You have my gratitude.

And, while we're on the subject, 3 cheers for good moderators. We have them.

Kudos to the mods of AAC... I second that.

And as for:

ETO was my #1 goto place for a few years

Any place, be it a restaurant, a hotel, a bar or a club of some sort, is only as good as the people that frequent it.... regardless of the quality of its infrastructure.

 

Unfortunately, DerStrom (aka Matt) failed to note in his supercilious reply to my post here (http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/multiple-notices-of-same-reply.145103/#post-1227630 ) that the only reason I posted on ACC about the problems at ETO was that I could no longer post on ETO due to ITS screw up on authentication. It has been my experience that moderators, including DerStrom at ETO, have the authority to solve sign on problems. Nevertheless, not a single moderator has offered to help. That message is hard to miss, even for a septuagenarian like myself.

As I mentioned on ETO, when I say "your post was unnecessary" I am referring to the negative comments, not the post itself. Warning members to "stay away" and that the site was "hacked" and "running malware" was unnecessary, as there was certainly not enough information to support that claim. That being said, I can certainly understand your frustration (I have had similar issues on another, non-electronics-related forum which shall remain nameless) and I am sorry this wasn't addressed sooner. The moderators are able to reset your password if you are having difficulty logging in, but in order to do so the member experiencing issues must directly contact them somehow. Sending me a PM here at AAC asking me to reset your password would have showed up in my email, and I probably would have been able to do so within a few minutes upon receiving the request. I'm sure you could also ask other moderators who are also members here. In case anyone needs to contact me directly via email, you may do so by emailing my username @aol.com . In the case of the email server going down, there was very little, if anything, the moderators could do.

Matt is incorrect with his assumptions.

I realize my assumptions were incorrect. That was the first I had seen of the issue (I have been in the process of a move and a variety of other things, and have been unable to browse the threads much at ETO) and had very little information on the matter. I brought it up with Dave (one of the administrators) as soon as I saw it, and he responded very promptly explaining the issue.

 

@DerStrom8

Matt,

I saw John's posting forewarning the common members in case they haven't experienced it yet, not dissing ETO or EDA.

There are plenty of things that I disagree with when I look at all the boards 'in toto'. The internet forums will never be like "what happens at ETO stays at ETO". I'm sure you remember the "bad mouthing" of AAC over there by one of their members who spent a short time over here. I'm sure you remember the comparison graphs I put up illustrating month over month growth of a few of the electronics forums, which shot down the topics of his ranting.

Passing the word, especially when it concerns potential "spam attacks" is always good. Turns out the problem was a mail server update, according to the administrator over at ETO.

Passing the word is always useful.

 

Passing the word is always useful.

But making things up to be far worse than they really are is so much more of an attention grabber. Just as our news/media owners and politicians.

 

But making things up to be far worse than they really are is so much more of an attention grabber.

@tcmtech

I don't think anyone made up receiving excessive emails. Dealing with incomplete information always leads to speculation on what could be the cause. You could have made a list of all the possible causes, but I don't think email server upgrade would have been one of them.

 

@DerStrom8

Just to make it clear, this is my original post:

That site is totally screwed up today. I believe it has been hacked, and there is malware functioning. Getting multiple notices of postings to threads. A few others that we know of are affected too. Have tried various options, such as labeling as junk -- didn't work. After posting several comments in the feedback section, I cannot post any longer.

Neither the moderators nor administrators have responded on the site. Others who have been affected may not be able to get on the site either, so we do not know the scope of the problem.

BEWARE!

John

1) Failure of a moderator to respond certainly contributed to my concerns. Obviously, there could be multiple reasons for that. Eventually, several moderators did respond that they did not have sufficient authority to fix coding at ETO.
2) Moderators can fix sign-on problems. My post was pretty clear about why I chose an AAC forum to describe that problem. That issue was not addressed until today. It has now been resolved with Dave's (adminisrator) help.
3) As for suggestions that I fabricated or intentionally grossly exaggerated my concerns, my concern was based on experience much earlier in this century with the "LoveBug" virus at a major employer in Cleveland. The company server(s) got infected with it, and the symptoms were similar. That is, multiple copies and expanding numbers of e-mails were sent out as each person naively opened a relatively bland e-mail to have his machine infected and its address list used to contact the next group of victims. I was fortunate in that the first infected e-mail I got had something to the effect that JW loves you in the subject line. My relationship with JW was such that I was sure he/she would not have sent such an e-mail to me, even on Valentine's Day. I didn't open it and instead called a senior administrator to report my suspicion.
4) As for trashing ETO, that was not my intent. I think its procedures for dealing with problems can be improved, as is the case with many sites, and have made a specific recommendation to Dave about the e-mail problem. My intent was a warning (see #3 above). However, it does seem more than a little disingenuous for individuals who participated so freely in trashing ETO last year to now point their fingers at me.

John