Paul.H is a support team member at MyBB
Here is my interview with him:
MinecraftGeek 20:31
Hello Sir,
The Operator 20:31
hallo
MinecraftGeek 20:31
So for the interview I will be asking a few questions to do with MyBB.
The Operator 20:31
mkay
MinecraftGeek 20:32
When did you first get into the support team at MyBB Community?
The Operator 20:32
November 2011 I believe.
MinecraftGeek 20:33
Were you an active helper there before?
The Operator 20:34
I've been actively helping in support since about June 2011, but I'd given out advice here and there before that.
MinecraftGeek 20:34
Ok, So are you helping the development of the upcoming MyBB 1.8 or 2.0 ?
The Operator 20:37
Currently, 2.0 isn't in active development as we are working as hard as we can on 1.8. I don't know the MVC coding programming style yet, so I need to learn that before I can work on 2.0 anyways As for 1.8, I have added a few features and bug fixes. I'm currently the 4th most active developer on MyBB 1.8, with 18 commits, 26,560 additions and 26,447 deletions according to GitHub.
MinecraftGeek 20:39
Very good, In the new update will there be more advanced settings.
The Operator 20:39
Oh, and those thousands of line changes are due to me committing a few files incorrectly with the wrong line ending and then having to change them back. I haven't made THAT many drastic changes.
20:39
There are quite a few features that will be new to 1.8, including the new theme settings that allow one theme with different flavors/colors.
MinecraftGeek 20:40
It's good to know you working hard on the 1.8, I'm also hearing there is a new default theme am i right?
The Operator 20:42
Yes, it is based off of the very popular Apart series by Justin S. It's important to note that it is just based off of the theme, and is not an exact copy. Many changes have been made, such as getting rid of all hardcoded HTML as well as PNG icons instead of GIFs. There's a nice screenshot of it on our Coderwall page: http://coderwall.com/team/mybb
MinecraftGeek 20:43
I must say that does look very nice so hopefully this will make it easier for theme designers when making there theme from default. With the spam bot issue will that be addressed in 1.8, Most of them are just javascript bots but is there going to be built in settings to stop the bots?
The Operator 20:44
A while back, we announced we were making an anti spam plugin called "Spam Ninja". A few months ago, we decided that instead of making a plugin, we'd put all of the anti-spam features into 1.8. I've coded some myself, one of which tries to detect bots on the registration page.
MinecraftGeek 20:46
I have Akismet disabled as it bans people who use certain words, Will this be removed from 1.8 as it i don't think it works to a full extent as it doesn't stop them signing up in most cases.
20:47
I have another question: What are your thoughts on the recent attack on the MyBB community?
The Operator 20:48 As of what I can see right now, Askimet is remaining in 1.8. I'm not sure if Spam Ninja features will replace it, however. They might.
20:48
As for the attack
20:50
We were attacked by the hacker group because a forum they disliked uses our software. It makes no sense at all. As said on the blog, it's like someone attacking a car company because a criminal uses their car. The hack, which didn't get into our servers thankfully and only changed our DNS, did slow down production on 1.6.9.
MinecraftGeek 20:51 Yes, Was the forum they did not like by any chance Hack Forums made by a user called labrocca from MyBB?
The Operator 20:51 Yes, it was.
MinecraftGeek 20:51
Ok I understand now
20:51
Is it ok If I ask you 3 more questions?
The Operator 20:52 Sure is
MinecraftGeek 20:52 Many users are addressing the issue of their forum being hacked, Is this due to insecuirty of them with passwords or the exploits in MyBB with SQL?
The Operator 20:55 There aren't any known major vulnerabilities in MyBB. I'm sure Nathan Malcolm had found them all already The key to staying secure is to make sure your plugins are up to date, you only get them from legitimate sources, and of course, a secure password. Plugins are extremely powerful, they can take down your whole forum if you get them nulled or pirated. Check out the recent blog post I made about it here: http://blog.mybb.com/2012/09/20/using-pirated-mods/
MinecraftGeek 20:56 When people SQL injection forums can they still do it to 1.6.8?
The Operator 20:57 1.6.8 doesn't have any known SQLi vulnerabilities. However, some plugins might have issues. MyTabs, a very popular plugin, had a SQLi vulnerability for a long time before the author fixed it.
MinecraftGeek 20:57 Ok the final question:
With the amount of people who are denied support and ask for support do you get annoyed by how they do that? When people don't go by the TOS of MyBB do you have rights to have the host remove their copy?
The Operator 21:00 When people are denied support, they no longer are able to post new threads in the support sections. It is rather annoying when they try to post in other sections to circumvent that. As for the TOS, our license is LGPL, meaning you can do pretty much whatever you want with it as long as you don't sell it. Users can create any type of site they want with MyBB. Our requirement for "Powered By MyBB" isn't a license agreement, it's just us wanting you to support us if you want us to support you. In short, MyBB cannot take down any MyBB forums for any reason.
MinecraftGeek 21:01 Thanks for your time Paul.H and if you have time drop by nerdchat.net
The Operator 21:01 Will do
MinecraftGeek 21:01 Now all I need to do is copy all of this.
