Comments | baxil: That old "interesting times" adage

baxil

That old "interesting times" adage

Jun 27, 2011 20:23

After a weekend spent working and entertaining family -- punctuated by a server move that I'm almost certain had nothing to do with my mysterious hacker -- I've come back to the Pony4e board with an uncomfortable realization: I can't afford to wait and watch "Princess Luna" any more.

She hasn't done anything else wrong -- unless Inaki and I missed ( Read more... )

transcendent masculinity, my brain now hurts

Comments 18

blossomforth June 28 2011, 03:51:36 UTC

Granted, I have no idea how to do any of the coding or anything for this sort of thing, so take my opinions knowing that.

Her posts list that the IP is logged. Would it be possible for you to create a new administrative rank with the ability to see IP addresses, and promote somepony to that rank? I figure you couldn't do that on a current administrator rank, but since it would be a new rank, possibly nothing would be blocking the new rank from seeing her posts.

From there, check to see if that lines up with anypony else's address. It probably wouldn't, but couldn't hurt to look. After that you either know who it is and you can approach them directly, knowing a bit more about them, or at the very least may be able to block that IP address from your site?

I only suggest recon at the moment, but you will eventually need to approach them directly. Say that you appreciate the flavor they've added to everything, but you can't have somepony hacking your site. Worst case scenario, you have to send her to the moon? :-/

baxil June 28 2011, 04:12:39 UTC

Re the IP address: tried that (I can't read the posts, but I can read the database files they're stored in). The address listed with the older posts is the same address as the webserver itself. This fits with the lack of entries in the HTTP logs ( ... )

blossomforth June 28 2011, 04:47:58 UTC

You might be able to play her game with her, but then again it might not accomplish anything. Though if you challenge her in RP terms it may force her hand and make her reply in OOC.

baxil June 28 2011, 07:07:15 UTC

That, and it seems (on second thought) like it's more respectful to her to respond in kind. Which, if I'm trying to be diplomatic, seems like a good starting point.

Thread 8

heron61 June 28 2011, 04:24:00 UTC

This is very odd, I have no idea why someone would hack a board like that and then be a seemingly model participant. My best guess is a privat message expressing that you like this person's contributions so far, but are a bit weirded out that they hacked their way into the board, and asking them to stop doing that and go public, while making it clear that if they do, they are welcome to stay.

If nothing else, if things escalate, it will be purely their doing.

baxil June 28 2011, 07:02:15 UTC

> asking them to stop doing that and go public, while making it clear that if they do, they are welcome to stay

Yeah, that sounds about right. Thanks for the suggestion.

I can't say I understand it, either. If I did, I suspect this would be a great deal simpler.

soreth June 28 2011, 05:18:14 UTC

I have this suspicion that "Princess Luna" will disappear completely before choosing to take part as a normal user. Makes too much sense, ICly and OOCly...

baxil June 28 2011, 07:05:09 UTC

That, it might still be too early to tell. So far, the only thing she seems to have done with her admin powers is to fiddle with the board script for effect (e.g., hiding posts from me, and adding a little undocumented text formatting).

But if it becomes a sticking point ... meh. I genuinely don't know. It really boils down to a trust issue.

soreth June 28 2011, 07:25:07 UTC

Oh, it's completely a trust issue. But given that you have a Celestial running around, with the power behind the software to actually back it up OOCly... what are the odds that you're going to get someone to drop from that lofty state to a regular user account? Too much of a fall from grace, say my instincts, for how much they've deliberately set themselves up to blur the line between IC and OOC.

No matter what happens, I'm watching with interest.

balinares June 28 2011, 11:31:36 UTC

Surely you've thought of this already (and maybe we already talked about it and I forgot; I forget so much these days), but did you try capturing the network traffic when she's logged in, with tcpdump or alike? At the least it should tell us her IP, and on what port she accesses the server.

If you have trouble interpreting the resulting PCAP files in Wireshark (it can be tricky), and don't mind sharing with me, I can feed it into our network analysis software, since that's what I do these days.

I hope she'll stay, no matter what. She sounds intelligent and articulate, and is obviously very motivated about roleplaying there.

siege June 28 2011, 12:48:32 UTC

I'm not. I'm hoping she'll leave us quietly and not come back, which is very unlikely, or at least drop the Luna character and the admin/root powers (all of them), again unlikely. She's forced her way in (breaking and entering are acts of invasion) and taken over one of the most powerful characters in the entire show while giving her RL admin powers (a power grab), and wants to stay hidden from those in charge, a set of behaviors rather like Nightmare Moon trying to come back; on top of that, she's trying to confuse IC and OOC, which, while amusing, is just another way of denying personal responsibility by saying the character did it and not the player ( ... )

baxil June 28 2011, 17:29:59 UTC

Putting on my board admin hat: It's my responsibility to help all of the participants enjoy themselves. You're only on the board because you're having fun. Someone's standing in the way of that, so it is both my responsibility, and my desire, to step up and fix it.

So -- yes. I'm trying. I can assure you that there will be an ultimatum.

But -- taking off the admin hat -- I'm not sure it's as clear-cut as "breaking and entering" and "bullying." What has she done with that invasion and that power? She's made constructive contributions. She even fixed a broken lock on her way in the door. Those aren't the actions of a vandal, they're the actions of a BanksyI'm with you, that there needs to be accountability for the player. Period. I will take personal responsibility for that ( ... )

siege June 28 2011, 18:11:21 UTC

I think the problem with allowing the character to remain is that the player never asked to play such a powerful creature. Regardless of whether Luna's behavior stays in line, or which background and attitude the player chooses to represent (there are many in fanon, because canon Luna is such a blank slate), the character herself is an alicorn Princess, and thus very powerful ( ... )

Thread 5