Ed's e-mail misery

[Rebel]

Hear hear, another email I never received, how convenient.

This is the only mail I got from you on September 8, I am not even in the mood to translate.

At 13:02 8-9-2021, h.g.muller@... wrote:
Ik had nog geen tijd gehad hier eerder naar te kijken. Het beschreven probleem in de 1e link lijkt inderdaad heel veel op wat ik ervaar. Maar wat ik van mod_security begrijp is dat het een deel van de Apache HTTP server is, en op talkchess.com hebben we daar geen toegang toe. (En Quentin ook niet, denk ik. Daarom wilde ik graag een VPS gebruiken i.p.v. een gewone provider te nemen; dan weten we zeker dat we beheersing hebben over alle betrokken componenten.)

Op wo., sep. 8, 2021 om 09:42, Ed Schroder <rebel777@...> schreef:
Overigens, heb je mijn tip nog geprobeerd?

En kan je als admin wat met de mod_security settings? Lijkt me de lijst met verboden woorden. Zie het phpBB forum -
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2547341
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2475811

Groet,

Ed

--------------------------------------

Point 1-4 snipped

Why?

I sent you a reminder to comment on point 1-4

You never answered.

And now you want me to believe it's all the fault on non functioning email traffic?

Hilarious.

[Rebel]

Time line of events

Forwarded message to HGM on August 31 about the intentions and goals before I got FTP access to the Talkchess server from Quentin. And so HGM knew.

Hi Quentin,

In principle we will try to fix the problem so everything we remain the same. In the case we don't succeed moving the forum to a new server (at our costs) is an option to consider in case you agree to that.

Hi Ed,

I sent it over to Jeff to confirm.

So… is the plan to basically clone the information on another server?

Regards,

Quentin Turner
Your Move Chess & Games
832 N Broadway
N Massapequa, NY 11758
800 645 4710
info@chessusa.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 7, thoughts of HGM about our host who served us 24 years despite knowing what was agreed on August 31.

Dutch
Ik sta wel een beetje verbaasd van je opmerking. Ik was me er niet van bewust dat Quentin ook maar enig recht op het forum had. Het was destijds aardig van hem om aan te bieden het te hosten. (Hoewel het mij niet duidelijk is of dat hem daadwerkelijk iets gekost heeft.) Maar het afgelopen jaar heeft hij wat mij betreft een geweldige wanprestatie geleverd. Het is van de zotte dat we wekenlang hebben moeten soebatten om eindelijk toegang tot onze eigen databasis te krijgen; hij heeft de meeste berichten die we hem stuurden duidelijk niet eens gelezen. Wat mij betreft zijn we beter af zonder hem, en als hij vindt dat zijn belang daardoor geschaad wordt, dan is dat gewoon pech voor hem. Had hij maar beter zijn best moeten doen. Hij mag straks netjes de domeinnaam talkchess.com aan ons overdragen, zodat we die kunnen koppelen aan onze nieuwe server, als die eenmaal perfect werkt. Om kort te gaan, als Quentin niet netjes doet wat wij van hem vragen, is hij toch degene die zich in een juridisch precaire situatie begeeft?

English
I'm a bit surprised by your comment. I wasn't aware that Quentin had any right to the forum. It was nice of him at the time to offer to host it. (Although it's not clear to me if that actually cost him anything.) But in the past year, as far as I'm concerned, he's delivered a tremendous failure. It's crazy that we had to struggle for weeks to finally get access to our own database; he obviously didn't even read most of the messages we sent him. As far as I'm concerned, we're better off without him, and if he feels that his interests are being harmed, then that's just bad luck for him. He should have done better. He will soon be able to transfer the domain name talkchess.com to us, so that we can link it to our new server, once it works perfectly. In short, if Quentin doesn't do what we ask of him properly, isn't he the one who finds himself in a legally precarious situation?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 8, Quentin gets worried after seeing the clone forum.