Here is my interview with him:
MinecraftGeek 20:31
Hello Sir,
The Operator 20:31
hallo
MinecraftGeek 20:31
So for the interview I will be asking a few questions to do with MyBB.
The Operator 20:31
mkay
MinecraftGeek 20:32
When did you first get into the support team at MyBB Community?
The Operator 20:32
November 2011 I believe.
MinecraftGeek 20:33
Were you an active helper there before?
The Operator 20:34
I've been actively helping in support since about June 2011, but I'd given out advice here and there before that.
MinecraftGeek 20:34
Ok, So are you helping the development of the upcoming MyBB 1.8 or 2.0 ?
The Operator 20:37
Currently, 2.0 isn't in active development as we are working as hard as we can on 1.8. I don't know the MVC coding programming style yet, so I need to learn that before I can work on 2.0 anyways As for 1.8, I have added a few features and bug fixes. I'm currently the 4th most active developer on MyBB 1.8, with 18 commits, 26,560 additions and 26,447 deletions according to GitHub.
MinecraftGeek 20:39
Very good, In the new update will there be more advanced settings.
The Operator 20:39
Oh, and those thousands of line changes are due to me committing a few files incorrectly with the wrong line ending and then having to change them back. I haven't made THAT many drastic changes.
20:39
There are quite a few features that will be new to 1.8, including the new theme settings that allow one theme with different flavors/colors.
MinecraftGeek 20:40
It's good to know you working hard on the 1.8, I'm also hearing there is a new default theme am i right?
The Operator 20:42
Yes, it is based off of the very popular Apart series by Justin S. It's important to note that it is just based off of the theme, and is not an exact copy. Many changes have been made, such as getting rid of all hardcoded HTML as well as PNG icons instead of GIFs. There's a nice screenshot of it on our Coderwall page: http://coderwall.com/team/mybb
MinecraftGeek 20:43
I must say that does look very nice so hopefully this will make it easier for theme designers when making there theme from default. With the spam bot issue will that be addressed in 1.8, Most of them are just javascript bots but is there going to be built in settings to stop the bots?
The Operator 20:44
A while back, we announced we were making an anti spam plugin called "Spam Ninja". A few months ago, we decided that instead of making a plugin, we'd put all of the anti-spam features into 1.8. I've coded some myself, one of which tries to detect bots on the registration page.
MinecraftGeek 20:46
I have Akismet disabled as it bans people who use certain words, Will this be removed from 1.8 as it i don't think it works to a full extent as it doesn't stop them signing up in most cases.
20:47
I have another question: What are your thoughts on the recent attack on the MyBB community?
The Operator 20:48 As of what I can see right now, Askimet is remaining in 1.8. I'm not sure if Spam Ninja features will replace it, however. They might.
20:48
As for the attack
20:50
We were attacked by the hacker group because a forum they disliked uses our software. It makes no sense at all. As said on the blog, it's like someone attacking a car company because a criminal uses their car. The hack, which didn't get into our servers thankfully and only changed our DNS, did slow down production on 1.6.9.
MinecraftGeek 20:51 Yes, Was the forum they did not like by any chance Hack Forums made by a user called labrocca from MyBB?
The Operator 20:51 Yes, it was.
MinecraftGeek 20:51
Ok I understand now
20:51
Is it ok If I ask you 3 more questions?
The Operator 20:52 Sure is
MinecraftGeek 20:52 Many users are addressing the issue of their forum being hacked, Is this due to insecuirty of them with passwords or the exploits in MyBB with SQL?
The Operator 20:55 There aren't any known major vulnerabilities in MyBB. I'm sure Nathan Malcolm had found them all already The key to staying secure is to make sure your plugins are up to date, you only get them from legitimate sources, and of course, a secure password. Plugins are extremely powerful, they can take down your whole forum if you get them nulled or pirated. Check out the recent blog post I made about it here: http://blog.mybb.com/2012/09/20/using-pirated-mods/
MinecraftGeek 20:56 When people SQL injection forums can they still do it to 1.6.8?
The Operator 20:57 1.6.8 doesn't have any known SQLi vulnerabilities. However, some plugins might have issues. MyTabs, a very popular plugin, had a SQLi vulnerability for a long time before the author fixed it.
MinecraftGeek 20:57 Ok the final question:
With the amount of people who are denied support and ask for support do you get annoyed by how they do that? When people don't go by the TOS of MyBB do you have rights to have the host remove their copy?
The Operator 21:00 When people are denied support, they no longer are able to post new threads in the support sections. It is rather annoying when they try to post in other sections to circumvent that. As for the TOS, our license is LGPL, meaning you can do pretty much whatever you want with it as long as you don't sell it. Users can create any type of site they want with MyBB. Our requirement for "Powered By MyBB" isn't a license agreement, it's just us wanting you to support us if you want us to support you. In short, MyBB cannot take down any MyBB forums for any reason.
MinecraftGeek 21:01 Thanks for your time Paul.H and if you have time drop by nerdchat.net
The Operator 21:01 Will do
MinecraftGeek 21:01 Now all I need to do is copy all of this.
