[CL1B]

HackForums Blogs: Revived

I'm writing this suggestion because of a group of skilled individuals who would like their own safe place on HackForums.

Safe space?

See, some of us (often CyberSec specialists/enthusiasts) love to write blogs/threads on certain topics/proof of concepts. Writers often spend hours, days and sometimes weeks writing the thread and these often go into great depth.

Examples:

reverse engineering runpe/process hollowing by ttbr0

[Malware Analysis] ZeroTrace Stealer packed via SFX, dropping multiple payloads by Bastille

Bastiller - Skid ready dropper by CL1B

These are all well written, highly relevant (HackForums) and truly useful/insightful. I think we can all agree on that.

But the forums don't reflect that, in fact it does the opposite: All of those threads got buried under spam threads/LQ threads/non-relevant threads.

This is felt, because most likely the intention of the writer is to teach/inform.. Now it's a teacher standing in front of a class of 2 students instead of more. Not because students don't like the class, but due to them not even knowing it exists.

Perspective

You can already imagine what this does to the motivation of the writer. I've personally spoken to users who would love to write but won't do so because of this..

"I don't want my thread buried within 1 day"
"I don't believe the average HF user will read this"
"I don't want to post my advanced thread in a subforum full of BS"

I also got fed up by getting spammed on my blogs/threads by new users who were just looking to get their first 10 posts in in order to access convo.

Threads for upgraded members

Moral of the story is: The spammers/LQ content is overshadowing those who write with intent.

Blog Subforums



This is our suggestion, a safe place where writers can post blogs without fearing the spam and the LQ neighbors.

The concept is simple; Each Blog Subforum should have their own moderators (on top of Staff), these should be well-established members that have proven their expertise and/or affection.

BSM (Blog Subforum Moderators) should set an internal threshold for the quality of threads. This means; the BSM decide what is deemed an LQ thread.

The rules for the Blog Subforums should be strict:

Threads should meet the quality threshold set by the BSM or they'll be removed by the BSM.
There should be no replying/posting/comments enabled, only Quickloves.
There should be no direct marketing/promoting of commercial products/services.

For example:

Subforum: Red Team Blogs
Subforum Mod: CL1B

Subforum: Blue Team Blogs
Subforum Mod: ttbr0 Bastille

Blogging Culture

Blogging is a crucial aspect of modern-day hacking. It is through blogs/articles that we often get inspired, enlightened or informed.
In fact, I bet any active reader visits a blog platform like Medium or GitHub blogs daily/weekly. It's what you can consider "mainstream".

Those who don't actively engage, learn and read this may underestimate the scope/reach and effect these blogs have.

Despite the forum's name; HackForums, There aren't many real hackers or even seriously aspiring ones.
Lots of this has to do with the Marketplace and its effect on the forums but also time/demographic.

This non-hacker userbase is a sleeping danger to our community, we just don't realize it (yet). These do not share the affection for the Hack part of the site, only the social part. Which is fine, but they're the only one of their kind and thus will die out. We've seen this with trolling groups who had made HF their breeding ground for years; when entire groups got deleted, absolutely nothing was and is missed and no-one is looking for them/going to look for them.

We simply cannot build on that. But not only that; It's scaring those who we CAN build upon away.

By slowly modernizing the Hacking part of the forum I believe we can get that train going, the one that people step into as total skids and leave as intermediate/advanced hackers.

SEO Optimization (Click to View)

SEO Optimization

Omni has already done an amazing job at improving SEO, Its improvement is very noticeable.

Say this suggestion were to be implemented; I think it's important we make blog subforums accessible to guests (non registered users).



Why? Because these will have a higher quality standard than your average thread and maybe result in more registrations because of that.
If I were to press this Google result from HF, I'm greeted with register/sign in UI.. You can imagine that in today's age this is asking for a lot for just a read.

[RITARI]

I really can believe how bad it must feel when you put so much work on your thread and it literally gets buried in a day. Great suggestion, I would enjoy reading more high effort technical posts in the future.

[Charlie Sheen]

Seems like a repackaged concept of mentors and MRT-X. I was a big supporter of both those concepts but after seeing both fail, I can't see Omni implementing this. This really isn't much different then having a group and using the subforums.

[ttbr0]

i think having a dedicated and highly moderated subforum would be nice. i would like replies enable to encourage activity and engagement with topics. the current state of the forum isnt the greatest for long form software topics because of the lack of quality of life including markdown support, character limit restrictions, image limit restrictions, content discovery issues, etc.

[xadamxk]

Seems like a repackaged concept of mentors and MRT-X. I was a big supporter of both those concepts but after seeing both fail, I can't see Omni implementing this.

MRT was a failure? They were super helpful IMO.
And it's hard to say Mentors was a failure. Omni never had requirements for them, or posted expectations, so kinda hard to say that IMO

[Charlie Sheen]

MRT was a failure? They were super helpful IMO.
And it's hard to say Mentors was a failure. Omni never had requirements for them, or posted expectations, so kinda hard to say that IMO

MRT-X was a group that was out earlier this year. It has since been deleted. Same with the return of Mentors this past year. Both groups were removed after a few months.

[xadamxk]

MRT-X was a group that was out earlier this year. It has since been deleted. Same with the return of Mentors this past year. Both groups were removed after a few months.

Oh damn, didn't know about that stint.
Put me in charge Mr Omni Boss

[Jamika]

So the activity is lacking and when we put them in a new form people will visit that more ? I don't think so

Thatnx for the suggestion but I don't think this will be beneficial

[CL1B]

So the activity is lacking and when we put them in a new form people will visit that more ? I don't think so

Thatnx for the suggestion but I don't think this will be beneficial

This has certainly nothing to do with activity.

