Important: It is all about trust

[Logikos]

Originally Posted by peterska2

Again, to emphasise my stance on this:

• All offending coders MUST be banned;
• All offending modifications MUST be removed immediately;
• All modification from offending coders, regardless of vB version, MUST be removed;
• There must be no exceptions to this. There are no excuses.

So do you still feel that Paul M and a few others should be banned because they added an image link back to vb.org?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Originally Posted by Paul M

In which case I think I will rest easy, as this clearly does not refer to anything of mine.

Paul,

You keep pushing, and searching for ways out.

You have been answered by vBulletin.org Staff that a modification like you describe would fall under this policy.

Floris can comment (and did in response to your post) on Jelsoft and/or vBulletin.com issues. He is not vBulletin.org Staff, so keep trying until you find someone who post something that you can use in your favour, will not change anything on the fact that vBulletin.org Staff will consider what you described as something that falls under this policy.

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

This is, as you say, about trust, therefore the list of known affected hacks MUST be disclosed, without question.

I am confident that the hacks will be disclosed, but the staff are first giving chance for the coders concerned to rectify the problem.

Originally Posted by LiveWire

So do you still feel that Paul M and a few others should be banned because they added an image link back to vb.org?

It takes a lot more than a handful of complaining users to change my opinion. The only person that will influence my opinion is me. I don't care who disagrees with me. And if you have such a problem with my stance, I recommend the useage of this link

[The Geek]

Wouldn't the above code simply show the button? To have made the call, it would have had to of spawned the URL in another window, redirected the page entirely or used fopen.

Simply showing the button would have been no different than linking to a logo offsite or something or am I missing something?

[peterska2]

It doesn't show the button, it just hits the install button.

[Chroder]

@The Geek: They are using an image to get the users browser to call the functionality here on vBorg that adds the install count. The image is invalid (nothing will display) and invisible anyway (height = 1, width = 1).

Kinda like how some hit counters work.

[Princeton]

Originally Posted by Chroder

I think it's also a preemptory warning. Spyware (because that's what it is when you get down to it, doing an action the user didn't consent to) won't be tolerated.

This is what it's all about. Nothing more. Nothing less.

You can color-code it all you want. The actions we take is about the community as a whole -- its' never about any particular person or a particular group.

[Logikos]

@peterska2 - I was asking if your opinion on this situation was still the same as you stating before, not whether or not I and other users convinced you that you have changed your mind.

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Nope, I think it's about the code that tries to call the vb.org "install" link when a product is first installed. This is something I (and a few others) added recently after a discussion about it in mid April.

Basically when a product is first installed (not updated) it tries to link to /vborg_miscactions.php?do=installhack. If the link is made then it's the same as manually clicking install, if the link fails then nothing at all happens. The same happens if you uninstall a product. It has nothing to do with plugins within plugins, backdoors, security, added functionality or anything else mentioned, it's a simple link back to the vb.org site.

As far as I can tell - it will also fail unless you are logged into vb.org at the time, meaning it's not actually that useful, the majority of people still actually have to click the links manually.

If this thead really is about this then it's unbelievably over the top - reading the first post gives the impression of some major security threat or alert, not some minor call back to vb.org.

Is that really what this thread is about?

If so, I change my stance. I don't have a problem with the above at all. Part of the deal in installing a hack is that you click the install button.

My only suggestion would be that this is made clear as part of the installation process, other than that no issues at all.

[Logikos]

Thank you Mark B! Finally someone who understands what is going on.

Since Paul has to remove that line of code from his hack. Should I remove this line of code from mine?

<img alt="vBhacks Forum" border="0" src="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/images/misc/vbulletin3_logo_white.gif" />

I use that here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=63841 in my install.html file. I'm acually seriously asking this and not being sarcastic.