CPCZone

[Gryzor]

Whatever happened to the Zone? 

[robcfg]

I didn't notice an interruption of the service. Maybe your connection had a problem with dns solving or something like that?

[Gryzor]

Nope.... ../zone gave a 404 (I think), cpczone.net/ gave a denial of access error and cpczone.net (without the slash) gave some other error...

[ukmarkh]

I think the Zone is gone forever... 

[Gryzor]

Ouch, seen it now, though I saw a post in the newsgroups yesterday as well. I just sent Malc a message... let's pray otherwise...

To me it looks like it's been hacked and all contents erased. So let's hope Malc has been keeping automated backups. Sigh...

[Gryzor]

OK, Malc messaged me, things are not as bad as I thought. He said there were problems with mass spamming of the forum and the main mail address, and it may be back shortly. Let's cross fingers!

[ukmarkh]

Cheers Gryzor... a true pillar of the community.

[Gryzor]

Who me or the Zone?

[Malc.Jennings]

Hello people.

The site was indeed majorly hacked and spammed to death. Someone managed to install a malware script that took control of the variables passed from page to page and used that to throw malware at your computer. On top of this I personally had 10-20 emails a day from registrations to the forum via email boxes I had already banned! even when the forum was taken down the emails kept coming. I believe all of/ the majority of this was due to a vulnerability in PHPBB.

I have since shut everything down. IF the site makes a return it will be in the bare bones form, just the game data that has been collected (gamebase) for a while. Personally right now I don't have any real time to work on it with my mum being as ill as she is and several other personal things that need my attention.

I apologise for any infection to your computers this may have caused.

Rest assured the database is still in one piece. Whether the site will survive past August of this year is another matter altogether. We shall see.

[Ygdrazil]

Hi Malc

Really sorry to hear about the state of CPCZONE.. I really hope that CPCZONE will survive (in one form or another).. Its a real pity that all the forum conversations seems to be lost - those alone constitute a lot of accumulated knowledge. I really hate people that inflict such meaningless destruction.

I think to keep the scene alive, we could make an emergency CPCZONE over here at the CPCWIKI. But its up to Gryzor as this forum was never intended to become a replacement for any other existing cpc forum, and was meant only for discussions about CPCWIKI related matters.

As a temporary solution though harbouring an emergency ZONE might work, until CPCZONE is back online.

Just a suggestion,
/Ygdrazil

Hello people.

The site was indeed majorly hacked and spammed to death. Someone managed to install a malware script that took control of the variables passed from page to page and used that to throw malware at your computer. On top of this I personally had 10-20 emails a day from registrations to the forum via email boxes I had already banned! even when the forum was taken down the emails kept coming. I believe all of/ the majority of this was due to a vulnerability in PHPBB.

I have since shut everything down. IF the site makes a return it will be in the bare bones form, just the game data that has been collected (gamebase) for a while. Personally right now I don't have any real time to work on it with my mum being as ill as she is and several other personal things that need my attention.

I apologise for any infection to your computers this may have caused.

Rest assured the database is still in one piece. Whether the site will survive past August of this year is another matter altogether. We shall see.

[Gryzor]

I think we're at crossroads here. Certainly, it's immensely sad what happened to the Zone. It's not clear (at least to me) if the forum db is still intact, and/or if it can be infused to another forum db.

I've said it before that I don't want the Wiki to antagonize the Zone. On the other hand, should the Zone cease to exist as we know it I think that the Wiki is is positioned in the best possible way to continue in the same path.

That said, I'd much better see the Zone back up again, because Malc has shown amazing dedication and talent and I know I'm no match for him. In that sense, I'd need some help from other community members to run the forum which would probably have much bigger needs. We'll have much more to discuss, like, maybe, transferring the GameBase data to the wiki if Malc would be willing to go that way and so on.

All this is in the case the Zone boards never makes it back. As an emergency meeting point the Wiki forum could easily expand and function this way, but I'd really hate it if we settle down here and then the Zone opens up again - what then?

