Autopia Is Back Better than Ever

T

tunch123

Forum Sponsor
:clap:

Hi Autopians,

It has been a very though month for us. Our site was attacked by Hackers (I call them loosers & criminals because they have nothing else to do better with their lives...).

If you remember at one point our site was very slow and then some of the links was directing to other sites.... Well that was the beginning of the problems. Then gradually it got worse.

Eventually Google flaged our forum as unsafe.

But now that warning is lifted by Goggle.

We are dedicated to keep Autopia the #1 Car care forum in the world. You can see the ranking of autopa is by far way ahead than any other forum out there.

Some of the competition enjoyed our dilemma...well that is too sad!

As I said before: "a store owner getting happy when he sees the next door competition gets robbed!!!!...." That is not nice...

Well folks we are taking better measures and hope that this never happens again.

Please spread the word around.

Sadly I have seen some posts from very few members that are getting angry to us saying; "I will never come back to Autopia...."I am still trying to understand the rational on that...I don't get it ..Do you?

Well to those who think like that I can only say "GOODBYE!!!".

Because they can not be true Autopians.

Its like saying "this store has been attacked by bad people and I will never shop from there...????" Go figure..

We did not do this intentionally...Even Pentagon & White House was Hacked.....

For those who benefit from the wealth of information on this FREE forum I wish all of you to enjoy,

Thanks for your Support.:clap:
 
Good to hear. Glad it’s all getting sorted out.





I am still trying to understand the rational on that...I don't get it ..Do you?
Click to expand...



I totally get it.



I can understand why someone wouldn’t come back here though, I mean the virus infected a lot of peoples computers and forced them to take measures that may have deleted some important and sensitive data, let alone spend hours removing malicious software from their computer. Had I not seen the thread on my phone when this all started, I would have gotten infected. Not to start a computer ethics argument, but to take the position that digital/electronic crime is directly comparable to a store being robbed is pretty far out there, and to be honest a load of BS. Thats like saying that pirating music is the same as shooting someone and stealing a CD of their physical being, not even close. Having our digital security breached by a site that we trust is way more intimate than having a connivence store that we normally go to get robbed, so I think that it would be pretty fair to say that Autopia put a pretty sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Especially since the response was so slow, none of the admin(s) admitted that there was ever a problem and even encouraged autopians to keep browsing the site despite multiple warnings from AVG online scans that the site was indeed running malicious code. Being a comp sci masters student and having taken a good share of IT and management classes, I am really disappointed with the response. But hey, not much I can do.
 
tunch123 said:
:clap:

You can see the ranking of autopa is by far way ahead than any other forum out there.

Some of the competition enjoyed our dilemma...well that is too sad!

As I said before: "a store owner getting happy when he sees the next door competition gets robbed!!!!...." That is not nice...

Well folks we are taking better measures and hope that this never happens again.

Please spread the word around.
Click to expand...



Tunch123 you need to take a public relation course... You don't need to diss the competition if you have a very good product...iThis is fine in the 80s but this is the 2000s it makes you look bad if you do that really...



Sadly I have seen some posts from very few members that are getting angry to us saying; "I will never come back to Autopia...."I am still trying to understand the rational on that...I don't get it ..Do you?

Well to those who think like that I can only say "GOODBYE!!!".

Because they can not be true Autopians.

Its like saying "this store has been attacked by bad people and I will never shop from there...????" Go figure..
Click to expand...



Well you are communicating with us now that's a one good step to great...They're angry because they are discomforted in their comfort zone and there was no resolution or news for what's going on for days even weeks... If you had been communicative and as yakky said in another thread a redirect page is given to inform what's going on then there will be less of this mess.... Every detailing forum I visited has 'autopia in comma' theme threads going..



Again I suggest you hire a PR... Goodbye ??? Dude....You don't really want that....Autopia's strength lies on its community and wealth of informations...you saying goodbye ? I mean this is not a hunter-gatherer community we're talking about ....



Please take this in a good way from someone who cares about the forum...
 
tunch123, please keep in mind that Autopia was not the ONLY victim of this hacking. Many loyal Autopians had to spend hours cleaning up their computers only to have a repeat of the offense as they were led to believe Autopia was ok.



If this site is ever hacked again, please take it down and put up a splash page informing everyone of the issue and an expected resolution. This would make Autopia look more professional and keep Autopia's reputation intact.



In hindsite, I believe Autopia could have, and should have, done a better job of communicating the issue to it's users and could have saved many users from becoming victims too.



Yes, this is a FREE site and appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. But, when getting infected by merely visiting the site, the FREE part is not a very significant selling point.



