Explanation of forum downtime and changes from 10/14-16

[Vyse]

Now that the situation is resolved and we can look back at it with clear heads, we understand and can offer much more cohesive information than we could in the midst of the confusion.

The recent slowdown and increase in errors were due to an increase in traffic and a flaw in BrawlVault's RSS. They were not the result of a DDoS attack, and there is nothing wrong with the forum's security. While a DDoS attack did occur, it was small and had no significant impact on forum performance.

We've placed a single ad in the Forum Games board and will soon be placing one on BrawlVault as well. This will fund both a server upgrade and the improvement of BrawlVault, so if you use an ad blocker, please whitelist those areas. Both of these things will improve the 500 error situation. Picano has stated multiple times that BrawlVault is poorly written, and every time he does that he also asks for help or funding to make fixing it possible. Neither has been forthcoming, so we're finally taking matters in our own hands.

Those are the important facts. For details, read on.

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

[Wulfbang Meow]

ive turned off my adblocker so that the ads will show, but for me specifically i still see your message about how i should turn it off..

ads are annoying sometimes, but if its helping the quality of the server and improves brawlvault, then id be more than happy to deal with the ads.

[Puraidou]

I see no problem with ads at all, i'll happily see them if it helps KC-MM stay up and running.

[Miacis]

Vyse's recap summed it up pretty well ... A few little addendums :

- The user "anonymoususer" who registered here to boast about the DDoS attack was most likely one of SmashHackers friends.

- We've lost a few pieces of our ban list. So we might see some old faces in the days to come. Don't hesitate to report them if they cause any trouble, like usual.

- The forum was fully backed up, was upgraded to v. 1.1.15 (yay!), lots of cleaning was done, from the recycle bin and from old locked topics.

ive turned off my adblocker so that the ads will show, but for me specifically i still see your message about how i should turn it off...

Give it some time. Just like you, it took me a bit before the ads showed up, when I removed AdBlock.
Also, some ads seem to not appear at all. Meh.

At least the mini-Vyse is cute.

[Ike_Lawliet]

We're short on money? I thought the $200 donation left us covered for some time.

[mnsg]

Nice to hear that the admins are working to fix up this problem.  Too bad that some of the errors still persist.

[SJS]

So no apology for thinking SmashHackers was stealing IPs? I know some people still believe that to be true...

[Miacis]

It got kinda cut out in the recap:

Anyways, everything is pretty much clear now. The site should be back to normal. We apologize for exagerating SmashHackers' role in that attack, as he obviously didn't hack into 200 accounts with wizardry. We have misjudged with all the confusion.
But trying to launch a DDoS attack against us, even a weak one, is still illegal, and SmashHackers will recieve a severe sanction for that.

Kinda hard to apologize more than that to someone who tried DDoSing us.

[Vyse]

So no apology for thinking SmashHackers was stealing IPs? I know some people still believe that to be true...

Ignoring the brief introduction, the first sentence of the post states what happened. If anyone still believes that after we've almost literally smacked them in the face with the truth, they have bigger problems and there's nothing more we can do.

[Yosh1Kart]

and now i like ads

if it keeps KC-MM up i LOVE ads now

[AGFanProduction]

wow so that is what really happened :0
I'm still confused of why Smashhackers launched an *ill-conceived DDoS attack* to the page?

anyways is good that the site is in a good state now and I hope that SmashHackers receive a sanction for that.

[DAGGAWEIRD]

i dont understand what happened cause im a noob at website stuff especially whatever DDoS means

the whole time the site was working good on my computer?

[ShadowMarth]

All i have to say is Well done To all of the Admin's XD
Great job guys XD!

[SJS]

All I wanted was someone to acknowledge that SmashHackers didn't steal IPs and was falsely accused. People had their panties in a bunch and needed clarification on that. Thanks Miacis. Though I see I started an argument in the process. Oh well.

[BabyLuigiOnFire]

Wow, this site crashed when I most needed it. Talk about bad luck.

I'm happy now that's up and running again. I haven't been in it for quite awhile, and I want to check out the new hacks made.