much credit - a lot of crackers are just using tools written by others to exploit known vulnerabilities in weak systems.


I think hackers that do legitimate business work for the most part started up the neologism of 'Cracker' in the 90's in order to refer to malicious computer work and keep the original term for themselves.

This is closer to the distinction between "white hats"/"samurai" (who do vulnerability testing or security consulting for clients, etc.) and "black hats" than between hackers and crackers. The term "hacker" predates the internet and any association with security.

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-11, 08:56 AM
The reason I keep asking what this guy was trying to draw attention to is because I am concerned that if they are a legitimate charity this may harm them, especially as this seems not to be an isolated incident if some of the other Qabandis my google fu turned up are the same guy.

EDIT: OK I found the video. No actual organisation is mentioned and it advocates the "throw money at them" method of charitable giving that has done so much harm to third world economies in the past.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-11, 10:03 AM
I haven't had any issues as far as I can tell...Sounds like a question for an IT guy. We need Nerd o rama stat.Honestly, security isn't my specialty, just a hobby and, of course, something of personal interest. I ran a couple of virus/malware scanners last night and didn't turn up anything, but I never saw the video. I recommend running your normal virus scanners immediately; they should catch anything he embedded in that video.

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 10:41 AM
Is that a common hack? It sounds pretty hard to pull off properly. Especially since it's browser based. This guy may be more dangerous than we thought.:smallfrown:

Dode
2008-09-11, 05:11 PM
Is that a common hack? It sounds pretty hard to pull off properly. Especially since it's browser based. This guy may be more dangerous than we thought.:smallfrown:
It's possible to slip hacks in videos but not in youtube videos, because the video is then hosted by a third party who converts the file the video entirely to an .flv that then compresses it, losing the code entirely. Kind of like how resizing an image with MS-Paint loses its EXIF tag data.

Anteros
2008-09-11, 08:38 PM
There is no such thing as bad publicity. Period. No one is going to see that and think, "Man, I'll let those babies starve! That'll show him!"

The fact of the matter is that no matter how he achieves the publicity, it still helps him because some people will donate.

Rogue 7
2008-09-11, 09:20 PM
The internet is populated by cynical jerks. There are not going to be all that many bleeding hearts, particularly if people were forced to watch. It's like Glurge (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Glurge) but worse.

TigerHunter
2008-09-11, 09:25 PM
There is no such thing as bad publicity. Period. No one is going to see that and think, "Man, I'll let those babies starve! That'll show him!".
Aye, just for that I'm going to go out into the bush, find a starving child, and eat food in front of him, all while ensuring he doesn't get any. What can I say? I'm a petty man.
You were saying?

SurlySeraph
2008-09-11, 09:27 PM
To strengthen TigerHunter's argument:


Yeah, but if he says that, we can sit back and say, "Yes, yes we do, screw the babies, just give us back our site."


This is obviously the right thing to do.


True...I just...Yeah not happy in the least with this I already have issues with people trying to push beliefs on others and that strikes a rather nasty nerve is all.

Anteros
2008-09-11, 09:29 PM
And I'm oh so certain that he is actually going to go find starving kids and eat in front of them. Either that or it was a joke, in which case your argument is completely meaningless.

Even if he was serious, the type of person who would do that isn't likely to donate to any charities anyway so what exactly does it hurt?

Bandededed
2008-09-11, 09:36 PM
Some people might not have been inclined to donate to charities, but, having seen a particularly wrenching add on TV, they think, "Wow, maybe I should donate, even just a little,"
However, were this same person to be forced to see the add instead of going to the site he had tried to go to, he is much more likely to think, "Wow, if this is what charities are, then I'm never donating to a charity. Ever,"

Now, this is a slight exaggeration, and some people will make the connection that the charity had nothing to do with this and donate anyway, but some people won't. They will always connect this charity with this event and feel disinclined to donate.

AstralFire
2008-09-11, 09:39 PM
And I'm oh so certain that he is actually going to go find starving kids and eat in front of them. Either that or it was a joke, in which case your argument is completely meaningless.

