If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Policy / Politique
The fee for tournament organizers advertising on ChessTalk is $20/event or $100/yearly unlimited for the year.
Les frais d'inscription des organisateurs de tournoi sur ChessTalk sont de 20 $/événement ou de 100 $/année illimitée.
You can etransfer to Henry Lam at chesstalkforum at gmail dot com
Transfér à Henry Lam à chesstalkforum@gmail.com
Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
General Guidelines
---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
Some Basics
1. Under Board "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) there are 3 sections dealing with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, and Reading and Posting Messages. These deal with everything from Avatars to Your Notifications. Most general technical questions are covered there. Here is a link to the FAQs. https://forum.chesstalk.com/help
2. Consider using the SEARCH button if you are looking for information. You may find your question has already been answered in a previous thread.
3. If you've looked for an answer to a question, and not found one, then you should consider asking your question in a new thread. For example, there have already been questions and discussion regarding: how to do chess diagrams (FENs); crosstables that line up properly; and the numerous little “glitches” that every new site will have.
4. Read pinned or sticky threads, like this one, if they look important. This applies especially to newcomers.
5. Read the thread you're posting in before you post. There are a variety of ways to look at a thread. These are covered under “Display Modes”.
6. Thread titles: please provide some details in your thread title. This is useful for a number of reasons. It helps ChessTalk members to quickly skim the threads. It prevents duplication of threads. And so on.
7. Unnecessary thread proliferation (e.g., deliberately creating a new thread that duplicates existing discussion) is discouraged. Look to see if a thread on your topic may have already been started and, if so, consider adding your contribution to the pre-existing thread. However, starting new threads to explore side-issues that are not relevant to the original subject is strongly encouraged. A single thread on the Canadian Open, with hundreds of posts on multiple sub-topics, is no better than a dozen threads on the Open covering only a few topics. Use your good judgment when starting a new thread.
8. If and/or when sub-forums are created, please make sure to create threads in the proper place.
Debate
9. Give an opinion and back it up with a reason. Throwaway comments such as "Game X pwnz because my friend and I think so!" could be considered pointless at best, and inflammatory at worst.
10. Try to give your own opinions, not simply those copied and pasted from reviews or opinions of your friends.
Unacceptable behavior and warnings
11. In registering here at ChessTalk please note that the same or similar rules apply here as applied at the previous Boardhost message board. In particular, the following content is not permitted to appear in any messages:
* Racism
* Hatred
* Harassment
* Adult content
* Obscene material
* Nudity or pornography
* Material that infringes intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party
* Material the posting of which is tortious or violates a contractual or fiduciary obligation you or we owe to another party
* Piracy, hacking, viruses, worms, or warez
* Spam
* Any illegal content
* unapproved Commercial banner advertisements or revenue-generating links
* Any link to or any images from a site containing any material outlined in these restrictions
* Any material deemed offensive or inappropriate by the Board staff
12. Users are welcome to challenge other points of view and opinions, but should do so respectfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Posts and threads with unacceptable content can be closed or deleted altogether. Furthermore, a range of sanctions are possible - from a simple warning to a temporary or even a permanent banning from ChessTalk.
Helping to Moderate
13. 'Report' links (an exclamation mark inside a triangle) can be found in many places throughout the board. These links allow users to alert the board staff to anything which is offensive, objectionable or illegal. Please consider using this feature if the need arises.
Advice for free
14. You should exercise the same caution with Private Messages as you would with any public posting.
If I recall correctly, on September 15, the CT Forum went down and we lost all the postings from September 10 to 15. I felt very bad because all of the results and excitement from the Olympiad was lost.
There were a number of difficulties however with some browsers and some ChessTalkers could not navigate or see postings.
When it looked like there was no backup for these days, I went into my files and reposted the missing games from the Baku Olympiad both Open and Women’s.
Then, the site went offline for maintenance for September 19 and 20. When it came back on, a whole month of postings was gone.
Garland Best made a posting called “The Lost Month”. In it Kerry Liles wrote, “CT is now sort of running but the various optional thread views are not working (hybrid view) and a bunch of icons are missing and, as you and others have noted, some other threads are missing. Larry was/is on vacation and probably will deal with this when he returns... Anyone who knows more (or actually knows) can jump in and add to this note.”
________
Summing it up:
1) We have lost a month of postings
2) Nothing official has been said about the source of the loss – hacking? Virus? Poor editing/censorship?
3) It is not obvious if a backup somewhere can restore what has gone.
4) I think ChessTalkers would like Larry to make a definitive statement about the Forum. Also it would be good to know if he is going to sell the site name or whether things will continue as is and we can still post.
_________
I have noticed a reluctance of some regulars to post while there is this uncertainty.
I reposted the Canadian games of the Olympiads and then they were lost again. I would like to know if they can be restored or whether it is worthwhile to try to post them again.
No one has greater respect for Yuanling Yuan than myself, but if I were to post her 99 second interview for the third time, I would be afraid of a gathering mob outside my front door complete with torches and pitchforks!
Can we post without fear? Can previous threads be restored? What is the Forum’s status?
Simple enuff ... those CT admins (lesser or greater) that meddle in what is otherwise a commonplace task of backing up data have learnt much from Clinton on just how to delete critical data and not tell us why or how it happened.
Simple enuff ... those CT admins (lesser or greater) that meddle in what is otherwise a commonplace task of backing up data have learnt much from Clinton on just how to delete critical data and not tell us why or how it happened.
Congratulations, Neil! You have hit the nail on the head!
Any and all data that Clinton deleted was as "critical" (and as "classified") as any of the data lost here on ChessTalk! :D:D:D
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
As someone in the know, here's the explanation I was given:
Since CT uses a relatively common forum template, known security issues in a previous version of the template were exploited by "hackers" to link certain pages / threads to adware. The threads that were removed were essentially quarantined to remove the adware. When the site was down for of a couple of hours, the security flaws were being patched. As to whether the threads can be recovered, that I'm not sure of, but can find out if its keeping anyone up at night :p
Wayne, I looked into it and unfortunately it looks like we won't be able to restore the threads anytime soon without incurring serious risk of the adware spreading to other parts of the site. I hope that eventually we can restore them, as I know there was some good quality discussions that were had in those threads. Sorry for the inconvenience :(
I visited the site just before it was taken off line and was surprised to see all sorts of stuff popping up in browser windows. As a web developer, I was filled with a sense of morbid curiosity and a definite sense of "there but for the grace of God go I" and was just starting to look at the source code when the site went away. Was it cross site scripting or SQL injection?
Comment