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CbTricks.com FORUM - MEMBERS

How could a response to a thread crash a forum? Maybe the host had a bad drive or something and corrupted the database?
 
Porkchop the one thing that use to mess with the forum was some one trying to load too large of a file to the postings and it would crash that posting and the page would be white only and delete all the prior postings on that one post.. we would have to start a new posting for that one item to try and get back on track.. that is the only thing I remember happening to crash part of the forum.
I wish I knew just what crashed the forum and maybe Bennie could get it back on line.
I am happy here so the cbtricks forum has been down so long now does not matter if that portion comes back on or not.
 
Yea I remember that now that you mention it. I like this forum too, not knocking it, just miss that one. But honestly at one time I was on so many that it was hard to keep up. I like this one the best.
 
It wasn't a response to a thread that caused problems.

It was uploaded images. I don't know what the safe upper limit was for size. I use Imageshack, and the pics I keep there are already shrunk. The forum displays them from a URL embedded in the post, like the {img} tag on this forum.

But anyone who uploaded a pic from his 20 megapixel phone camera ran the risk of exceeding the image-size limit.

The result was a thread that appeared to be totally blank. It's a buffer overflow crock of some sort. The forum software didn't include a safety check for oversize image files.

Required admin privileges to delete the crashed thread.

Could be that the overflow bug finally clobbered something more important than just one thread.

Like, maybe the index file?

My database expertise is pretty primitive, but that's my impression of what blew up.

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How does Simple Machines handle images? The php.ini file should limit file upload length, and any request to upload a file that is too big should fail. If it tries to store the images in the database, that could cause an issue, on top of being the absolute worst way to store images.

I was thinking more a problem with something like SQL injection. Any sufficiently supported open source project should have protection for that, but there are always oversights.

Anyway, since it seems that the owner of that page is of an unknown status, I've been looking at a way of storing the data that is still available, just in case. There are offline readers that could make it a fairly easy task, but that stores things as static files. Scraping to put things into a database would be better, but the pages are not really standard, so I can envision a lot of manual editing.
 
I have tried to register and said no more members has anyone been able to register for the forums lately?
 
The CB Tricks.com forum stopped accepting new signups long before it went down.

Turns out the labor to weed out an actual CB or ham member from a spammer is significant. I helped out with that for a while, and there were hundreds of sketchy signups that would appear in a matter of days.

Bennie wasn't up to a job that size, and started turning on new signups for a few days at a time, then turning it back off when the workload reached his limit.

The forum used a "send activation email" to reduce the risk of a bot signing up. But a lot of those got lost in the new member's SPAM folder, and never get activated.

Just proves running a forum is a lot like running a bar.

You have to be on the premises or it goes straight down the drain.

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There are methods to kick out spam signups from the beginning that go well beyond just an email verification. Akismet does a very good job of weeding them out, and they make it for Simple Machines Forum.
 
I had made a "relatively-nice" donation to CBT some years back, and received in return, a GREAT set of 4-DVDs, which contained almost 15 Gb of files.!!

I would GLADLY donate again to help support the folks who are making (and had made) such a GREAT "contribution to the cause" (and hopefully an up-dated set of DVDs) if I was given the proper information to do so., "in a heart-beat".!!

That's because, for the first 25 years of my business, while working on virtually only "commercial-grade" Motorola (and some GE & Aerotron) equipment., that I became so used-to AND spoiled., by having access to the VERY tops of technical documentation, that when I became "down-graded" to working on mostly "consumer-grade" equipment (and after collecting all 293 SAMs CB manuals)., that finding CBT was a "god-send" for me., and would like to see it continue for YEARS to come..!!

Regards & 73s,
Eric., the channel 21 "Radioman" :)
(aka: KY8E)

PS: If ever there's anyone here that believes I might be of help or benefit to them, don't hesitate to ask.!
 

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