Even if he was serious, the type of person who would do that isn't likely to donate to any charities anyway so what exactly does it hurt?

I make a point not to these days, but I've avoided donating in the past if I was specifically annoyed by how promoters went about it.

turkishproverb
2008-09-11, 09:53 PM
There is no such thing as bad publicity. Period. No one is going to see that and think, "Man, I'll let those babies starve! That'll show him!"

The fact of the matter is that no matter how he achieves the publicity, it still helps him because some people will donate.

I don't think so. There are plenty of other charities that deserve my money just as much, the difference being their adherents haven't been hacking sites I care for.

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 10:00 PM
Thanks for clarifying that. I was worried we were dealing with a class act.

EvilElitest
2008-09-11, 10:31 PM
Well god dammit!

I loved TV Tropes :smallfrown:

And now this bastard... URGH! I want to punch his face into pulp! God damn him! I say we round up the lynch mob and have a good old fashioned hanging with this "Qabandi" bastard!

What was his cause? Anyone have the video?

A a southern, i suggest using a fire in the lyching. And then drawn and quarter him
Generally through, just bad form

from
EE

turkishproverb
2008-09-11, 10:31 PM
Thanks for clarifying that. I was worried we were dealing with a class act.


A: I was proving it could be bad publicity.

B: Yea, asking for good behavior out of promoters of charities that are getting my money isn't a lot, especially given how many I'm stuck choosing between as it is, isn't alot.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-11, 10:36 PM
It's possible to slip hacks in videos but not in youtube videos, because the video is then hosted by a third party who converts the file the video entirely to an .flv that then compresses it, losing the code entirely. Kind of like how resizing an image with MS-Paint loses its EXIF tag data.Like I said, I'm not an expert on security. I looked it up, and you're right.

Sorry for the scare. It's possible but quite unlikely he put malicious code in the wiki pages themselves, but my PC is totally clean still, so I wouldn't worry.

Anteros
2008-09-11, 11:03 PM
And you probably wouldn't know about this particular charity at all without the hacking and linkage. So again, what is the harm. It's not that charity itself hacking so you can't really blame them. All the hacking accomplishes is to raise awareness.

Blaming a charity, the most selfless type of organization there is, for something some random person on the internet does is pretty stupid, and most people are smarter than that.

RTGoodman
2008-09-11, 11:07 PM
I don't know anything about the hacking, but I just wanted to tell you all that I hate you. I just wasted another hour and a half on that accursed site... :smalltongue:

black dragoon
2008-09-11, 11:16 PM
I was referring to the computer issues Turk. Sorry I'll remember to specify next time.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-11, 11:27 PM
And you probably wouldn't know about this particular charity at all without the hacking and linkage. So again, what is the harm. It's not that charity itself hacking so you can't really blame them. All the hacking accomplishes is to raise awareness.

Blaming a charity, the most selfless type of organization there is, for something some random person on the internet does is pretty stupid, and most people are smarter than that....you're serious?

That aside, this was clearly not an effort to advertise chairty. If you look at whatever his name was's actions and statements after he was initially shut down, it's clearly another script kiddie black hat trying to earn some internet fame. He just used the charity ad to garner more attention for himself which is, frankly, disgusting.

Gammarad
2008-09-11, 11:28 PM
Honestly, security isn't my specialty, just a hobby and, of course, something of personal interest. I ran a couple of virus/malware scanners last night and didn't turn up anything, but I never saw the video. I recommend running your normal virus scanners immediately; they should catch anything he embedded in that video.

Right, I meant something in the HTML, thanks though for the info about videos having stuff but not youtube videos. I really don't know what happened, just that right at midnight - my next click on a link in tvtropes sent me to a black page about Qabandi - and then loaded a video. I thought maybe that page had also tried to put in a Trojan.

Must have happened at some other time. The virus detection came up clean but I'm still getting weird registry alterations from those files I mentioned. Something's going on. Something that the virus scanners havent caught onto yet.

turkishproverb
2008-09-11, 11:36 PM
I was referring to the computer issues Turk. Sorry I'll remember to specify next time.

