Sep 26, 2016 09:56 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 27, 2016 04:55 PM by Hydra.)
No Marketplace Threads in GFX Contests
As a reminder, all marketplace threads should be kept in the Marketplace forum. For graphics, there is a dedicated subforum in the marketplace that users can request or offer their services for money. The GFX Contests subforum is strictly for contests just like how the regular contests subforum is (and giveaways). >>Source
Site Statistics
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- Posts: 52,580,872 ( +0.17% )
- Threads: 3,636,433 ( +0.2% )
- Members: 3,298,229 ( +2.21% )
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- Daily Posts: 13846.53 ( -0.04% )
- Daily Threads: 957.61 ( -0.01% )
- Daily New Members: 868.55 ( +2% )
- Posts Per Member: 15.94 ( -2.03% )
- Replies Per Thread: 13.46 ( 0% )
Ban Statistics
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- Staff Bans: 67
- ... Change from Last Edition: +35
- Vacation Bans: 8
- ... Change from Last Edition: ~
- Combined Bans: 75
- ... Change from Last Edition: +35
Forum Counts
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- Notable Sections
- Lounge Threads: 510,723 ( +0.17% )
- Lounge Posts: 7,612,796 ( +0.15% )
- RANF Threads: 66,813 ( +0.13% )
- RANF Posts: 1,071,873 ( +0.1% )
- Common
- Threads: 701,093 ( -11.36% )
- Posts: 11,898,559 ( +0.18% )
- Hack
- Threads: 672,834 ( +0.14% )
- Posts: 5,874,153 ( +0.13% )
- Tech
- Threads: 204,855 ( +0.09% )
- Posts: 1,397,686 ( -18.76% )
- Code
- Threads: 165,792 ( NaN% )
- Posts: 1,505,600 ( +5.95% )
- Game
- Threads: 448,771 ( +0.66% )
- Posts: 46,487,898 ( +905.51% )
- Groups
- Threads: 7,300 ( +0.21% )
- Posts: 318,800 ( +0.22% )
- Web
- Threads: 81,881 ( +0.12% )
- Posts: 593,046 ( +0.1% )
- GFX
- Threads: 133,041 ( +0.08% )
- Posts: 993,650 ( +0.07% )
- Market
- Threads: 975,804 ( +0.22% )
- Posts: 8,817,878 ( +0.14% )
- Money
- Threads: 138,647 ( NaN% )
- Posts: 1,817,601 ( -5.19% )
Membership Counts
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- Null
- Nightmare
- Red Lions
- Dawn
- Enigma
- Illuminati
- Synergy
- Echo
- Fusion
- The Order
- Riptide
- Eternal
- Titans
- Royalty
- Legends
Group Changes- Nex+ has re-branded Eternal into Incentive.
Leadership Changes- .Reef is now a leader of Incentive.
- Baphomet™ is now a leader of Illuminati.
- LUCKYMR7 is no longer a leader of Incentive.
- Tutelary is no longer a leader of Illuminati.
Group Recruitments
Informational and Buy-in Threads
Groups For Sale
*As of the Friday prior to release.
User News
Bans*
Vacations*
Closures
Rep Kills
Awards- No notable awards were reported this week!
* = prior to the Friday of release!
- Announcement Threads
- No announcement threads this week.
- Member Feedback Threads
- No feedback threads this week.
![[Image: 310.png]](https://hackforums.news/assets/v3/Interview/310.png)
Interview - Premortal:
Clique: Hi there and welcome to this weeks edition of the HF news. Any shout outs before begin?
Premortal: Hello Clique, thanks for having me! I don't think I have any shout outs in mind.
Clique: Sounds good. So what do you do outside of HF? Are you in school?
Premortal: I'm on and off with school, but mainly I work a pretty easy blue collar job and make strides to improve my writing. I spend entirely too much time consuming different types of media, but I enjoy it and it gives me a chance to see the fruits that come from the labors of others. It's like its own sort of motivation for me.
