QuakeNet: Government-Sponsored Attacks On IRC Networks 197
Barryke writes "Like FreeNode, it seems more and more legitimate businesses or non-profit organizations are being targeted by government subsidiaries in attempts to disrupt and spy on their users. IRC network QuakeNet has posted a press release condemning these efforts. Quoting: 'These attacks are performed without informing the networks and are targeted at users associated with politically motivated movements such as "Anonymous." While QuakeNet does not condone or endorse and actively forbids any illegal activity on its servers we encourage discussion on all topics including political and social commentary. It is apparent now that engaging in such topics with an opinion contrary to that of the intelligence agencies is sufficient to make people a target for monitoring, coercion and denial of access to communications platforms. The released documents depict GCHQ operatives engaging in social engineering of IRC users to entrap themselves by encouraging the target to leak details about their location as well as wholesale attacks on the IRC servers hosting the network. These attacks bring down the IRC network entirely affecting every user on the network as well as the company hosting the server.' One of those tactics applied by governments is the DDOS, which (perhaps not so) coincidentally, is what their suspects are accused of. Is this irony or hypocritical?"
About the beta. (Score:5, Informative)
It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: Slashdot is dying.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Slashdot community when IDC confirmed that Slashdot page views has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all websites. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Slashdot has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Slashdot is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by the stupid fucking beta website and the wholesale discard of user feedback.
You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict Slashdot's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Slashdot faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Slashdot because Slashdot is dying. Things are looking very bad for Slashdot. As many of us are already aware, Slashdot continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Slashdot Beta is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core users. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time Slashdot users Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Slashdot is dying.
All major surveys show that Slashdot has steadily declined in market share. Slashdot is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Slashdot is to survive at all it will be among S&M enthusiasts. Slashdot continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Slashdot is dead.
That crippling bombshell sent Slashdot fans into a tailspin of mourning and denial. However, bad news poured in like a river of water.
Fuck the beta.
Beta feedback helps (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not going to quote them without permission, but from talking with one of the editors, some of our sentiment about the beta is shared by them, and they really do want user feedback to help things go in the right direction. Presumably they have no power directly, but if literate and thought-out comments get submitted to the beta feedback, they will do what they can to send them upwards. Don't just complain in the comments, help the editors help you, at least some of them are on your side.
My guess (Score:1, Informative)
They are trying to get IRC to split to garner some information from the servers about the users and connections to it, or take over ownership of the channel briefly and get information that way about the users in the channel.
Look up General Smedley Butler and read some of his very short books on the subject. Its interesting he isn't' in U.S. history books in school. This all looks familiar somehow.
Re: Fuck Beta! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Beta feedback helps (Score:5, Informative)
Believe me, we're well aware of what everybody is discussing.
Re:Soulskilll and Timothy (Score:5, Informative)
We know most of the discussion will be centered on the beta. Some people will want to read news anyway, so we'll keep posting.
You folks are certainly welcome to keep commenting about the beta; we're reading all of it, and we're communicating it to the Product team who makes the decisions about the design.
Re:Beta feedback helps (Score:5, Informative)
It's all any of us are talking about today (and most of what we've talked about for the past few months). Whatever changes get made, they need time to be decided on and implemented. I'm sorry it doesn't go faster, but that's why we still have the classic site available.
Re:Beta feedback helps (Score:5, Informative)
Soulskill, your stakeholder management is poor. Up on the front page there is a big "We are shoving this down your throat soon" message thrown at your customers--executive stakeholders, low power, high interest, low influence. You've largely shuttered them out, rather than keeping them informed; you've solicited comment and not informed them at large that their comments are heard and being discussed actively. This is producing customer backlash.
You should change the primary message in everyone's face to reflect what's been said here, and to notate that you are considering further changes and delays before moving to a full public release. Make prominent also that you have decided on the short-term availability of Slashdot Classic after launch as yet another metric. Provide a larger update page describing how this will handle--more discussion, more sampling, surveying, and then when and how you will launch. Maybe detail a launch process where everyone is set to New Slashdot by default, with a Slashdot Classic option that resets once per month at most, after major changes, so that the metric of who immediately runs back to Slashdot Classic can be re-sampled after major changes.
I suggest Tres Roeder's book "Managing Project Stakeholders" particularly for your review. The other book (A Sixth Sense for Project Management) is more useful in closed quarters, but I can recommend both.
BETA SUXX0RS!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry Dice, but I have to jump on the beta-hata wagon. I'll just point out two things:
1. Right side bar squeezes out comments. We are here for the comments, not whatever crap you want to cram down our throats.
2. Vertical spacing of text wastes tons of real estate. It looks like a High School book report padded to fill the required pages.
Dice Holdings, Inc: Please consider your next steps carefully. The /. castle was not built in a day, but it can easily be destroyed in a day. You have one chance to avoid a mass exodus. As others have said, eyeballs == advertising $$.
Stop trying to squeeze blood from a stone. The reason we come here is because most other news sites suck. If you want to throw your hat into the sucky news site ring, all I can say is good luck with that.