I have no idea of the inner politics of the the Buzz servers. But I did notice the other thread going off on tangents. So what's everyone's spin on Buzz? We all know they could be a great part of the community, but the site shuts down for so long and so often. The twc's old site used to clunk out all the time but they seem to have made a comeback. Think the same will happen to Buzz or will it just go neglected?
timtylor: same thing. The reason it took me a while to get things back online was that I was rewriting every single line of every single php script on our server to be more paranoid about user-submitted data before sending it to the database.
Townie: Ironically, running a big, popular, well-written program like phpBB can make you more of a target just because if there's a security flaw that's found, all the hackers seem to know the precise weakness within hours, and they have easy ways to find places to go try the exploits. But a program like phpBB, even in its pre-patched condition, was/is probably a lot more secure, really, ultimately, than most php programs most people write for their own sites. It's just that security flaws in home-rolled php scripts don't get the publicity, because there's less advantage in cracking them (cracking phpBB opens up thousands of sites, cracking myownphpsite.com only opens up one site). But it's still a difficult situation for any php coder who doesn't have a Comp Sci degree.
Joey
www.moderntales.com
Internet sites have the habit of disappearing suddenly for no reason. Remember Reslifecomics.com? I miss that strip...
[quote:ed2fbf0369="Anonymous"]If they're talking about "problems with their code," I think this may be a similar problem to the one that crippled Modern Tales a couple of months ago (we're still recovering).
Was that the same thing as the server crash, or a separate incident?
Buzz ran off of phpBB, and I remember then getting hacked at least once before, but I don't think that was the main problem. Drunkduck's forum got hacked twice in the same week because of the same security flaw that simply keeping updated prevents. I like to keep my scripts up to date whenever I see there's a new security measure (Though hackers usually attack sites with more visibility than mine)
Yeah, my own coding abilities only go up to modding. I'm better at taking 2 scripts and thinking up something crazy to do with 'em than anything else. On the plus side, my curious nature lead to the ATP Autosite guys figuring out how to give their script an RSS feed
[quote:bf49c0a24f="Townie"]Yeah, my own coding abilities only go up to modding. I'm better at taking 2 scripts and thinking up something crazy to do with 'em than anything else. On the plus side, my curious nature lead to the ATP Autosite guys figuring out how to give their script an RSS feed
Is that right? Could you post a link to the forum or URL where ATP now has an RSS feed? That's good news!
P.S. I also turned the Comixpedia Top List page back on. I don't think it was the culprit when the site overtaxed the server CPU but if it was/is I'll turn it back off.
http://comixpedia.com/index.php?module=pnTopList
You can read the thread we had on it here - http://atp.cx/forums/viewtopic.php?t=233
Basically they found a tutorial on making an rss feed from php elements and wired it to work for the script depending on your variables. Right now it does the basics of linking to the most recent strip. I asked about getting the archives listed as different items in the feed and they said they'd look in to it. (I was surprised they worked that first part out so fast) It was my original intention to connect the feed to a mailing script to manage e-mail subscriptions automatically. http://tincan.co.uk/phplist is supposed to automate sending feeds through e-mail but I haven't got it fully running on my site yet. http://rails.yanime.org/rssfwd/index automates a feed and comes with subcsription box coding, but I've only seen it send a text link to the site when it updates, which seems kind of pointless to me. If I sign up to get a site's updates in my inbox, I'd like to see the actual strip there, like Keenspot does. Yet something else to work on...
Personally, I'm neutral to the thought of it coming back. While I have enjoyed moderate success on Buzz and other "top lists" during my tenure as an internet graphic artist, the whole practice for me has always felt unsavoury. Because really, it's a popularity contest. Is the number one comic really the best comic out there? Of course not. I could go down the list and find dozens of better comics that either don't pimp themselves as well, or just haven't had the breaks.
Plus don't get me started on the whole concept of vote incentives. When did the comic itself stop being incentive enough?
I'm not bitter towards the lists, mind you, and I don't fault them for what they do and how they do it. If they didn't offer a built-in incentive program, people would still be offering them anyway. And don't get me wrong, top lists are a great way to get a traffic boost, and expose yourself to the community, but at the same time they always seem to fail comprehension on certain concepts, and they always manage to breed drama.
I guess it will be good when it comes back. I think I'll be limiting my contact to a simple vote button though.
Really, these things exist to help the little guys get some exposure they normally wouldnt. When you get to a certain level, you need to leave them behind like your first wife.
I personally don't give a hooey about the list itself. (I'm on a few others now, but I only did that for the flow thru of traffic they enable) I miss the forum. There were some interesting personalities on there. Plus it was actually pretty active compared to all the other webcomic forums, especially if you compare the amount of "WTF my komick isnt num oNe on teh list?! Suxxors!" threads to other places I post at
I haven't had a comic on a top list in years.
I liked the forums though, it's a totally different atmosphere from Comixpedia.
I'm always open to ideas for the forums at Comixpedia if you think there ways to make it better - message or email me!
xerxes: It's not like that, I love these forums too, but the people are different.