Regarding the Zone: so, what was being discussed about code injection turned out to be true. How unfortunate...

Malc: I feel for you, mate. I hope you get over your troubles soon, and you have my sincerest wishes for your mother.

Oh boy. Certainly all good things must come to an end, but philosophising certainly doesn't make it any easier. Is there any way we could help bring the Zone back on its feet, Malc?

Oh, and one request: could you at least put a placeholder page on the server to let people know what happened and what the status is? Maybe redirect them to this discussion?

Cheers
Gry

[CPCLER]

Yeah.. Crap what happend to CPCZONE. Its a real pity! 

But I think it would be really damaging to the CPC scene if there is no forum where sceners can meet. I would not like to go back to the days of: comp.sys.amstrad.8bit

Until CPCZONE is back online. The CPCWIKI forum should be the "lifeboat" for the CPCZONE. CPCWIKI was never intended for this, but its an emergency 

Regards,
CPCLER

I think we're at crossroads here. Certainly, it's immensely sad what happened to the Zone. It's not clear (at least to me) if the forum db is still intact, and/or if it can be infused to another forum db.

I've said it before that I don't want the Wiki to antagonize the Zone. On the other hand, should the Zone cease to exist as we know it I think that the Wiki is is positioned in the best possible way to continue in the same path.

That said, I'd much better see the Zone back up again, because Malc has shown amazing dedication and talent and I know I'm no match for him. In that sense, I'd need some help from other community members to run the forum which would probably have much bigger needs. We'll have much more to discuss, like, maybe, transferring the GameBase data to the wiki if Malc would be willing to go that way and so on.

All this is in the case the Zone boards never makes it back. As an emergency meeting point the Wiki forum could easily expand and function this way, but I'd really hate it if we settle down here and then the Zone opens up again - what then?

Regarding the Zone: so, what was being discussed about code injection turned out to be true. How unfortunate...

Malc: I feel for you, mate. I hope you get over your troubles soon, and you have my sincerest wishes for your mother.

Oh boy. Certainly all good things must come to an end, but philosophising certainly doesn't make it any easier. Is there any way we could help bring the Zone back on its feet, Malc?

Oh, and one request: could you at least put a placeholder page on the server to let people know what happened and what the status is? Maybe redirect them to this discussion?

Cheers
Gry

[Gryzor]

You are certainly right that there MUST be a meeting place for the scene members. That's absolutely right, regardless of whether the Zone reappears or not (which means, regardless whether that place is temporary or not). Whether it should be the Wiki is another issue, but I'm positively inclined - I think that, at least for the english-speaking world it would be enough.

Let me say that I'm not averse to the idea of running a permanent forum - quite the contrary, actually. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, pluralism is not a good thing in our case, and I'd never compete with the Zone, should it reemerge. We have to think about it all.

Thanks for your input, I wish more people joined in and offered theirs...

[ervin]

cpczone was (and hopefully will be once again) a pretty important part of my life.

I've been heavily into computers ever since I received my cpc464 in 1985, at the age of 12.
In the last 5 years or so, I've got back into retro computing in a big way, and cpczone has been at the heart of that.
It has been (for a long time now) one of 3 sites I visit every single day.

I really hope that it can make a comeback, even in a simplified form, as it would be a terrible terrible shame to lose such an amazing resource.

It would also be a real shame to close the door on a truly magnificent piece of work.
Malc, your skills are evident for all to see, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving the world such an incredible gift.

Certainly it would be adequate to use cpcwiki for forum duties, but as Gryzor says, the wiki should not clash with the zone, as they serve different functions.
But working together may simplify Malc's duties a lot, and increase the chances of getting the zone resurrected.

[Axelay]

CPCZone was the site I visited most in the last 4 or 5 years as well.  It's been great as a central place to find out what's going on in the CPC world, as well as picking up ideas/knowledge from discussions on the forum, or just finding games I hadnt come across the first time round.  So thank you Malc, for the time & effort you put in to CPCZone.

