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For a few months now, VBResults / TMApps has convinced Howie to use his desktop notifications addons plugin that he's been promoting all over the place, in place of the original native app that he was selling a year or so ago, as the answer to all forum admins' questions about the availability of a mobile app for their web sites. FFS, I don't even know what the hell this thing is anymore because it's been through about 6 different name changes. Anyway, it appears anybody on TAZ that uses this push notification of this add-on to get updates on threads, or other alerts, gets redirected to an ad on the tma.li ad network, which is managed by shady and shitty vBulletin mod developer "vbresults". So vBresults gets paid for anybody using this "feature" on TAZ? Lol, is that right? Does Howie even know this? I doubt it. Also, at least on mobile, TheAdminZone.com favicon is replaced with the vBresults' shitty tma.li favicon, which even makes it more confusing for anybody that has TAZ bookmarked. Jesus. Maybe if you have TAZ bookmarked, you deserve that I guess. Of course, Howie isn't around to answer any questions, but to anybody not in the know on how stupid things are on TAZ, somebody would think vBresults was managing TAZ now. A new mobile app!

WTF is this? Log into Facebook | Facebook Some Facebook admin group, but they stole TAZ''s logo? This made my day.... Rules! Welcome to The Admin Zone .... To share information within our group and forewarn Admin /Owner members ... Rules are : 1. No SHARING of posts , even in Pms , unless you ask for permission in thread 2. No NUDES , please adhere to FB guidelines 3. Must provide ALL the evidence if posting .. SS must be provided , the persons FB link , the crime and Not partial SS 4. ALL POSTS WILL NOW be screened and reviewed before posting on wall until further notice , however this may change 5. WE the ADMIN , have the right to reject or remove a post OR person/persons from our group , 6. We WILL NOT tolerate HEARSAY , DRAMA or BITCHING 7. ALL members are screened before entering our Group 8. You may Advertise your groups 9. If you have issues with anyone in group either Block them or keep it out the group ...Do not BLOCK ADMIN ! 10. MUST ALL LIKE & AGREE to PINNED POST ... otherwise Leave Thank you .. Any issues contact Brian Miller or Mags Morland .. Admin/CoOwners [ATTACH=full]2255._xfImport[/ATTACH]

If Howie ever decided to give up his control of TAZ and sell, would you purchase it? If so, how much would you be willing to pay? Would you unban all of his banned members? Which of her current 20+ staff would you keep, if any? How many of the hundreds of addons installed would you keep? How would you run it different from Howie? ( #lefttards need not reply )

TheAdminZone's Sandman claims that he's a "big time" audiophile. If he were to make a mix tape (or mix 8track, if that was possible) for Gemma, what songs would be on it? Here are some of my suggestions...

So, the fantastic beast himself, Ozzy47 has this at XF2: [ATTACH=full]1264._xfImport[/ATTACH] Let's just take a look back at some of his "childish rantings", "overflow drama", at the same place.... July 4th, 2017 [ATTACH=full]1265._xfImport[/ATTACH] So... talking about people being "butt hurt way to easily nowadays" is typically what the XF2 Demo board was set up for? May 29th, 2017 [ATTACH=full]1266._xfImport[/ATTACH] Well, looks like we found his "original" post on this. A directly copy/pasta, spelling errors included just the same. Mar 3, 2017 [ATTACH=full]1268._xfImport[/ATTACH] Hilarious... you have just admitted to bringing drama from elsewhere onto the XF Demo site. The first part is simply "childish rantings". Dec 18, 2016 [ATTACH=full]1269._xfImport[/ATTACH] Sure, it was a "nursery rhyme". more unneeded drama. Don't attempt to deny it. Nov 22, 2016

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Took a little effort, but was able to reproduce the phone cancer TheAdminZone is trying to distribute. [ATTACH=full]994._xfImport[/ATTACH]

Howie likes to consistently use the Goku/Super Saiyan image for his avatar. If you had his account, what avatar would you change it to? I think Pokemon Simisear would be a good choice: http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/bw/542.png Or perhaps this image from Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet: [ATTACH=full]453._xfImport[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=full]338._xfImport[/ATTACH] Yesterday, I posted: [ATTACH=full]337._xfImport[/ATTACH]

