What's up with HC ?

[oldguy]

I was going to check some info/reviews on the Bugera amphs, to see if most people were liking them as much as Spudman. Harmony Central's been undergoing maintenance and down for a couple days now........what's up?

[Spudman]

It was working yesterday evening. I was on HC forums. Now all of HC is down. Probably just maintenance.

[oldguy]

It was on-again-off-again part of yesterday evening. Now it's been down all morning.
As long as this place keeps chugging, no big deal............

[Tig]

Yep, they're still down.
A typical site or server maintenance down time usually lasts hours, not days. Either they are performing some serious infrastructire upgrades, or they were hit hard by hackers. Just guessing here.

[Spudman]

They are probably taking time to remove all the superfluous threads about boobs, Miyatas and hot red heads and just leave the stuff of substance. Oh wait, that's the only substance there. Looks like they are going to be down for a while then. :cool:

[Eric]

Yep, they're still down.
A typical site or server maintenance down time usually lasts hours, not days. Either they are performing some serious infrastructire upgrades, or they were hit hard by hackers. Just guessing here.
My money is on the latter.

[oldguy]

OOoohhh.........guess it's more serious than I thought. I checked their tweety/twitter thing, here's what it says..........


It's Day 3 of our maintenance effort. Yeah, it's serious to be offline for 3 days, and that fact is not lost on us. We're working on it! Thx
about 3 hours ago from web We're in Day 2 of our thorough maintenance effort. The IT team is working non-stop to get us back. Thanks for your continued patience. -HC
4:36 AM Dec 10th from web We're still performing urgent maintenance measures on HC. Please bear with us while we sort this out. Thanks for your patience. -The HC Team
6:47 PM Dec 9th from web HC site down 4 emergency maintenance. We're on it & will update as soon as we're back online.
10:00 AM Dec 9th from txt

[Bloozcat]

The latest...

December 11, 2009



Dear Harmony Central member,

Thank you for your participation in the Harmony Central community. We are writing to inform you of an incident that took place on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, and to suggest some steps you may consider in response.

What Happened.

Someone without authorization temporarily gained access to the Harmony Central site. That person or persons also gained access to our stored member information, which includes e-mail addresses. If you have provided us with other information, like your date of birth, we have also stored that information. Our stored information also includes member passwords, which are protected by multiple levels of encryption.

Our Response.

Our team stopped this intrusion. We are working hard to further improve the security of the Harmony Central site. We regret that this incident has caused the site to go offline temporarily. We also regret any concern that this incident may cause you.

What You Can Do.

As noted above, our stored passwords are protected by multiple levels of encryption. However, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that you reset your password as soon as Harmony Central is available.

Also, as always, please remain cautious when responding to e-mail communications. Please remember – no one from Harmony Central will ever ask you for your password or log-in information. No one from Harmony Central will ask you for a credit card number, or Social Security number, or anything of the sort. If you ever receive any message supposedly from Harmony Central asking for that or any personal information, note the sender, delete the email immediately, restart your computer, and alert us to the situation. Never click on any links or attachments contained in an email of this type.

We appreciate your patience, and expect to have the site back up soon.

Sincerely,

Your Harmony Central Team

[duhvoodooman]

....or they were hit hard by hackers. Just guessing here.
Folks, we have a winner!

[Robert]

It wasn't me, honest! :D

[oldguy]

Holy Security Leak, Batman!

The Internets are busted!

:what :help

[Robert]

Word of advice - if you are using the same HC username and passwords on other sites as well, go and change those passwords on all those other places. Just in case the hackers have your username/passwords available.

[Tig]

Folks, we have a winner!

Yeah, well that's why I get paid the big bucks... um, that is, when I'm not collecting unemployment! :thwap

[sumitomo]

Oh no! I had my SSN there and all my banking #'s,wew! I'm glad I used Strum's #'s and not mine! Sumi:D

[oldguy]

Wow, must be serious. They may not be coming back. Any other sites give decent gear reviews?

[luvmyshiner]

I'm glad I used Strum's #'s and not mine! Sumi:D

You too???? :what

[oldguy]

Well, HC's back.........at least right now it is....

[wingsdad]

... Any other sites give decent gear reviews?
Yeah, right here.
In the long run, HC's are hit & miss. Take them w/ a grain of salt. I wouldn't consider any of them gospel.

[oldguy]

Yeah, right here.
In the long run, HC's are hit & miss. Take them w/ a grain of salt. I wouldn't consider any of them gospel.

:AOK
I was thinking more along the line of the multiple type reviews on newer gear found @ HC, but yes, we have some fine reviews by members right here. I know HC is often jaded, and some reviews aren't accurate, but I usually find some valid criticism there, if it's warranted.
Most online magazine reviews look more like advertisements, which makes sense, since no magazine would want to alienate their paying customers (advertisers) by giving their products too harsh a review.

[wingsdad]

Totally true, OG. Online mag reviews are mainly 'advertorial', in journalism-speak, from my 25 years in media (newspaper, radio, tv, magazine)advertising sales & buying. That is: you buy enough ads, we throw in a flowery review on the product of your choice. Along with reviews, all those 'new gear' things in mags like AG, GW, etc., are paid advertiser 'value-added' stuff of one form or another.

HC? Yeah, look hard enough thru the clutter and there's some useful info. Any review is subjective, so...

BTW: anybody have a sudden problem logging in to photobucket? My password wasn't recognized this am, while it was fine thru a few days ago (when I posted pics of the Tak I've offered f/s), about the time HC got trashed/hacked. I went for the 'forgot password' option, got the email & reset it on pb.

I figured I'd take HC's advice and went & reset it there too. I hadn't logged in there since early 07.

[Spudman]

You might be able to find some reviews you want here http://www.jemsite.com/shopping/

I've been contributing there and although there aren't quite as many reviews as HC there still are hundreds.
http://www.jemsite.com/reviews/

[oldguy]

Hey, thanks, Steve! I'll check it out.