[woody.cool]

I'm gonna miss CPC zone
Hope it comes back (as I've got nowhere to go to get my CPC fix)

[Gryzor]

Question: what was it that you got from the Zone when you say 'CPC fix'?

[woody.cool]

Question: what was it that you got from the Zone when you say 'CPC fix'?

A sense of a community that use CPCs and also the existence of the forum and the reviews of games is what I'll miss the most.
Being able to look up a CPC game or app at the drop of a hat was nice, and if I have any CPC issues, CPC Zone forum was the place to ask questions.
I was more of a lurker than a poster to be honest, but it was a useful resource for all things CPC.

[Malc.Jennings]

Ok guys. Here's the latest.

1. The database, at least the most important parts are in-tact and backed up here.
2. The forum posts and registration data is still in tact but I'm not sure (right now) how best to go about getting the forum up and running again. It needs to be the very latest build of phpbb or equivelanet and I cannot afford vbulletin's extortionate licence.
3. The first priority should the actual site return is getting the game entries up to some degree as it took a long time to collect that information and it's currently doing nothing but sit here.

As for design. Obviously with it all being cut back I need to look at a new visual appearance even if temporary. This itself is time consuming.

Only thing I can say is hang on before declaring it 100% dead. The site IS up for renewal in August however as the hosting runs out. We'll see closer to that data, and there's months before then. Under no circumstances will I destroy the data I collected so one way or another I'm sure it will live on.

Thanks to everyone so far for your kind words and for not blaming the site itself for the trouble that has gone down lately. CPC Zone has lost an arse load of links from similar sites as a result of all this and I can honestly say I don't blame them.

[Gryzor]

Heya Malc, glad to see that you're following the discussion and that there is something moving

It's also great that the data is intact... no way we could ever replace that amount!

Regarding the forum: aren't there solutions that you can migrate to and that may have an import facility? I'd bet there would be some as phpbb is so popular...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the August deadline; I do understand that the hosting service is up for renewal then, but does this mean that this is when you'll take the decision? Because it'd certainly be a long time with no forum by then

I don't see how anyone could blame you or the site. There was an ongoing discussion on the forum about the code injection and I had toyed with the idea of contacting you and letting you know, but I figured that you'd have some pretty good reasons for staying away and I respected that.

Cheers
Gryzor

[Malc.Jennings]

This is the basic idea of a revival. Knocked up only in Photoshop, no code has been completed or even started.

Re: the "Moonwalker" graphic, it will change between 10 random games from the gamebase and may be replaced with a large screen shot rather than the artwork. Twitter may also *not* become part of the site. I've not decided.

Also disregard the christmas hats etc. It's the only PSD of the header I still had.

[Wanderer]

2Malc

First of all, i'd like to add my sincerest wishes to what the rest of the people here have already expressed about your mother. Personal matters like that are the most (if not the only) important things in our lives and i really hope whatever the problem is, she can overcome it and be healthy again.

As far as CPCZone is concerned, it is really a part of my life. I may not be very active in it but i really like having such a place i can hang around and remember my youth days. The important thing that the data painfully collected so far are safe. As for the rest, everything can be rebuilt in good time. The wiki can temporarily serve as a meeting point until you find the time (if you decide it) to cleanup and re-setup CPCZone. Though i have a rather limited knowledge of how web-things work, just send a PM if you need any help. I'll be happy to help any way i can.

[ervin]

Very very nice indeed Malc.
That's a really impressive design.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

[Ritchardo]

I don't know... turn your back for five minutes and everything goes tits up!



Still about... kinda... time is limited with real life stuff but still willing ready and able to do my bit if I can - you know how to get hold of me if you need me Malc.

Liking the design never ceases to amaze me what you can knock up in relatively short spaces of time.

Anyway, toodle pip peeps for now guess this ole mod has to get back to living a civillian life without the endless power and ego trips!

[mahlemiut]

Well, guess this is as good a time to join up here also. 

Here's to hoping that CPCZone gets back to normal soon.