Important: It is all about trust

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by JD45

Obviously the coder(s) put that line of code in for a reason. To generate an 'installed' click instead of counting on the user to manually do it.

Why not consider this:

Take away the ability for users to manually hit the install/uninstall button. Have every hack that is created contain two lines of additional code. One to add to the install count when the hack is installed by the user and another to uninstall, when it is removed by the user.

Obviously this would have to be disclosed somewhere on VB.org like in a sticky or the FAQ so everyone is aware of it.

This would in fact IMO, help the coders by giving them a truer account of how many people in fact installed their hack as well as helping the installer with receiving the 'hack updated' emails.

Could be a win/win situation if handled properly.

Why? Because a number of users do not wish to have the install button forced upon them. I always click install if I am using something, but as I have previously mentioned, I don't just install on my site and yet all the installations go onto my account here.

Also, the method does not always work. There are certain requirements that must be achieved in order for it do so. Therefore, it would be just as inaccurate, if not worse, than the install button we currently have.

[JD45]

Originally Posted by peterska2

Why? Because a number of users do not wish to have the install button forced upon them. I always click install if I am using something, but as I have previously mentioned, I don't just install on my site and yet all the installations go onto my account here.

Also, the method does not always work. There are certain requirements that must be achieved in order for it do so. Therefore, it would be just as inaccurate, if not worse, than the install button we currently have.

• It would no longer be forced..
• If you always click install, then you wouldn't need to anymore
• What requirements???
• If the script worked, it would be HIGHLY accurate

If you created something, wouldn't you want an accurate measure of how many people were using it or how popular it was?

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by amykhar

Paul, I disagree on the gloom and doom thing.

You are, of course, free to disagree - but I'm still right

It's all old news now, so I'll just agree to disagree with you.

[GaryP]

I just wanted to say that I've uninstalled every hack on my site and won't be installing anything else until it is known that no hack will have any code in that may harm my site, transmit any form of information about me, or do anything other than the function that I install it to achieve.

I might be relatively new here, but I still support the people who make the hacks by clicking install.

[Darat]

Originally Posted by GaryP

I just wanted to say that I've uninstalled every hack on my site and won't be installing anything else until it is known that no hack will have any code in that may harm my site, transmit any form of information about me, or do anything other than the function that I install it to achieve.

I might be relatively new here, but I still support the people who make the hacks by clicking install.

Don't forget just because there is a rule against something doesn't mean that something won't still happen! I don't think this site or any other site will ever be able to give you an absolute assurance that a hack won't have some code that may harm your site and/or Members.

If you are very concerned I would suggest you PM the Members whose hacks you used to have installed and ask them directly if they have any hidden functionality.

But don't forget one of the very good things about hacks from here is that they are in a way "open source" in the sense that anyone can review the hack's code. And it's obvious many of the coders take an active interest in the code of other coders so I think it's quite unlikely that any hack that has malicious hidden functionality will go unspotted for any length of time.

[Boofo]

Originally Posted by GaryP

I just wanted to say that I've uninstalled every hack on my site and won't be installing anything else until it is known that no hack will have any code in that may harm my site, transmit any form of information about me, or do anything other than the function that I install it to achieve.

I might be relatively new here, but I still support the people who make the hacks by clicking install.

The few I have done are safe as well as most others on here now. If you have any concerns or questions regarding the hacks you would like to install, please feel free to PM me with your concerns and I will check to make sure there is nothing there that will affect what you want from the hack.

[GaryP]

That will be very helpful. Thank you for offering to do that.

I will send you a PM with a list on shortly.

I'm sure that you can understand my concerns.

Maybe not saying what hacks are affected by this problem is a mistake, but even if there are reasons for not saying so at present, perhaps an email to people who have installed those hacks would just be common courtesy.

[lebanon]

Originally Posted by sabret00the

Cause (going off of what Princton said) this is way bigger than we think, however cross referencing that information with Marco's post, i'm inclined to think that people are actually requesting usage statistics, i also wouldn't rule out the vBsoccer hack.

Hi, i noticed the two comments on my vbsoccer, and due to the thread title, i just want to clear that i am not monitoring the stats neither my stats would be harmfull anyway, but rather all i wanted was not to disclose my feeds.
Now to be honest, i dont even know why i have shared this , all i get now is either trust questioning or suspecion of my intentions here and there.
My suggestion regards my vbsoccer is a moderator to delete the whole thread since i cannot do it myself, regards

[SaN-DeeP]

The reason for this thread is that, to our own shame, we received recently reports that there are coders who do incorporate hidden functionalities in their modifications. Lucky the type of hidden functions could be considered as relative harmless, but we will nevertheless not tolerate this. I would like to emphasize that this did not sent any security or privacy related information, nor did it in anyway brake the security of your site

never noticed this with hacks I have been using on my boards or tested, but thanks for clarifications..

[akanevsky]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

never noticed this with hacks I have been using on my boards or tested, but thanks for clarifications..

haven't noticed that either, maybe cause I'm not using many of 3rd party hacks lately.. but thanks for heads up anyway.