# Arboristsite.com down/spammed?



## joecool85 (Oct 1, 2013)

I tried going to ArboristSite.com and it's showing a redirect to Linkbucks.com junk.  Doesn't matter what PC I'm on or what internet connection I'm on so I know it isn't me.  Anyone know what's up over there?  I only stop in a couple times a year now so for all I know it's been that way for months.


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## Badfish740 (Oct 1, 2013)

There was a thread about this a while back-they keep getting hacked.


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## joecool85 (Oct 1, 2013)

Badfish740 said:


> There was a thread about this a while back-they keep getting hacked.



Oh that sucks.  I've dealt with that here at work before.  Hackers are a pain in the butt.


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## billb3 (Oct 1, 2013)

I have adblock running so whatever that linkbucks is doesn't work.
I can get past that download manager attempt to arborist site by pausing adblock but clicking on any link on the page starts that linkbucks attempt again.
Screw that.
Hope they get it fixed although I don't spend any time there except when I was researching bandmills.





edit:
more:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=302836


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## BrotherBart (Oct 1, 2013)

Yeah Darin is going through hell.


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## joecool85 (Oct 1, 2013)

billb3 said:


> I have adblock running so whatever that linkbucks is doesn't work.
> I can get past that download manager attempt to arborist site by pausing adblock but clicking on any link on the page starts that linkbucks attempt again.
> Screw that.
> Hope they get it fixed although I don't spend any time there except when I was researching bandmills.
> ...



Ouch.  I hope he can get some help and get it sorted.


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## webbie (Oct 1, 2013)

It amazes me that it's been for so long...
I don't claim how to know how to do everything, but I certainly know who to call to get it done pronto!

Wow, that's quite a hack.......someone is raking in the dough!


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## Badfish740 (Oct 1, 2013)

webbie said:


> It amazes me that it's been for so long...



Yeah...I guess Stormfront.org is seeing a lot more traffic now that AS is closed down


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## webbie (Oct 1, 2013)

I can't claim to hold this place together with much except luck and persistence and great mods...

Between the "fun" of hacking and disruption and the $$$ which can be raked in, it's tempting for folks all over the world. We actually lock out MANY countries from registering here. Never had a complaint yet. 

I just checked. My guess is that we deny 1,000 registrations each day.


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## blades (Oct 2, 2013)

The hacking started last week and has been continuing since then, on again off again.


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## Badfish740 (Oct 2, 2013)

blades said:


> The hacking started last week and has been continuing since then, on again off again.



Damn Southern Poverty Law Center...


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## webbie (Oct 2, 2013)

I heard about it here MANY weeks ago....so there must be multiple attacks.


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## blades (Oct 3, 2013)

Looks like it is coming through on Java script


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## rowerwet (Oct 3, 2013)

if you use firefox with "noscripts" plug in it can be avoided... mostly


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## webbie (Oct 3, 2013)

rowerwet said:


> if you use firefox with "noscripts" plug in it can be avoided... mostly



That's a heck of a way to surf a popular site. I'm still amazed.....that they simply cannot hire someone over on the VBB boards and have it fixed in a couple hours. Then again, there is the possibility they (the owners, managers, mods) don't care about the site. Sometimes these things can get old. Of course, we still wake up excited in the morning after 18+ years....


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## jharkin (Oct 3, 2013)

webbie said:


> That's a heck of a way to surf a popular site. I'm still amazed.....that they simply cannot hire someone over on the VBB boards and have it fixed in a couple hours. Then again, there is the possibility they (the owners, managers, mods) don't care about the site. Sometimes these things can get old. Of course, we still wake up excited in the morning after 18+ years....




It happens.  The owners/administrator of my favorite old house message board went awol for about 5 years and the place got overrun by spam bots. There where active mods who tried their best to fix it but just couldn't without admin access and years of emails and phone calls to the site owners went unanswered. Finally people gave up and went and created a new forum - posted the link to the new forum on the old one and suddenly the owner showed up out of the blue and banned the members who were trying to fix things.

Other old house nuts probably know exactly what I'm talking about.


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## webbie (Oct 3, 2013)

The site Ken Holmes used to run? oldhouseweb, I think???

Smokey is a friend of theirs....


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## jharkin (Oct 3, 2013)

Bingo.  The place just fell apart, I think the founders had sold it. Some days the first 30 threads where poorly translated ads for china knockoff handbags and watches  The content outside of the forums has just been on a repeating loop for years too.


Most of the active forum members went to a new site called wavyglass.org


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## webbie (Oct 3, 2013)

Well, if you got the bucks they did, you'd have sold it too! It was sold right before the great crash and for a price which is high...