This critique might seem critical but it is made with a hope to see improvement in the future handling of events of this nature. I'd not be too convinced that it can't or won't happen again given the nature of some in our society.



Thank you tunch123, for all you have done and continue to do to make this a premier care care site on the internet.
 
jfelbab said:
tunch123, please keep in mind that Autopia was not the ONLY victim of this hacking. Many loyal Autopians had to spend hours cleaning up their computers only to have a repeat of the offense as they were led to believe Autopia was ok.



If this site is ever hacked again, please take it down and put up a splash page informing everyone of the issue and an expected resolution. This would make Autopia look more professional and keep Autopia's reputation intact.



In hindsite, I believe Autopia could have, and should have, done a better job of communicating the issue to it's users and could have saved many users from becoming victims too.



Yes, this is a FREE site and appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. But, when getting infected by merely visiting the site, the FREE part is not a very significant selling point.



This critique might seem critical but it is made with a hope to see improvement in the future handling of events of this nature. I'd not be too convinced that it can't or won't happen again given the nature of some in our society.



Thank you tunch123, for all you have done and continue to do to make this a premier care care site on the internet.
Click to expand...



Agree with the above. $#!t happens, Good communication is the key. As far as free goes... anyone a member of a forum that costs $?
 
Glad things are back to normal, well...other than the overlying text on "new posts" search results.



I do think it's odd that I only got *one* warning during the whole thing, and my AVAST took care of that single threat with no problems. Not that I mind being lucky...



Some of the comments about Autopia that I read on other forums during the whole thing (and those posts were not just about the hack, the threads spiraled into the general) were, I guess, predictable...but looking over some of the "how do I..." threads on those sites I couldn't help but think that better advice can be found here.
 
sulla said:
Tunch123 you need to take a public relation course... You don't need to diss the competition if you have a very good product...iThis is fine in the 80s but this is the 2000s it makes you look bad if you do that really...







Well you are communicating with us now that's a one good step to great...They're angry because they are discomforted in their comfort zone and there was no resolution or news for what's going on for days even weeks... If you had been communicative and as yakky said in another thread a redirect page is given to inform what's going on then there will be less of this mess.... Every detailing forum I visited has 'autopia in comma' theme threads going..



Again I suggest you hire a PR... Goodbye ??? Dude....You don't really want that....Autopia's strength lies on its community and wealth of informations...you saying goodbye ? I mean this is not a hunter-gatherer community we're talking about ....



Please take this in a good way from someone who cares about the forum...
Click to expand...



Great post, and I agree with you 100%.



I think a little more humility might be in order here as well.
 
Accumulator said:
Some of the comments about Autopia that I read on other forums during the whole thing (and those posts were not just about the hack, the threads spiraled into the general) were, I guess, predictable...but looking over some of the "how do I..." threads on those sites I couldn't help but think that better advice can be found here.
Click to expand...



I totally agree & I avoided the whole debate/attacks on all the other forums. One thing I find pathetic is how many of the/our members posting this garbage on these sites quickly dissassociated themselves from here for some pretty pathetic reasons. I also find it very unprofessional how these other forums allowed this to go on. Hardly any spokespeople(except 1) offered any positive thoughts about the whole situation. Why would they though(??), they have everything to gain from this setback.
 
Wow - all the problems you guys passed on to users by slow actions, no information and leaving the site up and not one hint of any kind of apology. I think this post epitomizes the general attitude of the people who have taken the place over. I'm sure I'll get flamed over this because I'm not in the inner circle here and don't have 10K posts and work on exotics everyday, and that's okay, but in my opinion this post reeks of arrogance.



EDIT: The more I think about it while reading other sites - what's going on at other detailing sites should be the last thing on you guys' minds right now. Kind of a cheap stab to make the big "we're fixed" announcement and throw that in there with it.
 
I don't visit other forums so I am not aware of what may or may not have gone on elsewhere. I will say this; this was handled extremely poorly by the current owners of Autopia, imo. The site was allowed to stay up with no warning whatsoever of potential viruses being passed on to end users; there was little or no communication from the owners about what was going on, and now that it is fixed this is our welcome back? I would hope after the amateur-ish way this was dealt with the very least we would get is a "hey, we're back, it's fixed, we're sorry" rather than a "screw people who left and screw other sites, we're the best".



I like this site and will continue to use it because of the other users whose opinions I value; but I can definitely say that things have gone very much downhill since the new ownership took over.
 
JaredPointer said:
Wow - all the problems you guys passed on to users by slow actions, no information and leaving the site up and not one hint of any kind of apology. I think this post epitomizes the general attitude of the people who have taken the place over. I'm sure I'll get flamed over this because I'm not in the inner circle here and don't have 10K posts and work on exotics everyday, and that's okay, but in my opinion this post reeks of arrogance.