K. I just get a little annoyed when people assume I'm heartless because I won't give charity money to annoying people. Prefer waiting for ones I like.

Anteros
2008-09-11, 11:39 PM
...you're serious?

That aside, this was clearly not an effort to advertise chairty. If you look at whatever his name was's actions and statements after he was initially shut down, it's clearly another script kiddie black hat trying to earn some internet fame. He just used the charity ad to garner more attention for himself which is, frankly, disgusting.

Yes I am serious. Aside from the fact that it's apparently "cool" these days to talk about "how stupid everyone but me is!" most people have enough intelligence to avoid blaming a charity for the actions of one random idiot.

turkishproverb
2008-09-11, 11:41 PM
Yes I am serious. Aside from the fact that it's apparently "cool" these days to talk about "how stupid everyone but me is!" most people have enough intelligence to avoid blaming a charity for the actions of one random idiot.

This random idiot who hacked tropes? Yes. The members of the organizations who will sometimes treat you like dirt or do similar things and expect you to donate? Not so much. Not when there are other causes equally worthy of a persons money.

doliest
2008-09-11, 11:46 PM
This random idiot who hacked tropes? Yes. The members of the organizations who will sometimes treat you like dirt or do similar things and expect you to donate? Not so much. Not when there are other causes equally worthy of a persons money.

I don't understand the charity concept in general, I mean to quote The Devil from god, the devil, and bob-
"The red cross? 99% of their budget goes to parties and ski trips."

If I want to help, I would consider helping them physically, but I won't give them a penny.

turkishproverb
2008-09-11, 11:54 PM
I don't understand the charity concept in general, I mean to quote The Devil from god, the devil, and bob-
"The red cross? 99% of their budget goes to parties and ski trips."

If I want to help, I would consider helping them physically, but I won't give them a penny.

If you know the right charities more goes to those in need than that. Especially when your donating goods and not cash.

Anteros
2008-09-12, 01:43 AM
I don't understand the charity concept in general, I mean to quote The Devil from god, the devil, and bob-
"The red cross? 99% of their budget goes to parties and ski trips."

If I want to help, I would consider helping them physically, but I won't give them a penny.

Well, I used to give money at church every week until I realized they were doing things like buying vans or building 50,000 dollar bronze statues with it, instead of say, feeding the homeless.(Yes I'm serious. It's a giant statue of Jesus washing someone's feet.)

However, if you give your money to a real charity, Unicef, the Red Cross, etc you can be fairly confident it is getting to the people in need. Yes, some of it goes into running the corportation and paying the employees, but it's necessary and many people would be much worse off without these systems in place.

turkishproverb
2008-09-12, 01:52 AM
Well, I used to give money at church every week until I realized they were doing things like buying vans or building 50,000 dollar bronze statues with it, instead of say, feeding the homeless.(Yes I'm serious. It's a giant statue of Jesus washing someone's feet.)

However, if you give your money to a real charity, Unicef, the Red Cross, etc you can be fairly confident it is getting to the people in need. Yes, some of it goes into running the corportation and paying the employees, but it's necessary and many people would be much worse off without these systems in place.

Some of them give significantly less, down to the teens/single digits of thier income though. Best advice is to do your homework.

kamikasei
2008-09-12, 02:58 AM
I don't understand the charity concept in general, I mean to quote The Devil from god, the devil, and bob-
"The red cross? 99% of their budget goes to parties and ski trips."

What's not to understand about "the charity concept"? If a particular charity spends the money it receives badly, then donate to worthier ones.

Nevrmore
2008-09-12, 08:38 AM
TV Tropes isn't that great, guys.

FoE
2008-09-12, 12:18 PM
TV Tropes isn't that great, guys.

Whatever, Nevrmore. How you feel about TV Tropes isn't the topic of discussion anyway.

FoE
2008-09-12, 12:22 PM
I don't know anything about the hacking, but I just wanted to tell you all that I hate you. I just wasted another hour and a half on that accursed site... :smalltongue:

Our evil plan is working ...

