Hackerman was here in 2024

[Hackerman]

Hello friends on the global mesh network!

I need some expert help with hacking my Windows XP machine back and forth in time. I believe I have come to the right place in time, have I not? The year on the calendar is 2002. Once I have restored my boot sequence initializer, I'll be more than happy to lend my own expertise to help you optimize your processors. Let's have fun! Shall we? See you on the other side of the terminal!

Your pal,
Hackerman

[hpwamr]

Hi @Hackerman, hello from Belgium and welcome to MSFN!  
I wish you to enjoy the forums!
Have a nice day.
hpwamr

[Hackerman]

Hej! Bonjour! Greetings from Sweden!

I didn't think anyone would dare or care to say anything after my rather unusual introduction. But you proved me wrong.

I vaguely remember visiting these forums in the past. Not as a member (not that I have any record of anyway), but as a visitor. So I decided to create an account. After two long decades!

What does MSFN stand for? Microsoft Software Forum Network? Manned Space Flight Network? Make Something From Nothing? I would like to read the history of these forums, but I can't find anything on that. Please add a link where I can read all about it. Also, is the forum owned by that Canadian company that sweeps up all the old school web forums where people in the know go to share, discuss and ask questions?

Nice day to you too!

[Tripredacus]

MSFN is owned by an individual in Europe.

[Hackerman]

1 hour ago, Tripredacus said:

MSFN is owned by an individual in Europe.

Sounds good to me. Is this individual publicly known?

The Canadian company I thought of is called VerticalScope Inc. They bought out such sites as Tech Support Guy at techguy.org, and Tech Support Forum at techsupportforum.com.

This is what they write about themselves on Tech Support Forum,

Quote

TechSupportForum.com is now owned by VerticalScope, the leader in online forums. With over 800 forum communities, VerticalScope provides the technology that powers the community. Our team of volunteer moderators and administrators watch over the content, and actively patrol for spam, user behavioural issues, and make sure threads are in the right categories.

https://www.techsupportforum.com/about/

They write out the same text on all the sites. They run them all on some kind of "Fora" platform - "The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo". So all the sites look and feel the same. It's like they are trying to put together an alternative to Reddit. I hate these big corporations. They are like poison to society. They destroy everything that's good about community driven efforts like a web forum (and what's left of these relics from the web's infancy). Just my two cents! I feel good about finding this forum, that's till not taken over by a big corporation.

Any chance you know what MSFN stands for?

[NojusK]

3 hours ago, Hackerman said:

Any chance you know what MSFN stands for?

Microsoft Software Forum Network.

[Tripredacus]

21 hours ago, Hackerman said:

Sounds good to me. Is this individual publicly known?

//

"The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo".

The owner has an account here (xper) but he is not a public figure if that is what you are asking. 

Xenforo is a fine forum software, better than what IPB has turned into. At least Xenforo works better with older browsers.

[Hackerman]

Is there any particular reason why I would encounter this?

Quote

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access this resource.

This appears when I try to post a reply. It appeared in this thread. But it also appeared in another thread I started, and I wrote a reply there, and posted it. And it seemed to be saved, earlier this morning, only to find out today that my reply is gone. Just wondering what's going on. Where do I post about such issues?

Edited July 7 by Hackerman

[Hackerman]

21 hours ago, NojusK said:

Microsoft Software Forum Network.

Thank you for confirming!

Speaking of big corporations... Sadly, I am unable to visit the page you have linked to. The Internet Archive appears to be under DDOS attack again. I am only met with the following text.

Quote

Temporarily Offline

Internet Archive services are temporarily offline.

Please check our Twitter feed for the latest information.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

I don't know for sure if it's a DDOS attack. They have not made any updates on their Twitter account yet. But it would not be the first time. They were under attack earlier this year, in May.

I hope it's not the same jokers as last year, who were potty training their AI models on historic web texts. Later on, Internet Archive said that it may not have been the work of an AI company, but an "eager" user. I call it like I see it. They can call it whatever they want. It's not normal behavior nonetheless. Sadly, this is becoming normal by each passing month. I can sense the shift in vocabulary by Internet Archive, from "AI company" and "harvesting" to "DDOS".I hope it's not the same jokers as last year, who were potty training their AI models on historic web texts. Later on, Internet Archive said that it may not have been the work of an AI company, but an "eager" user. I call it like I see it. They can call it whatever they want. It's not normal behavior nonetheless. Sadly, this is becoming normal by each passing month. I can sense the shift in vocabulary by Internet Archive, from "AI company" and "harvesting" to "DDOS".