On May 5th, 2016, TAZ had its security breached for the second time. Unlike the previous intrusion, this was a sophisticated attack where the hacker was somehow able to upload a malicious file onto TAZ's test board (perhaps by exploiting a Brivium add-on installed on the old Admin Extra site which was still on the server) which then allowed them to give themselves SFTP access to the nginx user account and run commands. They then altered several core XenForo files in order to begin logging member username/password combinations, logging out members forcing them to log in again, and finally by preventing the File Health Check from reporting the file modifications. Due to some of the safeguards we installed last time we were attacked, were were able to identify this intrusion almost immediately and take steps to block the hacker, limiting the time the login logger was operational to a matter of hours. We then forced a password reset for all members. It's certainly unfortunate that TAZ was hacked again and I take full responsibility for it - the test site should not have been kept on the primary TAZ server nor should the old TAZ sites have been there. The previous intrusion was a much simpler exploitation of a staff member's username/password being harvested from another site and being used to gain access to the AdminCP to alter the login templates. We took a number of steps to prevent this kind of thing from happening again - forced 2FA for staff members and htaccess on the AdminCP for example. There are good things to do, but in a way it gave us a false sense of security that left us vulnerable to the second, much more sophisticated attack. The hacker was not able to gain access to the server root. Using the logs we were able to see exactly what changes the hacker made and undo them. Many other security measures have been put in place to prevent this from happening again, and several more are planned. Please keep in mind that unlike commercial sites, TAZ does not collect sensitive data about its members - we don't collect your full name, address, social security number, or credit card numbers for example. All a hacker can get here is your username, password, and email address. You can protect yourself by using a unique password on each site (or at the very least, use unique passwords on all of your important sites), and not using your primary email address as your registration email address (better to use a secondary email address for forum registrations, a different one for really important sites like banking sites, government sites, etc. and perhaps even a third one for semi-important things like your server hosting, registrar, etc.). Finally, do not put any "secret" information (such as access codes for your server) into a forum's personal or private message system - use secure email for that. If you follow these simple steps on TAZ (or any discussion forum) you won't be at risk even if the site is hacked. Again, my apologies for this security breach. I made some mistakes which made TAZ vulnerable. We are doing everything possible to prevent any further intrusions. Howard (The Sandman)

"An Official Guest Viewer Review" I do have an account, this is just as viewed when seeing site as a guest. (y) Pros Design Nice theme implementation from the Pixel Exit team of @Russ and @Steve F . The theme flows well, and everything looks to be in place and follow the theme design as a whole. On the forum home, the slight edits made to the widget blocks look well. Just about everything these two have touched turned out golden, and the work done here is just solid proof. Excellent choice hiring these two @The Sandman . Kudos. Activity Nowhere remotely near its heyday in posting, but there are topics that see activity. The vast majority have nothing pertaining to administrating a forum, but there is posting going on. Unfortunately, sites do have cons as well, here we can go over these. (n) Cons Advertisements Overboard. 4 or 5 on every page viewing from mobile. The footer advertising area seems to serve no purpose, especiallyadding in the fact it's removed on mobile. The newly added app by @vbresultsdoesn't add anything, sans an icon on your phone as well as a giant "install this banner" at the top, and push notifications that appear after your Gmail alert does. Security (or lack of) Is been 22 days since the site went down. There has yet to be an "official" statement on what caused the breach, what info was tampered with, anything. After this last breach, my account information must have been exposed, add the brand new email I use for Netflix (which coincidentally is the sane email as used at TAZ) had suddenly had many login attempts from all over the world. I would think a site focused on administering a forum would at the very least accept the responsibility for the lack of security and provide information to its members as it becomes available. Seems to have been swept under the rug. This is an area of major concern for everyone, as it is the 4th time is happened in less than a year. Information At one point, TAZ was the go to place for all forum info. Now (this ties into the activity listed above), is simply a gathering spot to chat. :) Synopsis I think TAZ could really make a run and turn around the withering forum market if done correctly. They have a very large and vocal following, and if able to use the clout they once had, can become a viable resource for forum administration again. Elect staff that care, not just any and everyone (back to security). Fix a few of these issues and TAZ could once again become the elite forum admin forum on the net again. Appreciate your time, and thank you for allowing me to critique yoursite.

Looks like The Howie blocked all of the new BASH.zone ads that I tried running on TAZ. 0 impressions in the last week, reported by Google Adwords. I guess my money's not good enough for him. [ATTACH=full]234._xfImport[/ATTACH]

Howie must have had a bad day yesterday. In a profile post to Ozzy on TAZ, he explains the justification for removing Ozzy as staff, and why he had an orange colored member status. It seems The Howie didn't want to be too hard on Ozzy for demoting him from staff, that he let him keep his chat moderating privileges. [ATTACH]232._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]233._xfImport[/ATTACH] But of course, in true Howie fashion, he couldn't let his true feelings be known, so the whole conversation was deleted, it appears. @Ziggy EDIT: Original thread title said that Ozzy was banned from TAZ.

Yet another TAZ error. [ATTACH=full]210._xfImport[/ATTACH] Typical.

Topic at TAZ.... New Members Being Driven Away! The reply from zappaDPJ: New Members Being Driven Away! Errrrm..... isn't that TAZ?

Has TheSandman of TheAdminZone taken over Google Cloud development too? Sounds like something he'd do. Received this email:

As in, being in a pickle... I love the explanation Howard gives for his actions (or lack of them) looking like favoritism toward vbresults. XenForo Staff Competing with Community Developers Discusson WTF?! :joy::laughing: That has to be the funniest thing that I've read in at least the last two weeks. All of the members on TAZ are being negative toward vbresults and Howard suddenly decides to become neutral on an issue? I guess it's just a coincidence and there's a first time for everything.

Bans people inconsistently that may or may not be an admin at a competing site, yet, suffers a security breach at the hands of a hacker because of a compromised staff member's account, but doesn't ban or limit the hacked account?

... Then locks the thread. Doesn't make much sense to me. Vice makes a suggestion, gets mercilessly attacked for suggesting it, and The Great Howzini interjects... So he encourages Vice to continue pointing out the problems with TAZ, but then locks the thread. Then Howie received a bunch of high fives for his inconsistency. Feedback - A return back to the old policy?