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 12:25 PM
Convert them all to the glory of tropism?:smalltongue:

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-12, 01:08 PM
If I want to help, I would consider helping them physically, but I won't give them a penny.With the help of money I donate, phone lines for children in distress/being abused are kept open, life boats are made kept available along the British coast, Britian's birds are protected, British war veterans are aided and a large veriaty of charites in Britain and Africa are aided.

Properly orginised and scruplious charities do a lot of good. Some charities have bad track records but most are good.

I also donate blood.

Turns out I'm O-, so my blood is valuable.

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-12, 01:11 PM
If I want to help, I would consider helping them physically, but I won't give them a penny.With the help of money I donate, phone lines for children in distress/being abused are kept open, life boats are made kept available along the British coast, Britian's birds are protected, British war veterans are aided and a large veriaty of charites in Britain and Africa are aided.

Properly orginised and scruplious charities do a lot of good. Some charities have bad track records but most are good. Comic relief and Sports relief for example spend exactly £0.00 on the actual telethons and so on every year. All the hosts and acts donate their time, the BBC donates the TV equipment and studios and BT donates the phone side of things. Every penny goes to worthy causes.

I also donate blood.

Turns out I'm O-, so my blood is valuable.

PhallicWarrior
2008-09-12, 01:12 PM
You shouldn't have told me that...

*Pulls out a REALLY big needle* :amused:

FoE
2008-09-12, 01:18 PM
You shouldn't have told me that...

*Pulls out a REALLY big needle* :amused:

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 01:19 PM
Thank god I'm O+...
Oh...
*runs away*

Destro_Yersul
2008-09-12, 02:21 PM
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

Evil DM Mark3
2008-09-12, 03:58 PM
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!And thus Grandfather Nurgle did win out over Korn as all his servants did die from a wide veriaty of blood born diseases.

Now onto project 2, STDs for Slaneshis.

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 04:08 PM
wiping out the powers of chaos one disease at a time.:smallbiggrin:

chiasaur11
2008-09-12, 07:33 PM
wiping out the powers of chaos one disease at a time.:smallbiggrin:


So, EA's attempts to build a device to kill hope is really for the greater good? (the greater good).

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 07:36 PM
More than likely. I'd swear some of them looked like fire caste...

Moff Chumley
2008-09-12, 07:49 PM
My world is shattered...

First, I learned today that Tengu's seal of approval is actually worthless.

Now, I learned that Nerdo can't actually fry someone's pc with his brain.

Did I really shatter your reality THAT much?

Oslecamo
2008-09-12, 07:53 PM
And thus Grandfather Nurgle did win out over Korn as all his servants did die from a wide veriaty of blood born diseases.

Now onto project 2, STDs for Slaneshis.

Fool. Whitout those two, 99.9% of the causes of disease spread will disapear and Nurgle will die, leaving only one chaos god alive.

Alone, he won't be able to spread enough chaos to keep himself alive, the eye of terror will freeze and the warp will become safe again.

The imperium of man will start spreading again, the eldar will multiply like rabbits and Leman Russ will finally find the fruit of life to awaken the Emperor, who will smite us all for our heresies!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? YOU SIGNED THE DESTRUCTION OF US ALL!

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 07:56 PM
The balance has been broken. The necrons shall rise to power and set things right and the tau shall declare the greater good a new diety.

Oslecamo
2008-09-12, 08:25 PM
And the Tyrannids shall feast upon all the dead resulting from this transformations!

The necrons, with the intention of protecting their "cattle" , exterminate the tyranids, becoming the supreme heroes of the galaxy!

The humans will be harvested from time to time to feed the C'tan, but between that and being sent to die on the Imperial Guard or being killed in a exterminatus because your neighbour sneezed in an heretical way, the necron harvesting isn't that bad.

Foeofthelance
2008-09-12, 09:47 PM
I disappear for two hours and this already turned into a Warhammer 40k thread?

black dragoon
2008-09-12, 09:48 PM
Just subverted so let's return to flaming out trolls yes?

streakster
2008-09-12, 09:49 PM
I disappear for two hours and this already turned into a Warhammer 40k thread?

