5 ms·

It's a shame the maintainer of the site is going to let it fall into obscurity instead of just adopting more modern development practices. edit. Such as allowi

by zajd 11y ago

It's a shame the maintainer of the site is going to let it fall into obscurity instead of just adopting more modern development practices. edit. Such as allowing people to audit the source of the site as opposed to requesting pentesting.

ajkjk 11y ago
It's a shame to not be more sympathetic to people with less experience or less time on their hands, especially when they run a widely appreciated site.
smoyer 11y ago
I didn't down-vote you (yet), but I don't understand how asking for security help is the same as letting the site fall into obscurity. What modern development practices would you suggest? Comments like this (sometimes) go half-way. If there's a point behind it, enumerate the ways you think would improve his practices.
- zajd 11y ago
  It's less that he's asking for help and more that this has happened multiple times and it's quite clear he should be allowing someone to audit the source code, not just search blindly for attack vectors. It's clear there are issues, it's time to invite some help.
  - smoyer 11y ago
    Then I agree ... having a community of people who can help with the source code is a valid suggestion.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - jimmyhmiller 11y ago
      Maybe I'm a bit confused, but it doesn't seem by your announcement that you are opening up the source, just inviting people to try and hack. Having the source open would make it much easier to spot security problems.
    - fefifofu 11y ago
      Well, no, that is not precisely what you are doing. You are asking for pen-testing. Zajd is saying you need to 1) let the community audit your source code, and/or 2) rewrite the website using modern development practices. An example already mentioned here is that passwords aren't handle with current best practices. Appears that zajd's original comment has been down-voted a lot, but I'm not sure people know that Project Euler has been struggling with hacking for over a year. Maybe time for more than patches.
dang 11y ago
Please don't post backhanded swipes like this, or outright insults like "This guy is a moron." [1] The idea on HN is to comment civilly and substantively [2], or not at all. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023513 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- zajd 11y ago
  Fair enough, just frustrated with the overwhelming number of "the modern internet is broken!!" posts that have been clogging up the front page lately. That also happened to be one particularly light on content.
  - elektromekatron 11y ago
    the modern internet is broken (not to mention interfaces, languages, security, identity, manufacture, physics and pop-tarts) and if you get upset at people pointing out how much nicer things could be, then things probably wont
    - zajd 11y ago
      Again, I understand there are issues with the modern internet, but that article was unironically calling for the return of geocities. It's a hyperbolic clickbait title that has no place in a reasonable discussion about the actual issues that we're dealing with. Beyond that, I even quoted the passage I took issue with. > In 2015, becoming a Web developer is all about learning Ruby or figuring out Node.js, not just building cool things you like. This is patently wrong. Maybe it was harsh to call him a moron but the content was very weak in that particular piece.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

by zajd 11y ago

ajkjk 11y ago

It's a shame to not be more sympathetic to people with less experience or less time on their hands, especially when they run a widely appreciated site.

smoyer 11y ago

I didn't down-vote you (yet), but I don't understand how asking for security help is the same as letting the site fall into obscurity. What modern development practices would you suggest? Comments like this (sometimes) go half-way. If there's a point behind it, enumerate the ways you think would improve his practices.

zajd 11y ago
It's less that he's asking for help and more that this has happened multiple times and it's quite clear he should be allowing someone to audit the source code, not just search blindly for attack vectors. It's clear there are issues, it's time to invite some help.
- smoyer 11y ago
  Then I agree ... having a community of people who can help with the source code is a valid suggestion.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - jimmyhmiller 11y ago
    Maybe I'm a bit confused, but it doesn't seem by your announcement that you are opening up the source, just inviting people to try and hack. Having the source open would make it much easier to spot security problems.
  - fefifofu 11y ago
    Well, no, that is not precisely what you are doing. You are asking for pen-testing. Zajd is saying you need to 1) let the community audit your source code, and/or 2) rewrite the website using modern development practices. An example already mentioned here is that passwords aren't handle with current best practices. Appears that zajd's original comment has been down-voted a lot, but I'm not sure people know that Project Euler has been struggling with hacking for over a year. Maybe time for more than patches.

dang 11y ago

Please don't post backhanded swipes like this, or outright insults like "This guy is a moron." [1] The idea on HN is to comment civilly and substantively [2], or not at all. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10023513 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

zajd 11y ago
Fair enough, just frustrated with the overwhelming number of "the modern internet is broken!!" posts that have been clogging up the front page lately. That also happened to be one particularly light on content.
- elektromekatron 11y ago
  the modern internet is broken (not to mention interfaces, languages, security, identity, manufacture, physics and pop-tarts) and if you get upset at people pointing out how much nicer things could be, then things probably wont
  - zajd 11y ago
    Again, I understand there are issues with the modern internet, but that article was unironically calling for the return of geocities. It's a hyperbolic clickbait title that has no place in a reasonable discussion about the actual issues that we're dealing with. Beyond that, I even quoted the passage I took issue with. > In 2015, becoming a Web developer is all about learning Ruby or figuring out Node.js, not just building cool things you like. This is patently wrong. Maybe it was harsh to call him a moron but the content was very weak in that particular piece.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]