3 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

The owner has an account here (xper) but he is not a public figure if that is what you are asking.

Thank you! I was just curious who the owner is. As long as it's not VerticalScope, I am happy.

3 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

Xenforo is a fine forum software, better than what IPB has turned into. At least Xenforo works better with older browsers.

I agree. That's the only term I recognized in that text honestly. I have some experience in running and customizing XenForo. But I haven't used it in years now. It does come with a price tag though, unlike many. I think it's still one of the more expensive options, but well worth it I think. There is also one called Flarum, a more recent development, which I have great hopes for when it comes to forum software.

Edited July 7 by Hackerman

[Dixel]

On 7/6/2024 at 3:01 PM, NojusK said:

Microsoft Software Forum Network.

 

On 7/7/2024 at 12:09 PM, Hackerman said:

Sadly, I am unable to visit the page you have linked to.

Hi and welcome! The link by @NojusK works absolutely fine for me. I'm quite sure he visited it himself before posting. Looks like they simply blocked your IP or you try to visit from a very old browser.

[Dixel]

On 7/7/2024 at 11:58 AM, Hackerman said:

Is there any particular reason why I would encounter this?

This appears when I try to post a reply. It appeared in this thread. But it also appeared in another thread I started, and I wrote a reply there, and posted it. And it seemed to be saved, earlier this morning, only to find out today that my reply is gone. Just wondering what's going on. Where do I post about such issues?

Could be the same reason, as posted above, with the IP.

[Dixel]

On 7/5/2024 at 2:06 PM, Hackerman said:

Hello friends on the global mesh network!

Hello, it's actually Metaverse Society For Nurds.

[Hackerman]

On 7/9/2024 at 10:45 AM, Dixel said:

 

Hi and welcome! The link by @NojusK works absolutely fine for me. I'm quite sure he visited it himself before posting. Looks like they simply blocked your IP or you try to visit from a very old browser.

Yes, indeed. That is the most likely explanation, as I was using a VPN connection at the time.

Sorry for the very late reply! The good news is, the link works today. No less than one and a half months later! I can see quite clearly now that MSFN stands for: Microsoft Software Forum Network. Thank you @NojusK for the link.

Also, I found this poll of the day (2003-03-29) quite satisfactory:

Quote

Can you survive without your PC for 2 weeks?
○ No way! I can't survive without my PC!
○ Just about...
○ I can manage
○ Yep, no problem
○ I hate Bill Gates!

I think I would have cast my vote on the first option. Even in today's mobile world, I am still more reliant on my computer than on my mobile phone, even though I have a smart phone that's technically a palm-sized computer and much more capable than the computer I had in the early 2000s.

On 7/9/2024 at 10:47 AM, Dixel said:

Could be the same reason, as posted above, with the IP.

It could be. But I think that was a different kind of issue with the forum itself, I was logged out due to inactivity or taking too long to finish my post, and no draft was saved. It happens from time to time. It's one of those moments where you have to retype everything, I think we have all experienced it. I usually do it all over again. But in this instance, I was unable to recollect my thoughts properly and decided not to retype and repost. It did appear as saved at first. I always refresh the page to check my post. But that may have been a cached version or something.

On 7/9/2024 at 10:49 AM, Dixel said:

Hello, it's actually Metaverse Society For Nurds.

I was alluding to Lick's Intergalactic Computer Network, or IGCN for short, the broader network. But sure, Metaverse Society For Nurds, or MSFN works too.

Edited August 28 by Hackerman

[Dixel]

On 8/28/2024 at 10:18 AM, Hackerman said:

Yes, indeed. That is the most likely explanation, as I was using a VPN connection at the time.

Sorry for the very late reply! The good news is, the link works today. No less than one and a half months later! I can see quite clearly now that MSFN stands for: Microsoft Software Forum Network. Thank you

Oh, don't worry, no hurry to reply. There's a war against VPN going on, Reddit banned VPN, as well as Instagram and all similar. What are we even talking about?! They all want your phone number. Internet privacy is no more.