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I always forget the totems

26-Jun-09

In an effort to write more, shorter blog posts so that I actually keep this thing updated…

Last night after doing Argent tourney dailies on Niqora, there was talk of doing a guild SM run with some of our alts (we have a lot of altoholics in Bloodriver). The group make started to form as I was turning in my quests…3 pallies and a warlock, with a spot open for me. I almost bring Saraku, but there being 3 other pallies and none of them healers (of course), I decide instead to take my shammy, Zulrea. She’s level 28 but she’s resto specced and has quite a few blues. We head in to the Graveyard, only for me to discover that there’s so much Consecrate going down that I barely have to do any healing. It isn’t long before both the Consecrate jokes (“This must be the holiest place in the game by now”) and me begging for them to take on harder fights start coming over vent. They oblige me by pulling more mobs at a time and I happily heal away. Did I mention that I like playing my shammy healer?

Zulrea dings 29 in GY and it was so easy that we head over to the Library. I’ve also discovered that Mana Spring totem overwrites Blessing of Wisdom. I kept asking for Wisdom and they kept giving it to me, only for it not to take. “Niqo, your totem is overwriting it…” “…Oops.” /dispels totem

We get to just before the last boss in the library without any problems…and somehow a runaway pulls him, causing the first wipe. I was soulstoned but I had used it because I thought I could save us. Oops. We run back as ghosts…only to discover that the entire instance had reset. Crap. We call it a night because it’s getting late and people are getting frustrated.

I switch back to Niqo to do my Hodir dailies (I still fail at drake spearing apparently) and then it’s off to bed with me. It was fun while it lasted…maybe we’ll get to do some more tonight. Zulrea only has 1/4 of the way until level 30 😉

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Thank you

26-Jun-09

I just wanted to thank everyone who has expressed their sympathy (and their anger that matches my own) over what has happened to my blog and website. A lot of people have shown their support through this blog, in-game, and in RL. It doesn’t hurt as much now that I know that I have all of my friends out there comforting me. The rebuild process will be slow…but I can be patient and I am no longer as angry. Here’s to new starts and making things even better than they were before. *raises a glass* And thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart.

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Scum of the internet

18-Jun-09

So, I’m sure you’re all wondering what has happened to the Petoholics theme and where all the posts and pages disappeared to. The answer is pretty simple and yet surprisingly infuriating…spammers hacked my blog.

Thankfully they didn’t upload any viruses or anything. Instead they seemed content with filling every page with spam links for “that little blue pill” and god knows what else. They even hid it so the only way you could see it is looking at the source code. At first I thought they had only gotten to this blog. Then I realized that they had put their crap on every single PHP file in the wolfdragon.net domain. Anyone who has visited my old site knows that it had over 200 PHP pages.

How did they do it? Your guess is as good as mine. It could have been anything from backdoors in WordPress or its plugins, some old unsecure script located on one of those 200+ pages that I haven’t touched for years, or even my webhost being comprimised. After a bit of searching, I discovered that other people have had similar problems particularly with hacked WordPress themes. So far I have yet to see one that knows how it was done in the first place. Instead they talk about how to deal with the impact.

Why did they do it? Google “wow name generator”. My PANDA generator is second from the top. I was getting 700-800 hits a day from that position. The spammers decided they wanted to piggyback off my hard work and they somehow found a way to do it. They just wanted to get their stupid spam out there, regardless of who they hurt in the process.

What happens now? I tried at first to just delete their code from my blog, not realizing at the time that they had gotten to all those other pages. I got rid of some out of date plugins, changed my password, basically tried every security trick I could find. I hoped I had succeeded. The next day it was back again and that’s when I discovered it wasn’t just Petoholics Anonymous that had been affected. I figured the best thing to do would be to start anew, wiping the slate clean of their s**t. So I downloaded every file to my computer, backed up every database, and then deleted everything from my server. As for Petoholics, I will work on getting every blog post and page up here again, hopefully all the comments too. I don’t know how long it will take because I want to go over every inch with a fine toothed comb. The last thing I want is a repeat of this nightmare.

The side of me you’re all seeing right now is the practical side, the part that’s dealing with the problem at hand. What you aren’t seeing is the very angry, “I’m going to hunt down and hurt these spammer” side. My guildmates talk about how they know I’m mad when I start swearing. Imagine me using the vilest curses I know in every second breath. The part that hurts the most surprisingly? They defiled the part of my old site that showcases Blacky, my dear black lab that passed away two year ago. And I know they don’t give a rat’s a** about it. That…that demands retribution that I can’t give because the spammers are spineless cowards. All I can do clean up the mess and make things right again.

So if you’re a blogger (which I know a lot of you are), take my situation and learn from it. Be diligent about your blog, check your security on a regular basis and keep things up to date. Please don’t let this happen to you.

~Faeldray

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