JUST GOT HACKED

[Tim Chase]

Daniel,

I'm sorry your initial interactions with the list were tainted
by this experience.  Modulo these degenerative threads (usually
started by Nikos), it *really* is a helpful and friendly place.

On 2013-10-02 00:24, Daniel Stojanov wrote:
> 2) I just signed up the this mailing list. To the regulars, is this
> what normally happens on this list?

There's "all the other very helpful, very on-topic traffic" and
there's the "Nikos flailing around trying to get other people to
write his code and solve his problems for him without actually taking
the time to understand the actual problem/solution, and demanding that
helpful/working solutions be contorted to fit his perspective of what
the solution *should* look like" threads.

When things boil up sufficiently, I tend to just use my mail/usenet
client's "kill-thread" feature to auto-block threads where the FROM
header contains Nikos's gmail or "superhost.gr", and suddenly the list
reverts mostly to the "very helpful, very on-topic traffic".

> 3) I'm a bit late to the party. Is Nikos a real sysadmin or is this
> some horrible inside joke I don't get?

You don't leave much wiggle-room there.  I'm afraid he is a "real"
"sysadmin" (for some definition of "real" and "sysadmin") or at
least he has development/deployment access on a shared-hosting
system where he alleges to have <strike>suckers</strike>actual
clients depending on his "services". I wish it was a horrible joke (or
maybe it is).

The site "hacking" referred to in this thread appears to be the result
of his repeated antagonization of the list through his intentional
disregard for advice given; also a result of his failure to heed
instructions on securing the site--especially with regards to
publishing passwords on mailing-lists (or the URLs to the code
containing those plain-text credentials).

Again, I'm sorry this is how you meet the list.

-tkc