Forums can very well die as soon as "the love" leaves them. I had considered some businesses where I would take over old forums and archive them (no new members or posts) for their content - and present it all so it wasn't lost.

Then I decided I have enough to do. But if anyone wants to make some decent coin and is tech and sale savvy, I'll share the business model


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## webbie (Oct 4, 2013)

Thank goodness it's up again! Looks like loyal audience didn't go away!


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## Flatbedford (Oct 5, 2013)

I just checked it out for the first time in a while. Now you need a special password to go on the politics or gun sections. I guess I'm done there now.


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## webbie (Oct 5, 2013)

Oh, I figured the lack of a Opera or Theater discussion room was your reason...


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## BrotherBart (Oct 5, 2013)

They were first hit on the 10th of Sept. It has been a long hard fight for them getting it cleaned out. And were still having problems yesterday.

I just made a pass through there and it looks like they are back in business.


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## Flatbedford (Oct 5, 2013)

I have enough opera. No need to discuss. Worldwide live HD broadcast as I type.


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## BrotherBart (Oct 5, 2013)

That would be Eugene Onegin?


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## Flatbedford (Oct 5, 2013)

You bet! The duel should be in about 30 minutes.


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## BrotherBart (Oct 5, 2013)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.


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## Flatbedford (Oct 5, 2013)

Kinda foggy too.


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## Flatbedford (Oct 5, 2013)

How many guys at AS would even know how to say Onegin? I love this place.


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## OldLumberKid (Oct 5, 2013)

Looks like it's down (blank page) again...


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## BrotherBart (Oct 5, 2013)

It looks like the fat lady sang. They have taken the whole site down. A real shame. Of course I know another place their members could go, but... It ain't necessarily here.


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## billb3 (Oct 6, 2013)

OldLumberKid said:


> Looks like it's down (blank page) again...


You don't get the linkbucks strip across the top ?


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## webbie (Oct 6, 2013)

Wow
This is prob costing the owners and sponsors tens of thousands when u consider lost income, reputation,etc

Saddens me

I suspect its not the work of real members there but some kid in Russia.


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## joecool85 (Oct 7, 2013)

webbie said:


> Wow
> This is prob costing the owners and sponsors tens of thousands when u consider lost income, reputation,etc
> 
> Saddens me
> ...



Or China.  I host a forum and it's always getting hammered with crap from China.  Luckily almost all of it is blocked now.


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## begreen (Oct 9, 2013)

Saddens me too. The internet is full of vultures and piranhas now.


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## HDRock (Oct 10, 2013)

Hmmm ?


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## maple1 (Oct 10, 2013)

I can't believe how much faster my computer is on the net with Java scripts disabled. Wowsers....


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## webbie (Oct 13, 2013)

Linkbucks has it again.....I guess they didn't do the job in fixing it.....


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## joecool85 (Oct 14, 2013)

webbie said:


> Linkbucks has it again.....I guess they didn't do the job in fixing it.....



It's back to normal now, but for how long I don't know.  Of course, at this point "normal" is almost switched to the linkbucks thing.  I hope they get this all figured out at some point.  I haven't been active there in a couple years, but when I was there were a lot of good folks over there.


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## webbie (Oct 14, 2013)

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/10/thousands-of-sites-hacked-via-vbulletin-hole/


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## _CY_ (Oct 30, 2013)

Arboristsite is still down ..  had just posted about my new to me Stihl 090G when it went down.


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## billb3 (Oct 30, 2013)

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/arboristsite.com

server isn't responding right now


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## OldLumberKid (Oct 30, 2013)

joecool85 said:


> It's back to normal now, but for how long I don't know.  Of course, at this point "normal" is almost switched to the linkbucks thing.  I hope they get this all figured out at some point.  I haven't been active there in a couple years, but when I was there were a lot of good folks over there.



Yep, it's sad, down again today.
There's some good peeps over there, hope the troubles don't spell doom.


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## pen (Oct 30, 2013)

They'll figure it out.  In the meantime, I feel badly for all the hassle they are going through when they simply want to spend their time talking shop.


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## OldLumberKid (Oct 30, 2013)

pen said:


> They'll figure it out.  In the meantime, I feel badly for all the hassle they are going through when they simply want to spend their time talking shop.



Dig that sig. except I don't smoke anymore, not in 20 years (aside from that cigar that found it's way into my mouth in New Orleans, the other week, but that's another story [never again!] )

The latest....