[JoseMar]

Okay, so to be honest, the idea is good, it’s kind of like an MRT-X. But what you’re proposing isn’t about a group, it’s more about two sections:
Red & Blue.

Now, the thing is that someone has to moderate this, because a lot of people will come there as well and will post all kinds of low-quality threads.

What I recommend then is:

• If Omni can do it and it’s not too much trouble, create these two sections and give posting rights only to 2–3 users.
  
  


• In each section, there should be 2–3 or more of you who write articles only about hacking, with posting rights restricted to you; the rest of us can just read and interact.
  
  


• You should write at least 2–3 articles per week, if not more (it’s good both for SEO and for the users).
  
  


• If you’re going to start something like this, you need to be sure you really want it, and not give Omni extra work only for it to end up like MRT-X, where after two months it becomes evident that this 2-3 users not posting anymore, because then it will be exactly like MRT-X where poor Bastille was doing almost all the work.
  
  


• Because of MRT-X, Omni might simply say: NO.
  

The idea is good, and that’s because I also see a ton of great threads, but then other LQ threads come afterward and bury the good ones… We definitely need two sections like you said, ONLY for HQ threads, and posting should be restricted only to the designated people. The idea is good and I support it for sure. Good luck mate 🙂🕵️

[CL1B]

Okay, so to be honest, the idea is good, it’s kind of like an MRT-X. But what you’re proposing isn’t about a group, it’s more about two sections:
Red & Blue.

Now, the thing is that someone has to moderate this, because a lot of people will come there as well and will post all kinds of low-quality threads.

What I recommend then is:

• If Omni can do it and it’s not too much trouble, create these two sections and give posting rights only to 2–3 users.
  
  


• In each section, there should be 2–3 or more of you who write articles only about hacking, with posting rights restricted to you; the rest of us can just read and interact.
  
  


• You should write at least 2–3 articles per week, if not more (it’s good both for SEO and for the users).
  
  


• If you’re going to start something like this, you need to be sure you really want it, and not give Omni extra work only for it to end up like MRT-X, where after two months it becomes evident that this 2-3 users not posting anymore, because then it will be exactly like MRT-X where poor Bastille was doing almost all the work.
  
  


• Because of MRT-X, Omni might simply say: NO.
  

The idea is good, and that’s because I also see a ton of great threads, but then other LQ threads come afterward and bury the good ones… We definitely need two sections like you said, ONLY for HQ threads, and posting should be restricted only to the designated people. The idea is good and I support it for sure. Good luck mate 🙂🕵️

Key part of my suggestion and which I may not have pointed out correctly is that it should be accessible and public, far from exclusive.

You want a culture where someone gets inspired by reading and can then pick it up in what kind of way possible. Wether that be practicing what is teached in the blog or getting inspired to start your own blog posts.

The moderation is there to protect this section from the obvious.

Hacking and blogging go hand in hand, plus we're on HackForums. That's mainly why I've picked Red and Blue teaming as an example.

I'd love an graphic designers blog section just as much! ;)

[JoseMar]

Key part of my suggestion and which I may not have pointed out correctly is that it should be accessible and public, far from exclusive.

You want a culture where someone gets inspired by reading and can then pick it up in what kind of way possible. Wether that be practicing what is teached in the blog or getting inspired to start your own blog posts.

The moderation is there to protect this section from the obvious.

Hacking and blogging go hand in hand, plus we're on HackForums. That's mainly why I've picked Red and Blue teaming as an example.

I'd love an graphic designers blog section just as much! ;)

If posting isn’t exclusive to the designated writers and everyone is allowed to post, then honestly I think it will just turn into two more sections where anyone can post whatever they want, and you’ll end up having to delete everything that doesn’t fit.

If that’s the case, I can only wish you good luck with it, but honestly I don’t see much of a future for it.

Please don’t take my comment in a bad way… 🙂

[CL1B]

If posting isn’t exclusive to the designated writers and everyone is allowed to post, then honestly I think it will just turn into two more sections where anyone can post whatever they want, and you’ll end up having to delete everything that doesn’t fit.

If that’s the case, I can only wish you good luck with it, but honestly I don’t see much of a future for it.

Please don’t take my comment in a bad way… 🙂

That's why I'm suggesting assigned moderators.

Even if a section had 1 assigned moderator, 1 clean up would do. Whether that be a daily or weekly cleanup, as long as there's some form of consistency and effort it should be pretty self sufficient.

And I see no reason to take comment in a bad way haha, all good.

[xadamxk]

MRT-X was a group that was out earlier this year. It has since been deleted. Same with the return of Mentors this past year. Both groups were removed after a few months.

Had another idea.

"Mentors" would be a great name, but we would have to change our idea of what a mentor is - no longer a moderator, but a contributor.

Make it a requirement they have to post x (maybe 4?) number of tutorials per 30 days to stay in the group.
Once they are in the group for x weeks/months, they get an award.

The sections could be limited to certain forums so they can't just post discussions - more so tutorials or informal threads.
Maybe have section specific mentors?

[CL1B]

Had another idea.

"Mentors" would be a great name, but we would have to change our idea of what a mentor is - no longer a moderator, but a contributor.

Make it a requirement they have to post x (maybe 4?) number of tutorials per 30 days to stay in the group.
Once they are in the group for x weeks/months, they get an award.

The sections could be limited to certain forums so they can't just post discussions - more so tutorials or informal threads.
Maybe have section specific mentors?

This only promotes shit posting and AI slob (trust me). Guy who writes 1 quality thread a year deserves his safe place as well.

I'm noticing my concept is either being misunderstood or my way of writing was wrong.

Thread closed, hopefully admin understand whatever i tried to suggest.