Clique: Since you've been on HF for quite some time -- do you still like it here?
Premortal: Oh I definitely like it. Just with the sort of subject matter that HF revolves around you can always be sure that there's something interesting going on. The multiple senses of community that are ingrained in this site really help make it a fun place to have discussions and meet people. So many different kinds of people are attracted to the idea of hacking and all the different things it entails, be it money or notoriety or even knowledge. Hack Forums ends up being this great cocktail of both information and entertainment.
Clique: Do you go on any other boards or is HF your only one? I for one love browsing reddit.
Premortal: I'm a big fan of Reddit myself, but you don't see nearly as much there in the way of individuality throughout the different subreddits. Outside of your karma and your post history there really isn't much going on with the average Reddit user's profile. I like having an avatar and a signature to create an image for myself on top of the threads and replies that I make. Having usergroups, reputation points, and awards goes even further with that personalization by showing who a person may be affiliated with, what they do, what they're known for, and overall just what kind of member that they are. I like have so many different platforms available to help define myself for others.
Clique: Agreed. What got you into HF? Was it from a friend or just found out by yourself?
Premortal:It being so long ago and having been so subtle of an event I ended up forgetting all of the specific details, but I remember when googling how to do certain computer related activities I'd see threads from Hack Forums show up in the results, and since it didn't let you actually read the threads unless you made an account I figured I'd be fine with making one. I really wasn't all that active for my first three to six months on the site, but it became a part of my regular schedule to check on and post things on the site, and I guess things sorta snowballed. I gained a feel for the site and the community and consciously decided that I enjoyed being here, which isn't something I can say for every site I've ever joined on a whim.
Clique: Glad you stuck around. Unrelated question, but are you going to see the new Snowden movie? What movies have you seen recently?
Premortal: I'm most definitely going to need to see it sometime soon. I never got around to seeing Citizenfour, but I heard that it was really well done and I'd imagine Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a solid Snowden. Some movies that I've seen recently are Hell and High Water, which was released this year, and the original Predator, which came out in the late 80's. Hell or High Water I really, really enjoyed and would like to see nominated for some Academy awards, just because it's able to very effectively balance having a generally slow-burning plot while still keeping the audiences attention with well placed scenes of action and tension. The original Predator movie is great, probably one of my favorite cheesy action movies from the 80's. It's definitely got some cheesiness going on, but the plot and acting are sincere enough to grab the audience while still going through the fairly basic plot with enough suspense to stay interesting.
Clique: Just saw Snowden, loved it. Predator was great, a classic in my opinion. What's your opinion on groups nowdays?
Premortal: I don't think they're nearly as big a part of the forum as they used to be, at least outside of the marketplace anyway. With how much groups sell for, I can't imagine anyone being able to purchase one without having at least some intentions of making their money back. When they were cheaper (or free) it wasn't nearly as bad, but most group purchases are made with financial gain in mind rather than setting good standards for different parts of the forum.
Organization for groups could probably be a lot better as well. It always annoys me when I see someone asking for ideas for a group's subject, because if it's something you aren't personally passionate about it isn't something you're going to be able to make strides with in terms of productivity and community involvement, because eventually you'll just lose interest and either find some other subject you don't care about or sell the group.
Lounge groups are okay, but I really think that it ends up wasting the potential that's present in a lot of groups. I always do my lounging in Team Speak and Discord, and it used to be that Tinychat was the place to go for lounging. A lot of us don't really see the need for that type of stuff inside of a private group subforum, and I know for myself even in lounge threads in otherwise non-lounge groups I'm not usually too active because I don't see the point.
Group activity starts from the top, and if there's a group that's inactive it's gonna be because the leaders and owners aren't active themselves. But if you take the Red Lions for example, nokia2mon2 may not be very active at all, but he grants enough liberty to !! Alone Vampire!! and the rest of the Red Lions that we can initiate projects and activity as we please, leading us to have a very active and objective-based subforum. Of course, this relies on the leaders recruiting members who are both active and very sincere in their desire to help Hack Forums, and I think that meticulousness when recruiting is key when it comes to a group's success. When it comes down to it, a group is nothing more than just a collective of members, and the words and actions of those members outside of the subforum define for the rest of Hack Forums just what exactly a group's about.