We could make it a monk balance thread if you prefer...

chiasaur11
2008-09-12, 09:51 PM
And the Tyrannids shall feast upon all the dead resulting from this transformations!

The necrons, with the intention of protecting their "cattle" , exterminate the tyranids, becoming the supreme heroes of the galaxy!

The humans will be harvested from time to time to feed the C'tan, but between that and being sent to die on the Imperial Guard or being killed in a exterminatus because your neighbour sneezed in an heretical way, the necron harvesting isn't that bad.

Only the faithful will live, saved by CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!

His heroism will lead to the triumph of glorious Terra, the destruction of the Xeno, and the extinction of Chaos!

The Glyphstone
2008-09-12, 10:02 PM
Only the faithful will live, saved by CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!

His heroism will lead to the triumph of glorious Terra, the destruction of the Xeno, and the extinction of Chaos!

All according to Tzeentch's plans...

Foeofthelance
2008-09-12, 10:25 PM
We could make it a monk balance thread if you prefer...

Nah, wrong forum. And even then we'd just end up turning it into another Batman debate...

Ah well, at least my choice is clear...FOR THE EMPEROR!

Nevrmore
2008-09-12, 10:42 PM
Whatever, Nevrmore. How you feel about TV Tropes isn't the topic of discussion anyway.
I feel that it's more than a little absurd to refer to it as "The Nerd's Bible."

TSGames
2008-09-12, 10:48 PM
TV Tropes isn't that great, guys.

Someone needed to say it. +1 props.

chiasaur11
2008-09-12, 11:09 PM
All according to Tzeentch's plans...

Jurgens, however, isn't.

His lack of hygiene will save mankind

Nevrmore
2008-09-12, 11:22 PM
{Scrubbed}

streakster
2008-09-12, 11:41 PM
Whoops! Sorry all, forgot the no feeding rule. Deleted my posts.

Setra
2008-09-13, 02:45 AM
I feel that it's more than a little absurd to refer to it as "The Nerd's Bible."
Wouldn't that be the Silmarillion? Or perhaps Wikipedia?

Regardless, no matter the purpose the guy was being a jerk. Regardless of whether or not you* like TV Tropes, it is established that many people do. Therefore messing with something that many people like, is pretty much just rude.

Due to TV Tropes addictive nature, I would perhaps compare it to stealing the last pack of cigarettes of a large number of people (Would it be wrong to assume over 100,000 people read TV Tropes? This is just a guess, as I really have no clue). Sure it's not evil, but it's not nice.

*By 'you' I mean anyone reading the post, not anyone in particular.

SmartAlec
2008-09-13, 06:40 AM
And thus Grandfather Nurgle did win out over Korn as all his servants did die from a wide veriaty of blood born diseases.

Now onto project 2, STDs for Slaneshis.

Totally off-topic, I know, but the old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay stuff makes it clear that these ailments are, in fact, the results of pacts between the Chaos Gods.

Beaten to the punch there, Evil. :smallcool:

Destro_Yersul
2008-09-13, 08:01 AM
So, EA's attempts to build a device to kill hope is really for the greater good? (the greater good).

If this was a Hot Fuzz reference, you win.

DrivinAllNight
2008-09-13, 10:31 PM
Tis a shame the sight got hacked, cracked, or whatever it's called, i'm not that into the whole hack crack thing, i just find the software I need for something and use that for the purposes needed, but anycase, I didn't read pages 2,3, or 4, just page 1 and 5, and I first thought when I got to page five that I had somehow gotten misdirected to some other forum thread, talk about goin way way way of topic so quickly, but anycase, back on topic now for me,
I would have to say the best way I know of to handle such people is to simply not email them, since they usually relish the hate mail they generate, and when the forums on TV Tropes come back up, simply applaud the staff for getting it back up and running and finally fixing it from the one who shouldn't be named as it would give him or her more credit then they deserve. And thats my 2cp's.

edit: Although, this thread has spawned my desire to go see what TV Tropes is all about, and I must say, it is pretty dang cool :)