Who installed the hack.
 

Is this feature no more?

I remember I could see who installed a certain hack a couple of months ago.
I might missed something due to not being active (license renewed yesterday so I'm active again :))

thanks in advance,
Joshua

You should still be able to see who installed your hacks.

Hmm what link or where do I have to click ?!

If you are browsing one of your hacks threads, then you can see if people who replied in that thread have clicked install.

Ahh but no-one replied ;)

Then there is nothing to see :D

You can however see the number of installs in your thread, but names you can only see if they reply.

Off topic here, but.. WOAH! I haven't seen you for a long while..

I remember installing some of your mods back in the vB2 days! :D

Hehe true, just made my first vB3.5.0b2 h ack (Moderator Dropdown list).

I'm back now, renewed my license yesterday, so I'm ready for 3.5! :)

I asked this months ago - the only way to see who has installed your hack is if they post in the topic - which is just completely random. I didn't understand why a hack author could not view a list then, and I still don't.

What would it help if he saw a list?

Nothing it's just nice to see....

Human Beings are curious you know ;-)
Would love to see the list again as it was a couple of months ago.

Yeh back in vB2 if you clicked on the number of installs from the Forum Display page, you could see a list of all users who installed it in the order from the first to the most recent installer ;)

Its cool, and like flup says, we're curious people:p

Satan

I would love to see this done again. It drives me nuts to release work here and not even be able to see who installed it unless they have replied and then I have to search thro the thread to see this.

I would like to see a list of who installed a hack and when, so I can track it day by day or month by month. Why ? - because I'm curious and like to see the progress of things. If only the author can pull up a list then where's the harm. :)

I have to agree, the list which we had back in the vB2 days was a more effective way of doing the 'who installed your hack' thing.

From a privacy point of view this is undesirable. What is information a coder "needs"?
- The number of installs. A coder wants to know if his hack is usefull to people, so he can decide how much time he wants to spend in further improving it. (and because we all like to have high numbers).
- He/she likes to know if someone asking for support on his hack, has clicked install.
- He must be able to send an update message to all who have it installed.

All the above you can do. There is no reason at all that would justify displaying the names of all that have it installed.

It would be a little thing to update,,, and as there is much request for it, why not fix it for the users...

As said above, it's a privacy issue. For example, if there was a modification which had a big exploit, one could go to the list of users who have installed, and look to see which have it in their profile, and then go round exploiting. Whilst, we realise that 99% of vB.org users would never do this, there is always the slim possibility :)

Ok that's true,... but than it's also possible by making the exploit ANd a mistake in your script so users will install it and reply it doesn't work...

Enough possibility's ..

Though I understand your point here.

I don't think we will ever install features that might have privacy implications, just because some find it a fun thing to have.

No i get it now, haven't thought with that one :)

Maybe I'm missing something here. Exactly how is this an issue ? ONLY the hack author would be able to see this list, not everyone. How is there any more of a risk of the AUTHOR doing this then there already is - and in most cases (as I have complained elsewhere) - few people have any link to their site from here anyway, so even if I knew "joebloggs" had it installed - I have no idea what his site is.

Ah, we're talking about showing this list to everyone though Paul :)

A list of all users who installed a Hack just for the Hack author would be nice :)
And I don't se privacy issues there, as he can already compile such a list be viewing all posts - which is a PITA when the Thread is several hundred posts long.

That would only be possible if everybody who installed made a reply.

Ah, but I wasn't ;)

I would never suggest that everyone could see it - as that clearly would be an issue. :)

I wasn't talking about everyone either, just for the hack author...

It used to be for all, but I agree, only the hack author, co-authors, and obviously staff, can see the list...

This could also be useful, because even if users do not reply, or accept hack updates via email, you could still contact them via PM or another method or alert a staff member that "User x" has a serious vulnerability with their site (after checking it out), and you could get the hole patched ;)

Satan

For that it would be better to create a button to send a security warning by mail and pm. Still no need to see the names.

Atm even staff can not see the names.

As already said, it's because of privacy issues.

A user who posts within the supportthread, realises, that when a security flaw is found, he could be a possible victim, but if he does not post then he has to be sure he is "safe".
Of course we could just generate a list just for authors, but there could always be a black sheep there as well.

I can understand both sides, i sometimes miss that feature myself, but as said, the disadvantages are bigger than the fun factor, so we won't add it again.

If it is just for authors, how could there be a black sheep?

I fail to see how showing who installed the hack to the author will cause problems...

Satan

The very highly unlikely possibility that author is the one who coded the vulnerability and WANTS to take advantage of it maybe?

Just my two pence.

In which case it won't matter if he can see the list or not, as users such as myself or others will pick up on the coded vulnerability, report it, and it will be closed - Or an investigation will be done and the author banned ;)

Satan

well, there is still a possibility, and we don't need it.

This is just plain paranoia - if a hack author wanted to do this then he would search google for boards with his hack - far easier than hunting for usernames here - which in most cases cannot be tracked back to an actual board anyway.

If you can't be bothered to do it, just say so, but please don't use lame excuses . :)

I disagree.

Many don't click install anyway.

If someone really has privacy issues, they still have the option to:

1. Not show their URL in their profile
2. Or, not click install, like many others who don't click install for any reason.

This feature should be returned, IMHO.

No only for hack authors, but other members should be able to see who installed this hack. It has some benefits:

1. See the hack in action in various environemnts, setups
2. If they have support issues the author can't figure, they can check with others who have it installed and working in similar evironemnt

It would be a shame to hide such information, just because a few people want to click install, but don't want anyone to know. Especially since they have the option not to click. (My guess is that they would not click anyway).

The explot reason is bogus, IMHO. Peope who hunt explots use scripts to scan forums, regardless of who clicked what. vBulletin itself had explots, and it could be found from Google, or from vB's forum signatures and profiles. This only gives a false sense of security. And if someone is really paranoid about it, they have the option not to click install.

Showing who installed for all users will most likely never happen.

The reasoning that users can just not click on install isn't really valid, as the install button has benefits for the user clicking, in that he'll be notified if an exploit is found or there are big updates.

They can subscribe to the thread.

It think this is being overly protective, especially since it doesn't offer any protection. Just limits a great feature.

That's not comparable.

Subscribing to the thread notifies you with all the answers in the thread. Popular modifications can have over 1000 posts in the thread.
That's not the same as recieving one update when a security vulnerability shows up.

This is vbulletin.org, which is hacked to death. It's trivial to add a "send security update", that is merely a special case of notification.

You can just say "we don't want to do it or put it back", and it would be your prerogative. But the reasons given are too weak, IMHO, considering that they are no protection, and can be address if necessary by trivial changes.