From: <info@chessusa.com>
To: "'Ed Schroder'" <...>,
"'Sam Hull'" <...>
Subject: RE: Talkchess
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2021 09:36:02 -0400

Hi Ed,

Hope you are well. Just got back from vacation for labor day.

....

Now – let’s get in to the other aspect of what you were talking about…. Perhaps I misunderstood, but I thought the ftp access was to make the site work more smoothly, or update it, or something of that nature. I know there was the possibility of moving if nothing worked out – but I did not think we were at that spot just yet.

I’d hate to think that I gave FTP access because I thought it could help and that someone took it upon themselves to just take the site and information and relaunch independently. I’m not even opposed to the idea, entirely – it’s definitely been a headache! But it’s also been an investment that I’ve at least tried to maintain some degree of support of. Ownership is a really tricky thing here because I do recognize the collaborative nature of this forum; it’s sort of a relic of a different, and perhaps simpler world.

Regards,

Quentin Turner
Your Move Chess & Games
832 N Broadway
N Massapequa, NY 11758
800 645 4710
info@chessusa.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My answer the same day

From: Ed Schroder
To: <info@chessusa.com>,
"'Sam Hull'" <...>

Hi Quentin, Sam,

I’d hate to think that I gave FTP access because I thought it could help and that someone took it upon themselves to just take the site and information and relaunch independently.

I fully agree with you. The agreement we made is to fix first and if that doesn't work move it to another server to see if it works but not a take-over without your permission. This is what HGM (the admin) wrote in public -

Thanks to Sjrda we now have a clone of TalkChess (as it was a few days ago), at http://212.114.109.12/forum3/ ! You are encouraged to browse it, to see if you can discover any irregularities. You could also try to post there. Beware, though, that this is not the real TalkChess, and that whatever you post there will sooner or later disappear. Because I intend at some point to make a completely up-to-date backup of the real forum, after locking it, and restore the state of the test forum to that.

And that's why I am contacting you. This is not what we agreed. This is a hijack of the forum. There is a simple way to avoid it, change the FTP password and HGM is powerless. I think that Jeffrey Koch can do that for you.

Regarding fixing the forum, it doesn't look good. You got a buggy update of the forum +/- 2 years ago and perhaps even with a virus else I can not explain how the virus ended up on your server space. I will look further for solutions.

I’m not even opposed to the idea, entirely – it’s definitely been a headache! But it’s also been an investment that I’ve at least tried to maintain some degree of support of.

Yes, and I am very grateful for 24 years support and we should talk about the financial part in case we decide to move to a new server. The least we should do is to put a nice picture plus link to chessusa as a thankyou for 24 years of sponsorship. We also can start a crowd funding action on the forum.

Meanwhile I am still talking to HGM to convince him to keep to what is agreed.

Ed

[hgm]

And now you want me to believe it's all the fault on non functioning email traffic?

Hilarious.

I don't think a judge would be very impressed if that was your only defense when you stand trial. Remember that you are not some anon posting from China or Russia, but a person known by real name living in the same jurisdiction as I do. Your libelous accusations are also a gross violation of the charter. If you keep that up, I will report them.

But I don't think that escalating a mud fight does any good for the TalkChess forum. So I will make this final peace offering: if you really cannot let this go, just drop by my place to connect to the webmail host, and I will log on to my account, so that you can see for yourself what is in my 'sent box'. Or convince someone that lives closer to me to do that for you. I will even serve coffee tea or chocolate. After that you can publicly apologize. I can't make it any better than that.

[Rebel]

Just answer post forum3/viewtopic.php?p=905800#p905800

Besides of that what really matters is the time line I posted above - forum3/viewtopic.php?p=905804&sid=2750a ... 81#p905804

Seriously, I have nothing to add, nothing to retract.

Just make that deal with Quentin.

[Sopel]

I appreciate you guys trying to make this forum seem worthless to chessusa. I think that's a good strategy to getting the domain for cheap.