> We are working on the forum. We are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing. We are changing to a new software. Arboristsite.com Team
> 
> *Warning*: require_once(../AppData/Local/Temp/global.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in */home/arborist/public_html/forum.php* on line *69*
> 
> *Fatal error*: require_once [function.require]: Failed opening required '../AppData/Local/Temp/global.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in */home/arborist/public_html/forum.php* on line *69*


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## pen (Oct 30, 2013)

OldLumberKid said:


> Dig that sig. except I don't smoke anymore, not in 20 years (aside from that cigar that found it's way into my mouth in New Orleans, the other week, but that's another story [never again!] )
> 
> The latest....



Haven't smoked in a couple of years now myself,,,, but this fridge will be maintained until the apocalypse, the wood stove is cranking, and I just look too damn good in these sunglasses to take them off 

Glad to hear they are at least able to let people know what's going on!

pen


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## OldLumberKid (Oct 30, 2013)

pen said:


> Haven't smoked in a couple of years now myself,,,, but this fridge will be maintained until the apocalypse, the wood stove is cranking, and I just look too damn good in these sunglasses to take them off
> 
> Glad to hear they are at least able to let people know what's going on!
> 
> pen



In the mean time, you got any handy answers to the following wife questions? ( you seem to know a thing or two about fridges and beer. )

1) why did you bring home more beer, you have plenty already?
2) no, not more firewood, don't you have enough already?

Dang, I think I just went o/t


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## webbie (Nov 2, 2013)

I see from their facebook page that they've given up on VBB and are going to launch with new software - probably the same as we use.......

All is all, though, Darin was foolish (IMHO) for trying to deal with this by himself. He lost a couple months of community - although his is pretty loyal. IMHO, he should have brought in the paid experts soon after it happened.


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## OldLumberKid (Nov 2, 2013)

webbie said:


> I see from their facebook page that they've given up on VBB and are going to launch with new software - probably the same as we use.......
> 
> All is all, though, Darin was foolish (IMHO) for trying to deal with this by himself. He lost a couple months of community - although his is pretty loyal. IMHO, he should have brought in the paid experts soon after it happened.



I don't know if those were paid advertising logos on the home page, but last time I checked they weren't there either. Hope they don't lose that too.

I once started a BB on my other site www.h2omen.com back around 1997, but there was already an established yahoogroups communications vehicle for that local community. There's nothing worse than trying to get a BB going when everyone's just satisfied with a YG to communicate where the wind is, where they are going to be and when. It started to draw more spam than real users to I ditched it.

After serving as a mod on another very busy unrelated site that I will not mention, with a ton of testosterone-laden highly opinionated traffic on every other issue in the world, I can see what a headache that would have been to maintain and debug after all the spammers and trolls it has attracted over time. 

Kudos to you Webbie, appreciate fully what you do and the time you put into it. Although, I gotta say this community here is a dream of civility compared with what I've seen in some other places. People in the woods/outdoors worlds generally seem to have a nicer 'tude, it's refreshing.


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## webbie (Nov 2, 2013)

Yes  - all paid sponsors!

Thanks for the kudos although you can't keep everyone happy! It's amazing. Some people think we are over the top.....yet Arborsite, from what I hear, is 4X as bad and some are 10X as bad. We keep it tamped down somewhat with humor and moderation - but if we really had it like WE (the mods) wanted it, it would be tamped down even further. But the community as a whole doesn't react well to that. Who knows? Maybe we'll try it in 2014.


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## OldLumberKid (Nov 2, 2013)

webbie said:


> Yes  - all paid sponsors!
> 
> Thanks for the kudos although you can't keep everyone happy! It's amazing. Some people think we are over the top.....yet Arborsite, from what I hear, is 4X as bad and some are 10X as bad. We keep it tamped down somewhat with humor and moderation - but if we really had it like WE (the mods) wanted it, it would be tamped down even further. But the community as a whole doesn't react well to that. Who knows? Maybe we'll try it in 2014.




Again, no complaints it's nice here. 
Each place has its charms and personality. 
But sports forums, now that's a whole other order of aggro ... you wanna see piss and vinegar, try politics threads on sports forums.


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## webbie (Nov 3, 2013)

Not to get too far off topic, but I notice Darin blames a lot of it on the government and the media - for not jumping in and helping chase down those lawbreaking hackers.......

That's weird, IMHO. If you don't lock your doors, you have to expect stuff to be stolen. If the FBI was investigating every instance of small web site hacking, they wouldn't have much time for the big stuff...

Also, these hackers could be anywhere around the world.

Security is a big deal. IMHO, it's up largely to the software writers and then secondly and thirdly to the admins and web site owners. 

But I do understand his frustration and am terribly sorry it happened.


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## OH_Varmntr (Nov 3, 2013)

I am (was) a member there, and quite honestly I came here once I was unable to access it anymore.  I do like it here.  Seems as if there's a different knowledge base here.  I'll be here to stay as well as over there.  