Clique: You think HF would be as active as it is now if groups didn't exist?
Premortal: Oh for sure, but I don't think there would be nearly as much of a community-type feel to the site. Having a marketplace and a bunch of good informational threads are what I see as mainly drawing people to the site, but groups give members a reason to keep coming back to the site and staying active. Groups are definitely a big part of HF's success as a social hub.
Clique: Thanks for your time. Any other thoughts before we finish this interview?
Premortal: I think that's about it! Thanks for interviewing me, it's always fun sharing my thoughts and opinions with the HF community. Check out the Red Lions Discord server in my signature if you ever feel like chatting.
We publish the HF News every week yet we have aged members who don't even know we exist! Wear any of the signatures listed below to support us and spread the word about HF News, HF Wiki, and Writers altogether.
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Another Week, Another Edition
Thanks for reading the HF News this week, see you next week!
Indian Court Rules Copyright is not a Divine Right
Publishers were thwarted in their attempt to stop Delhi University from issuing photocopies of textbooks. The Delhi high court said that “copyright is not a divine right,” and that the university may continue to issue photocopies of major textbooks without penalty. In India, education is exempted from copyright infringement under Section 52 of the Copyright Act. The lawsuit from the publishers began in 2012, and was finally ended on September 16, 2016 with a 94-page order in favor of the defendant. >>Source
Penalties Increased if Caught Using Mobile Phone While Driving
Under new measures, people in the UK that are caught using their phone twice while driving will now lose their license. The UK penalty system is point-based, and those caught using their phone earn an automatic six points. Six points is halfway towards a standard driver losing their license for six months. For new drivers, they are only allowed six points total, which means they will lose their license after being caught once. On top of the point penalty, any offending driver will face a fine of at least £200. Research has shown that those who are using their phone while driving can have up to a 50% slower reaction time. The new measures are intended to discourage dangerous behavior on the roadways. >>Source
Sweden Will Offer Tax Breaks for Repairs
In an attempt to combat wasteful tendencies, Sweden is cutting the VAT on repairs of all kinds. Currently, the VAT sits at 25% for repairs, but Sweden’s Socialist Democrat and Green party will submit proposals to reduce the VAT to 12%. Furthermore, citizens will be allowed to claim back half of the value of labor costs for repairs from their income tax. It is believed that in addition to the conservation this will generate, the repair industry of Sweden will be economically stimulated. >>Source
![[Image: Gladly.png]](https://hackforums.news/assets/v3/TechNews/Gladly.png)
Yahoo Suffers Massive Data Breach
What may be the largest data breach of all time, massive email client Yahoo has had their database of users breached. Yahoo has confirmed the breach, stating that over 500 million usernames, MD5 hashed passwords, and possibly addresses were stolen. The breach may have occurred as early as 2014, with Yahoo keeping it a secret, advising users who haven't changed their passwords and security information since 2014 to do so. This all occurs in the midst of Yahoo being sold to Verizon, with Yahoo shareholders terrified that this could lower the company's value.
Valve Bans Game Publisher that Sued Users Giving Bad Steam Reviews
After receiving plenty of negative publicity in 2014 for suing a game reviewer for $10 million after a bad review, video game publisher Digital Homicide is back at it again, suing hundreds of users who left them bad Steam reviews on multiple games. In total, the publisher is suing users for a whopping $18 million, just over negative reviews. This resulted in plenty of outcry from the community - so much so that Valve, the company that owns Steam, to remove Digital Homicide's entire library of games from Steam.