[MikeB]

I appreciate you guys trying to make this forum seem worthless to chessusa. I think that's a good strategy to getting the domain for cheap.

Agree, time to lock this puppy up.

[hgm]

Just answer post forum3/viewtopic.php?p=905800#p905800

What question? The "Why were point 1-4 snipped?"?

Because I had already addressed those in the e-mail I just sent before it, of course. I thought that would be obvious. But I had forgotten to address this remaining point there.

Besides of that what really matters is the time line I posted above - forum3/viewtopic.php?p=905804&sid=2750a ... 81#p905804

Matters to who? Doesn't it dawn on you yet that none of this matters to anyone here? What is this timeline supposed to show? Besides that you managed to convince Quentin that I had ill intentions and that he should revoke my ftp access. And conveniently missed some e-mails to make this look less like a backstabbing act.

Seriously, I have nothing to add, nothing to retract.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. You still have not appologized for the vile accusation that I faked a screenshot...

Just make that deal with Quentin.

After you made an effort to convince him that I cannot be trusted? Yeah, that will work. Nice thinking!

Besides, why should I suddenly be the one that would have to make a deal? I am not a founder of this forum. Quentin told me the IP blocking is now lifted, so that I have undisturbed access again (and I heard from people in other countries that holds for them too). I think I plugged one of the vulnerabilities (search flooding, by specifying a search delay) already some time ago, so I don't expect this to cause anymore problems for ChessUSA. If they do, Quentin now knows where to find me.

[Eelco de Groot]

I appreciate you guys trying to make this forum seem worthless to chessusa. I think that's a good strategy to getting the domain for cheap.

Agree, time to lock this puppy up.

I really hope Quentin allows trying to repair the board. If HGM and Srdja can't, under the present circumstances the board seems unusable. No matter what it is worth to anyone. If the webhost continues blocking IPs and such it is unusable even if it were repaired. Quentin owns the domain, the rights to the database probably included and there is nothing to stop him if, like it happened in the Rybka forum, the maintainer sends us a three day notice, if we are lucky, that we have to start fresh, with no database, no name, no paid for domain, somewhere else. So that seems to me enough motivation for Ed wanting to do it Quentin's way. That Ed did not get the e-mails may mean his computer is just as hacked and boobytrapped as the forum software from Quentin itself. If he is still running that Windows XP with no updates since ten years... But I trust he doesn't. Otherwise, it really seems like a good idea for the people living nearby to have an in person meeting at Harm's place. I was watching Dutch politics today on TV and reading Teletext. It is really staggering how professional politicians failed to read clear political signals. How everybody involved wanting not to talk about persons but about content, and all it leads to is "Haags gedoe" I am sorry to say even Gert-Jan Segers had questionable motives -at least that is how it may seem to the public, which is all that matters- not supporting Kaag because there was no formatie anymore, no cabinet. Over the heads of Afghan refugees: Henk en Ingrid begrijpen hier niets meer van beste heren en dames politici. But back to the forum, the morale here is that if there is no reliable communication, no cooperation is possible. "If your system is compromised, you have no system." to quote Clint Eastwood once again.

[AlexChess]

I appreciate you guys trying to make this forum seem worthless to chessusa. I think that's a good strategy to getting the domain for cheap.

Thank you for Fat Titz GPLv3 Cfish derivative again and again! The 310821 build is still the first engine on my SuperBlitz!!!

Waiting for all your other projects with gratitude

Best regards, Alex

[Sopel]

I appreciate you guys trying to make this forum seem worthless to chessusa. I think that's a good strategy to getting the domain for cheap.

Thank you for Fat Titz GPLv3 Cfish derivative again and again! The 310821 build is still the first engine on my SuperBlitz!!!

Waiting for all your other projects with gratitude

Best regards, Alex

You can expect Fat Titz 2 in the near future, but don't tell anyone