I think, as with anything else, that you're always aware of threats, but until one comes a knocking on your doorstep, you don't necessarily keep up on keeping the threats at bay.  

Lessons cost money, the good ones cost a lot.

It should be back up and running soon!


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## _CY_ (Nov 3, 2013)

really surprised AS is still down .. just scored a Stihl 090G and was needing specific info on where to find pieces that are not on ebay.


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## OH_Varmntr (Nov 4, 2013)

I'm hoping it's back soon as well...


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## BrotherBart (Nov 4, 2013)

They are back up now with the new forum software. Surprise, surprise. Xenforo, the same software as this joint.


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## OH_Varmntr (Nov 4, 2013)

Yep, he said a few days ago it would be Xenforo.


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## webbie (Nov 6, 2013)

Yep, it's up and it's Xenforo. They should have done this weeks or months ago and been done with it. I think they lost a lot of "juice", but I'm sure it will build up again. Heck, as BB can affirm, I get nervous when we are down for 10 minutes!

This is probably the only thing in life where my standards are so high.......that is, with most stuff I'm not a perfectionist, but I don't like to disappoint my customers (and people who come here are, in effect, my current customers).


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## Arboristsite (Nov 9, 2013)

Thanks for the concern guys.  To set the record straight.  I had 5 different people working on this.  I didn't do this myself.  In the end I spent a little more money and hired just one more company...and luckily it did the trick.  It's really easy to be the armchair consultant and tell us what to do.   I admit when it comes to this stuff I am more hands than other forum owners on the backend.  I want to know what is going on.  I haven't been so disgusted in my life.  It was very stressful.  Arboristsite has 13 years of information on it.  You can't take that away from it.   If I was a newbie site.  I might as well of closed up.  I don't like disappointing anyone either.  The tech's really did work a lot of hours on this.  I did too.  I really don't know what else I could of done.  I apologize to everyone.  Looks like we are up and going and haven't had a hack in the last 24hours...which is a record for the past month.
Darin


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## maple1 (Nov 9, 2013)

Good stuff.


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## webbie (Nov 9, 2013)

Darin, 

Good to hear that it's up!

Main thing, IMHO, is to lock down most of your registration. Use the various tools and add-ons to make sure only valid people register, and even after that have some checks....

Keep track of your registration stats - if they go up higher than you know they should, something is probably wrong. That is, if you are used to 10 or 15 valid members a day signing up and it shoots up to 50+, something could be askew.

Use the proper tools to ban entire countries or parts of the world if they are not truly part of the ongoing conversation. This is especially true for Russia and other well-known hangouts of major spammers. 

Sorry for the unsolicited advice, but I'd hate to see something like that happen again. 

Oh, another thing which makes sense is deleting user accounts which have never been active. If someone signed up "x" months ago and never posted...then why do they need an account? They can read the board anyway as a guest. I did this for many years on my old board sw, and recently started doing it on XF.


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## BrotherBart (Nov 9, 2013)

Glad ya got it running Darin. I have been a casual member there for years and have gotten the answer to a lot of questions just by searching posts. Every day you were down I thought "There but for the Grace...".

Hope ya get a chance to rest a little after it settles back in. And I am so glad you could save that 13 years worth of information. Even if you had to save the cat fights along with it.


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## _CY_ (Nov 24, 2013)

Arboristsite said:


> Thanks for the concern guys.  To set the record straight.  I had 5 different people working on this.  I didn't do this myself.  In the end I spent a little more money and hired just one more company...and luckily it did the trick.  It's really easy to be the armchair consultant and tell us what to do.   I admit when it comes to this stuff I am more hands than other forum owners on the backend.  I want to know what is going on.  I haven't been so disgusted in my life.  It was very stressful.  Arboristsite has 13 years of information on it.  You can't take that away from it.   If I was a newbie site.  I might as well of closed up.  I don't like disappointing anyone either.  The tech's really did work a lot of hours on this.  I did too.  I really don't know what else I could of done.  I apologize to everyone.  Looks like we are up and going and haven't had a hack in the last 24hours...which is a record for the past month.
> Darin



Hey Darin, way back when Candlepower forums was in a similar situation of having to deal with multiple down times.  changing to new forum software means likely you will experience more down time. 

what cpf did was preplan for downtimes by putting up another site with different IP. then letting everyone know if/when main site goes down. go to backup site. which anyone can post without registering. this lets everyone that's got withdraw symptoms from not being able to post.


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## BrotherBart (Nov 24, 2013)

AS is alive and well. Closing this one down.


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## BrotherBart (Nov 24, 2013)

Well, actually I just checked and they are still screwed. But deal with it over there.


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