North Korea's DNS Leaks, Revealing All of Country's Websites
The nation of North Korea is one shrouded in mystery and poverty, with outsiders getting very rare and infrequent chances to get a glimpse of the country. A rare look into North Korea's internet occurred this week, thanks to a slip up by a North Korean official. The mistake turned North Korea's closed internet public for a short while, revealing a measly 28 .nk domains in the country. Along with this information, GitHub users used the temporarily public information to find that for the 25 million person population, there were about 1,000 IPs total. This is not surprising though, as internet is a very rare privilege, mostly for North Korea's high class, wealthy, or researchers. Some of the websites are more typical than others, such as Cooks.org.kp, a cooking and recipe website on the North Korean domain. While someone at North Korea has fixed the DNS leak, websites received so much foreign traffic while they were public that they went offline.
![[Image: GamingNews.png]](https://hackforums.news/assets/v3/GamingNews.png)
New Death Stranding Details Emerge
We received a substantial amount of new information about Hideo Kojima's mysterious upcoming game, Death Stranding. Speaking at Sony Playstation's pre-Tokyo Game Show keynote presentation, Kojima revealed the elusive meaning behind the game's title and logo. Kojima stated that the game's logo isn't dripping ink or liquid, but are actually cords. He further explained that the theme of the game with be exploring how people are connected by strands which explains the game's unusual title -- Death Stranding. Kojima didn't stop there. He revealed that the game will fall into the action genre and that it will be open world with a "degree of freedom." Death Stranding will also feature online elements. Kojima spoke of his wish to give gamers a way to be connected via these "strands," or elements that are different to the usual multiplayer teams. Kojima also recently teased the possibility of a female protagonist to star alongside Norman Reedus in a recent tweet. According to the tweet, there could be a heroine featured in the game, but it looks like that possibility is still up in the air, and the studio is still looking for potential actresses to take on the role. Given Kojima’s love for strong and iconic female characters in the Metal Gear series, it is likely that we’ll see a heroine in Death Stranding as well. A release date hasn't been discussed but it is rumored to be release in 2018.
Pokemon Go: PVP
Following the release of the Buddy system update, Pokemon Company CEO, Tsunekazu Ishihara, told the Wall Street Journal that Niantic Lab is taking its time in releasing new features for the game so that it doesn't overwhelm newcomers. A player-versus-player battle system is on the company's map. "Battling is a category that we do best at Pokemon, after all," Ishihara stated. "It's important to really carefully consider any feature that may increase the difficulty and raise the barrier to entry for more casual users." Ishihara didn't directly comment on their plans in introducing a trading system, but it was mentioned in the same report. In July, Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke confirmed that a trading system would be on its way soon enough, but there was no information shared regarding how it would work. Similarly, we don't know much about the battle system that Niantic is planning to release. "The multiplayer aspect is still something we're exploring, we're still trying to figure out what's the best way to do that," Bhargava said. "So far we've learned that multiplayer battles are a lot of fun. When two people from different teams show up at a rival gym, if they collaborate and both have their Pokemon deployed to battle at the same time, they can take down a stronger gym faster." "But we're trying our best to rethink what the experience should be; what that real-world Pokemon experience should be like. Obviously we're learning from Ingress, but it's going to be a pretty different game. We have a vision for Pokemon, we're gonna execute on it, but we're gonna learn based on what the community reaction is." Niantic has a lot in store for us and it appears that they are seriously considering what the community thinks to ensure future updates are a success. Which features are you most looking forward to? Let us know!