EDIT: The more I think about it while reading other sites - what's going on at other detailing sites should be the last thing on you guys' minds right now. Kind of a cheap stab to make the big "we're fixed" announcement and throw that in there with it.
Click to expand...



JP – I totally agree with you and your thoughts on this and believe me I’m not flaming you for speaking up about it. Yes, the HD bunch didn’t do “the right thing” and could have done a much better job at communicating with the forum about this problem. I can’t speak for them and don’t know or understand how the whole debacle came about and the time line for correcting it. All I know is this forum is back on its feet and that’s all that counts(for me). I’m sure I would feel a little differently if my computer was damaged from this, but it wasn’t (thank God). It is what it is and if I was the front man for the situation I would have treated it with much more compassion than what took place. I don’t feel the need to dwell on the coulda shoulda’s and want to move forward with the productivity of the forum. It’s easy for people to point fingers, and some people may feel justified by doing so, but bottom line the problem is fixed and the forum needs to move forward.
 
Picus said:
I don't visit other forums so I am not aware of what may or may not have gone on elsewhere. I will say this; this was handled extremely poorly by the current owners of Autopia, imo. The site was allowed to stay up with no warning whatsoever of potential viruses being passed on to end users; there was little or no communication from the owners about what was going on, and now that it is fixed this is our welcome back? I would hope after the amateur-ish way this was dealt with the very least we would get is a "hey, we're back, it's fixed, we're sorry" rather than a "screw people who left and screw other sites, we're the best".



I like this site and will continue to use it because of the other users whose opinions I value; but I can definitely say that things have gone very much downhill since the new ownership took over.
Click to expand...



I don't want to keep posting things like "I agree", but.......I agree! Very well said.
 
I agree with the agree. This site is now more trouble to use than it seems to be worth. While it is an awesome marketing tool for most of our work, I would feel embarrassed in recommending my customer to this site and then their computer gets infected. Please put better policies together so that a situation like this does not spiral out of control again. Proactive computer security has to be a priority.



I had to spend unnecessary hours cleaning up the minor mess that was left on my computer. Luckily I did not lose anything but a little sleep. In the end I also found out how terrible my anti-virus software worked and have since switched to AVAST.



Lastly I am still having issues with seeing the title of post. All the lettering seems to be overlapping.
 
howareb said:
..I.. found out how terrible my anti-virus software worked and have since switched to AVAST.



Lastly I am still having issues with seeing the title of post. All the lettering seems to be overlapping.
Click to expand...



Heh heh, I feel SO lucky that I decided to run avast, which seems to have saved my bacon! And I know from *nothing* about such stuff and only recently installed it.



And yeah, I'm still getting the overlaying text thing too....but then it's not like *I* have the ability to fix it so I'm not gonna b!tch too much about how somebody else gets around to it. I'm actually getting the hang of reading the half-visible titles, guess that shows I'm spending too much time here again :o
 
Avast is great! Works well and its very light on system resources. Even on older hardware it seems to run well when other stuff like Norton and McCrappy make the machine unusable.
 
Communication seemed to the be the issue for me as well. I enjoy this site and learning about the trade. I continued to come to the site during the entire event, daily, on three machines and never got a virus. Good precautions I guess!
 
I'll admit, I was super sketched-out when, for WEEKS, the site wouldn't even load, because it was "reported as an attack site." I guess I was one of the lucky ones, that had no problems or viruses, but to go this long, before a resolution, or even a notification, is ridiculous. The site admins have all of our emails... a simple email blast saying what happened, and when it's going to be fixed, would have been sufficient.



Personally, I like the old Autopia... this new "version 2.0" needs a makeover in a bad way.
 
My two cents: The Autopia owners and admins have handled the past few months incompetently. If there had been better communication with the Autopia masses, the damage could have been minimized; but in fact real public relations has been done, and this announcement only exacerbates the problem. What was, and is, needed is an apology and a promise to do better. Instead, we are presented with "Sadly I have seen some posts from very few members that are getting angry to us saying; 'I will never come back to Autopia....' I am still trying to understand the rational on that...I don't get it ..Do you? Well to those who think like that I can only say 'GOODBYE!!!'."



What kind of response is this! Jeeesh.
 
I like the surprise upgrade today. Communication..... sooooo hard.....



Seriously, this site is WORTHLESS without all the great contributors here. Someone needs to get off their high horse and realize that setting up a php forum is pretty straight forward, yeah, you own a popular domain. Chase away the talent and you'll end up with nothing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top