Comixpedia has more of the big name creators, Buzz had the smaller ones. It's like seeing Metallica in a stadium versus seeing a local band in a dirty bar.
It is actually interesting to see how different in nature the several webcomic forums are.
I was a frequent at the Buzz until eventually the regular posts regarding popularity and how to achieve it and the flamefests that consecutively took place on them started to get on me.
I do miss it, tho. A lot of people I like and respect post there and worked hard to make it better. Al Schroeder and Liriel are the first that spring to mind.
There's an explaination up on the buzzComix site now. Glad to hear about what's happening finally. ^^
And now the explination is replaced by a giant image as a "coming soon" marker... So I take it they're totally relaunching the site? It'd be nice if there was some sorta place to keep updated on this
Not only is Joyce and Walky set to debut on that day, but apparently Buzz is making a come back at the same time
Looks like we're startin' the second day of Buzz off right... I thought they'd switched servers? What's with this?
haha, yeah.
Oh Buzzcomix, don't ever change...
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The site's been 404ing for 26 days now, so I think whatever incarnation it was on is gone for good. Before, it would just go to 'account suspended' for the last days of the month, but this time, its just gone.
Mneonix hasn't answered my emails, so I don't know what's going on. If I hear something, you guys will hear something. Promise, promise.
If they're talking about "problems with their code," I think this may be a similar problem to the one that crippled Modern Tales a couple of months ago (we're still recovering).
I haven't heard any official story on this, but I get a sense that, shortly after the big phpBB crack was found, hackers started deciding to really go after websites written in php generally, to try to take advantage of common coding and configuration errors that exist on php-based servers and applications. Specifically, php coders who don't filter their user's input for the possibility of "sql injection" attacks (which is what brought MT down, and which is as nasty-sounding as it seems).
Not saying anything about Buzz one way or another -- I've been to their site a couple of times, that's about it, and I don't really know anything about them, their current situation, or anything. Seems odd they wouldn't at least have posted a note here to let everybody know what's up. They might not have even been a PHP site, though I think they were.
But if your site is coded in PHP, you should really be on guard these days. Maybe it's just my imagination -- maybe I'm just overly paranoid after having my own nose bloodied -- but it seems like the attacks against PHP-based applications are getting more and more frequent and more and more clever. Make sure your PHP installation is as up-to-date as your hosting provider will allow (most of them aren't supporting PHP 5 yet these days, unfortunately), and make sure, among other things, that you aren't vulnerable to sql injection attacks (this usually involves turning off the "GPC_Magic_QUOTES" thing in your php.ini and then filtering and mysql_real_escape_string()-ing the hell out of any variable -- querystring, cookie, or posted form field -- that comes toward your script from the outside, making sure that it isn't deliberately malformed in order to cause harm to your database or your file structure, and neutering if it is, just in case.
All of which is, among "real" programmers, considered common sense -- but many of us in the webcomics world were/are programmers only by accident, and this stuff can seem unimportant until it gets you. And then it is too often too late.
Joey
www.moderntales.com
You should definitly get your money back.
Buzz - is it down for the count?
I have no idea of the inner politics of the the Buzz servers. But I did notice the other thread going off on tangents. So what's everyone's spin on Buzz? We all know they could be a great part of the community, but the site shuts down for so long and so often. The twc's old site used to clunk out all the time but they seem to have made a comeback. Think the same will happen to Buzz or will it just go neglected?
RE: Buzz - is it down for the count?
I see fewer and fewer buzz buttons around. Guess I'm not the only one who's sick of having a broken image on my page all the time.
It's a bandwidth thing, it'll probably be back up at the beginning of June. I'm going to yell at the admins for being cheapasses when it's back.
I think it was having some other problems besides the bandwidth... it had been going down towards the end of every month, but it was barely up at all for May. I think they said something about memory problems with some of their code.
Even if it is bandwidth problems, to have it happen every month?
There was this brief window of time before it went down "for good" where the admin explained that they were having some kind of tech problem which leads me to believe that it isn't just a bandwidth issue. However, I don't know what it is then since "tech problem" is pretty vague. I think that that's probably what's hurting bCx the most. Nobody seems to know what's really going on so they can only assume that bCx don't have enough money for bandwidth. I wonder if it'll ever come back up.
Anyone have their Email address so I can Get my $160.00 back for the ads I placed for May June and July??
CB
Alpha Shade
http://www.alpha-shade.com
You know, I bought some ads from them back when I was testing out banners on a couple of sites and I never saw mine go up. It was a small amount so I didn't worry about getting it back. Isn't 3 months of advertising on one site kinda overkill, anyway?
[quote:fa33edeb65="Snoozer"]Anyone have their Email address so I can Get my $160.00 back for the ads I placed for May June and July??
CB
Alpha Shade
http://www.alpha-shade.com
Damn, I was planning to sneak in on June 1st and snap up the ads for the first two weeks of the month before the server went down again :)
Oh well, maybe it's for the better. It looks like a lot of the comics that used to be tops on Buzz have moved on.