[./Nomad]

Hello all, My name is ./nomad. I'm a well versed hacker/security enthusiast who's looking for a place to settle down. Probably around a year ago I was a moderator of a formerly massive hacking forum of which I wont name, I jumped ship due to the failing state of the forum and general disagreement with the admins direction of the forum (who ultimately let it fall), it's not around anymore at all and there are so many large hacking forums and communities that are failing.

I would like to find an established community that is active enough and is under the kind of leadership that is dedicated enough to keep it running through these strange times for hacking communities, and also looking for a place that aligns with my own morals (I generally keep away from cArDers and the like, wholeheartedly greyhat, not blackhat.) This forum certainly seems established and might have the activity to keep it running, so I may just stick around.

I do have a few question:

what triggered the change from hack community to sinister.ly? I remember hackcommunity back in the golden days, there was tons of traffic and it seemed like a good place to be.

I also noticed that the registration process requires inputting an age for COPPA compliance, what type of information do you collect from users here and where does it go/who has access to it?

Thanks for your time and it would be awesome to get an answer from the admins/mods on this stuff. I will say that of the forums I've looked at recently, several of them had major db errors present (plainly visible) and a few had barely tweaked if not default mybb themes, so this place looks pretty promising considering the competition.

EDIT: Cool spam filter!

[Megan]

Only @Oni can answer your question about info from the users & why it changed etc but AFAIK he just has the coppa compliance as a legal thing rather than anything else.

As for your general info, welcome to SL! Enjoy your time here!

[./Nomad]

Only @Oni can answer your question about info from the users & why it changed etc but AFAIK he just has the coppa compliance as a legal thing rather than anything else.

As for your general info, welcome to SL! Enjoy your time here!

I'm hoping it's just a legal thing, but can't be too careful! I've also noticed other forums going to COPPA compliance, namely HF and a few other big names.

and thanks! Looks like I will enjoy it here.

---

Great introduction. You mentioned other forums have db errors, you won't find that here. We do have a custom theme, and I've always been confused why anyone would use a default mybb theme. We try to avoid c*rders and general cancer / autism, and that's the main reason people stay. Other than the minimal cancer, the community is very tight and helpful. No matter if you just bought your first computer, or have been on the internet for years. I hope to see more of you.

Yes I do love a custom theme, and to me a default theme for a hacking forum just screams "I JUST GOT BANNED BY (FORUM NAME HERE) AND I THINK I CAN DO A BETTER JOB" but they usually don't last long. Also avoiding cancer/autism is good thing to aspire towards . I did notice that the team here seems to get rid of the trash pretty quick and it seems pretty clean and pretty active!

[mothered]

You seem to have your priorities In the right perspective.

Everyone's needs, wants and expectancies they seek In forum differ to some degree, hence only time will tell whether yours will be fulfilled.
That said, I'm quite certain you'll find the community and It's content of benefit here.
Welcome to our community, enjoy your stay.

[Oni]

1. The "change" wasn't really triggered. I happened to have a large sum of money and they happened to be selling the forum. It seemed logical to merge them into us, as we shared the same niche. There were obviously many people against the idea and it wasn't the best merge ever.

2. We're not really under any obligation to comply with COPPA. However, this is a forum for people >13. We have logs, just like any other MyBB site (although you can have them disabled specifically for you if you're upgraded). You're responsible for what you post and what ends up in our logs - so be mindful of that.

I've run this forum for 3 years, so if you have any questions I am likely the most qualified to answer them.

[./Nomad]

1. The "change" wasn't really triggered. I happened to have a large sum of money and they happened to be selling the forum. It seemed logical to merge them into us, as we shared the same niche. There were obviously many people against the idea and it wasn't the best merge ever.

Wow, I had no idea that the forum was ever for sale, good on you for merging the forums and making everything work, instead of making people start from scratch. I can't even imagine how much of a pain that would have been. I can imagine there was probably quite a bit of unrest in the community probably more so from the older members, but it looks like things have turned out for the better!

2. We're not really under any obligation to comply with COPPA. However, this is a forum for people >13. We have logs, just like any other MyBB site (although you can have them disabled specifically for you if you're upgraded). You're responsible for what you post and what ends up in our logs - so be mindful of that.

I've run this forum for 3 years, so if you have any questions I am likely the most qualified to answer them.

Good to know and thank for for answering honestly. I'd say just from poking around a bit it looks like you run a very high quality forum, probably the highest quality of this particular niche around at the moment considering amount of activity and general cleanliness and lack of spam/shitposters. Oh and the custom theme is pretty cool, well done!

I think I'll stick around for a while.

I do have one question in particular for you, feel free to not answer it: Have you noticed a significant drop in activity in the past year or so? it seems like a lot of the big name communities have just kind of died off due to either lack of activity, lack of traffic, or poor leadership although I will say that last one doesn't seem to be a problem here at all.

Thanks for the reply!

[Nyx]

Welcome to the forum. You seem to be a promising member and I hope to see you around.