Square Enix Utilizing Mobile Gaming Platform
Square Enix today released its 2016 annual report to investors, which outlines three key initiatives it plans to pursue going forward--one of which is premium mobile games. Square Enix has been releasing numerous premium games on smart devices for years. In 2006, the publisher was already speaking about the growth it saw in mobile gaming and expressed a lot of interest in pursuing them. In the past few years, they've released plenty of original games like Lara Croft Go, Mobius Final Fantasy, and they've even released ports of existing titles like Final Fantasy 9 and Adventures of Mana. Mobile games have been cited as one of the reasons for their surge in profits in past earnings reports. "Currently, the global market for smart device games is dominated by F2P (free to play) games, and the market for premium games that players pay to purchase is practically nonexistent," he said in the annual report. "However, our group has for some time been offering premium games for smart devices, including brand-new titles. When viewed across the group, these offerings represent a considerable volume of earnings." Matsuda then turned his attention to handheld games, essentially explaining what's been apparent for years: mobile games are increasingly taking their place. As a result, Square Enix believes it makes sense to develop handheld games for mobile platforms in addition to handhelds. Square Enix has a lot in store and perhaps they'll revolutionize mobile gaming since they appear to be devote to turning out original games for mobile platforms.
Sep 27, 2016 10:34 AM
(This post was last modified: Sep 27, 2016 11:12 AM by Hydra.)
MLB Pitcher Jose Fernandez Dead
The 24-year-old Miami Marlins pitcher known as José Fernández was killed in the morning of September 25. Fernández and two other individuals were found at the scene of the accident, dead, at the entrance of Miami Harbor. The two other victims were also in their 20s, but their names are not being released to the public at this time. There appeared to be no lead that drugs or alcohol were used that night, but cannot be confirmed until the autopsy reports are completed.
Arnold Palmer Dies at age 87
The golf king, Arnold Palmer, died on the afternoon of September 25 due to heart complications. Palmer was 87 years old and a golf icon to say the least. Palmer was a seven-time major winner and truly did bring people's attention to the game of golf. Alastair Johnson, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, said that Palmer was admitted to the hospital for cardiovascular work, but weakened later in the days thus leading him to his passing.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Divorce
The last couple we would have ever expected to break up, has. On September 19, Angelina Jolie officially filed for divorce. She is seeking full-time custody of the children while only giving Brad visitation rights. Angelina's manager, Geyer Kosinski, says, "Angelina will always do what's in the best interest of taking care of her family. She appreciates everyone's understanding of their need for privacy at this time. Shortly after Angelina's statement, Brad releases his own statement, "I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the wellbeing of our kids. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time." Best of luck to both of them.
*Those with an asterisk are supervisors of that team.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS MEMBER
It's another good addition, I did want to point out you say there was no feedback thread this week even though I personally released my fifth year feedback thread.
https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=5412031
Thanks ! Couldn't wait to read this edition.
Thanks for another great edition guys
Another wonderful week for the HF News team. Thanks for the entertaining read. For two weeks now, Apex has been missing from Membership counts. Is there a reason for this?
Thanks.
Great edition. Sucks to see Grim banned.
(Sep 27, 2016 07:07 PM)Nevieth Wrote: It's another good addition, I did want to point out you say there was no feedback thread this week even though I personally released my fifth year feedback thread.
https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=5412031
The journalist most likely missed it. :P
(Sep 27, 2016 08:56 PM)Confound Wrote: Another wonderful week for the HF News team. Thanks for the entertaining read. For two weeks now, Apex has been missing from Membership counts. Is there a reason for this?
Thanks.
I noticed that today when I did Site News. It'll be fixed for next edition.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS MEMBER
Awesome great, going to read over this now.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS MEMBER
(Sep 27, 2016 10:22 PM)Hydra Wrote: The journalist most likely missed it. :P
Ah alright fair enough. 🤝
I do appreciate having one of my threads in the news though, wasn't expecting to see it.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS MEMBER
Yay I'm in the news lol. Hopefully I'll do well as an illuminati leader
DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS MEMBER
(Sep 27, 2016 10:57 PM)Chicken Buff Wrote: Yay I'm in the news lol. Hopefully I'll do well as an illuminati leader
joke leader for a joke group
🤝
(Sep 27, 2016 11:09 PM)Gary Wrote: joke leader for a joke group
🤝
My boi Gary firing off dem shots 🎉🎉🎉
(Sep 27, 2016 11:09 PM)Gary Wrote: joke leader for a joke group
🤝
Savage savage as fuck
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