15 replies to this topic

[Performa Vending Inc]

The TVF is down, and for some bizarre reason redirects to a minecraft forum. http://www.vendiscuss.net/

 

 

As troubling as that is, I've heard from a number of people that the TVF is doing the same thing for them. Earlier today, I noticed that the TVF's Facebook page was down- though the TVF's twitter remained operational.

 

EDIT: I've gotten in touch with Mr. Caserri, who is looking into the matter.

[AZVendor]

At first I thought this was a malicious hack forcing the redirection which can happen many times with web hosting world, but then when the facebook page came down it appeared that Steve was just abandoning the forum.  I truly hope this isn't the case.

[entervendingman]

very sad. I hope it was only stupid hack or any other tech troubles and TVF will back

[AZVendor]

Performa, how close are you to Steve and have you gotten the feeling that he has just given up? If that's the case, I don't understand why he wouldn't just sell it to someone else so that the forum could continue. It's as if he's punishing the few people that made his forum admin duties difficult, but consequently then punishing everyone else on the forum as well. I still think that the disappearance of the facebook page is proof that he just pulled the plug on it all without regard as to how it affects the other forum members. Can you enlighten us in any way?

[Performa Vending Inc]

Performa, how close are you to Steve and have you gotten the feeling that he has just given up? If that's the case, I don't understand why he wouldn't just sell it to someone else so that the forum could continue. It's as if he's punishing the few people that made his forum admin duties difficult, but consequently then punishing everyone else on the forum as well. I still think that the disappearance of the facebook page is proof that he just pulled the plug on it all without regard as to how it affects the other forum members. Can you enlighten us in any way?

 

I am by no means Steve's confidant I'm afraid. As you know, we were pretty much mortal enemies just a few years ago, though we've sinced patched things up. At first when I saw it go down, I figured I was banned again, and was just redirected. Then I got an email from Nick505, and I contacted Steve straight away after I found out it wasn't just me. I know that Steve will take time away from the TVF, and I figured he just hadn't noticed the issue. Here is the last thing he said to me:

Now, if he's out of town and on his phone, he might not have any recourse until he's back home. I would suspect something along those lines long before he'd shutter the TVF, especially when things are going pretty well. Don't get me wrong, the TVF has had numerous shutdown scares in the past, but Steve genuinely cares about the site and the people who rely on it, and he would not close it down if he didn't have to. Even if it came to that, I expect he would sell out to someone long before he'd shutter the place verbatim.

 

If I was to guess what happened, I'd say some unscrupulous rogues have redirected the TVF proper to the Minecraft Forum (why there as opposed to any number of other troll-level domains is beyond me) and simealtaneously hacked/closed the Facebook page. Why remains a mystery- but I would suspect something along those lines long before I'd say "Steve killed the TVF". If Steve had 'killed' the TVF, I'm sure he'd tell us.

[AZVendor]

Thank you.  That's good news then.  I did wonder if maybe some previously banned member(s) pulled this off somehow but that's only because I didn't think this was simply a random happening.  What surprised me was the facebook deletion, which I figured was more difficult to pull off - maybe I was wrong.  I didn't know you had previous issues with the forum in the past but I know some wierd stuff has happened in the bulk vending forum which Steve probably takes more personally than what happens in the other sub-forums.  Thanks again for the update.

[Performa Vending Inc]

Thank you.  That's good news then.  I did wonder if maybe some previously banned member(s) pulled this off somehow but that's only because I didn't think this was simply a random happening.  What surprised me was the facebook deletion, which I figured was more difficult to pull off - maybe I was wrong.  I didn't know you had previous issues with the forum in the past but I know some wierd stuff has happened in the bulk vending forum which Steve probably takes more personally than what happens in the other sub-forums.  Thanks again for the update.

 

The "rebels" and I (if you can call us that even) were for the most part on good terms with the TVF. While several of us weren't welcome at the TVF proper, everyone knew full well that the BVF was never going to surpass or challenge the TVF in the world of vending- we just wanted a site where we could still talk vending that wasn't totally dead and broken. Had Entervending been about a year earlier, we probably all would have stuck here, but at the time VendingChat was pretty much terrible- well, you know how it used to be. No one I know had any ill will for the TVF even when we were "fighting" when that whole Chcicken fiasco came down.

 

I haven't heard anything back from Steve today, but that's not entirely unusual- our email schedules are all over the place.

 

EDIT: Okay, I'm on the phone now with an associate of mine who is far more tech savvy than I am, and he managed to look up the TVF's IP address (where the domain name connects to, in laymans terms- the physical address of the server) and sent it my way. Paste this (50.63.202.16) into your browser and it'll take you right there regardless of the domain name. As you can see, the TVF is indeed down.

[The Mage]

Finally allowed to post here. Signed up a few days ago.

 

Anyway I watched as the Facebook account was shut down. People were asking questions about the website, then their posts were deleted, then any post from this year was deleted, and after that, minecraft images were used to replace the images on the page, until finally the page was shut down.

 

During the shut down, I got a friend request from a "Benn Dover" who also made a couple comments before it was shut down.

 

This is his Facebook page:

 

https://www.facebook...100010260634805 Not much to it really.

 

I thought it was extremely weird, and wasn't sure if this was a hacker, or if something happened that pushed Steve over the edge. But as I read this post, it does look like somebody hacked it. 

 

I was thinking that if Steve really did shut the site down, I might buy it off him. Really not interested in running a forum, (especially not moderating one,) but I do want to keep the site going. 

 

Archive.org does still have their cached copies, though it isn't perfect since it is a representation of the site. Here is the most recent cached link:

 

https://web.archive....vendiscuss.net/

 

Performa, does Steve know the Facebook page is down too?

[Performa Vending Inc]

Yes, I did tell him in the email that the Facebook page was shut down, but he didn't comment on it specifically. Still no "new" word on it beyond what's posted above though.

 

I'm still hopeful that the site is just "hacked" or something. I mean, the Twitter is still up (https://twitter.com/VENDiscuss) so there's that still drifting out there. In the event that the place were to close down, I'd be interested in keeping the place alive by any means necessary- I'm totally open to collaborate with you guys on this one should it come to that.

 

I'm at performavending@gmail.com- contact me anytime.

[The Mage]

email sent.

[Performa Vending Inc]

Here's the word from the top!

 

 

I replied that I'd like the TVF back in any capacity- whether it's on the "Vendiscuss.net/com/org" domain or not. Wherever it is, it's still the TVF.

 

It sucks that someone would attack the TVF in this manner, but at least the place is still out there in some capacity, and I'm really hoping that Steve will bring it back up.

[AZVendor]

It looks like we're getting closer to being back in business.  The facebook page is back up and there is no redirection to the minecraft forum, just a "currently unavailable" message again.

[CajunCandy]

Better than "minecraft"

 

cajun

[The Mage]

There are 2 vendiscuss facebook pages now. One directs to vendingforums.com, and the other directs to  the real vendiscuss.net, though it is still listed as "unavailable", but with "We'll be right back!" on the page.

Finally did talk to Steve. He said that the security was way out of date, and is how the guy got in. But is working with his host to update the security.  Maybe I should have asked how long he thinks this will take, though I can imagine undoing all the damage that little.... did can be a lot of work.

[The Mage]

And now Vendiscuss has the following messge: 

 

TVF is currently unavailable

The original TVF will be back online very soon. We are in the process of implementing some much needed security measures. We are also taking this opportunity to upgrade our software to the latest version. This will provide you with the best vending community ever!

 

[CajunCandy]

It's back!

 

cajun