As we were saying before we were interrupted...

[mbhaub]

Nice to be back and thanks for the hard work! I can't understand why this site of all the sites out there! How many hackers are aware of this site and why bother with it? But this new one sure looks nice!

[Chris_p]

Mark,

Sad to think there are people out there with nothing better to do than attack such a website as yours!

Unfortunately, in this society and these modern times, NO ONE is immune!

Nice to see the forums back up and running!

The first line is a quote from Steven Eldridge. I messed up somewhere! Sorry!

[Gareth Vaughan]

A big thank you, Mark, for all your hard work in getting the Raff site back up. We are all very much in your debt.

[Hofrat]

I am back, too!!

[peter_conole]

Hi all

It is a good question as to why some some moron/vandal/piece of garbage would bother to harm such a site.

I can think of a couple of possible reasons. One, the human malice factor. The Joachim Raff Forums were well-run, generated a lot of interest and - trust me on this one - were becoming rather influential in various ways. Am sure others also know the influence factor to be true.

Secondly, I assert that the site was playing a very solid role in raising the status and concert and recording chances of Raff. I do not like to be rude, but it may have put unknown noses out of joint. For example, noses on people who like ultra-modernist music, such as that of the (hopefully) now forgotten Richard Hayman. Among his more sane compositions was "Roll", which involved the composer rolling, lying down, in the street, covered with bells as a token of Hindu veneration. Enough said.

A more obvious factor which may have attracted vandals was sheer volume of traffic. For example, the Rufinatscha thread had over 10,000 hits. The German Romantic Violin Concerto (parts 1 and 2) attracted over 6,000. Plenty of other threads also achieved mega-hits. A nasty type or two may have become peevish about it.

Such numbers of hits, I think, are also I sign of something more positive. Take a bow for the success of the Forums, Mark. In your shoes I would be a little happy, despite the recent horrors.

regards
Peter

[TerraEpon]

Richard Hayman?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hayman??

[Steve B]

Thanks, Mark and Alan. Have been sad whilst the Forum off; one of life's comforts.Easy to use and I hope it continues to flourish.

Steve

[JimL]

Hi all

It is a good question as to why some some moron/vandal/piece of garbage would bother to harm such a site.

I can think of a couple of possible reasons. One, the human malice factor. The Joachim Raff Forums were well-run, generated a lot of interest and - trust me on this one - were becoming rather influential in various ways. Am sure others also know the influence factor to be true.

Secondly, I assert that the site was playing a very solid role in raising the status and concert and recording chances of Raff. I do not like to be rude, but it may have put unknown noses out of joint. For example, noses on people who like ultra-modernist music, such as that of the (hopefully) now forgotten Richard Hayman. Among his more sane compositions was "Roll", which involved the composer rolling, lying down, in the street, covered with bells as a token of Hindu veneration. Enough said.

A more obvious factor which may have attracted vandals was sheer volume of traffic. For example, the Rufinatscha thread had over 10,000 hits. The German Romantic Violin Concerto (parts 1 and 2) attracted over 6,000. Plenty of other threads also achieved mega-hits. A nasty type or two may have become peevish about it.

Such numbers of hits, I think, are also I sign of something more positive. Take a bow for the success of the Forums, Mark. In your shoes I would be a little happy, despite the recent horrors.

regards
Peter

Hmmm.  I'm wondering if there wasn't a more personal vendetta involved.  Probably not, but still...  Oh, well.  I don't like it when my mind goes there.  Nonetheless, there have been a couple of former members who exited the old Forums on, shall we say, somewhat less than genial terms...

[Alan Howe]

That sort of speculation, Jim, is unfounded and - frankly - pointless. Let's leave the conspiracy theories to others lest we appear paranoid. After all, there's plenty of them elsewhere on the web. 

[peter_conole]

Hi all

No, am glad to say TerraEpon that it was a different Richard Hayman, not the gentleman born in 1920. The music career of the other - as of 1988 -was outlined in the Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians, page 538.

regards
Peter

[Ilja]

That sort of speculation, Jim, is unfounded and - frankly - pointless. Let's leave the conspiracy theories to others lest we appear paranoid. After all, there's plenty of them elsewhere on the web.

Unfortunately in this day and age, you're never quite safe on the internet. As someone who contributes to about half a dozen web sites, I can testify to the fact that malware is just about anywhere. And if it isn't malware or other forms of piracy, it's script kiddies trying to compensate for the problems of puberty by leaving their names all over the place (all of it under the guise of 'testing security', of course).

I'm thanking my deity of choice that Mark chose to set up the Raff.org site in something as undynamic (but safe!) as HTML, instead of one of the CMSes that are in general use nowadays. Although they're great pieces of software to work with, because of their genericness (sp?) their flaws are also general knowledge - and several people are busily exploiting them.

This problem is really eating away at the Web - and if something as harmless as Raff.org is infected, you can imagine what sort of attack more high-profile sites must be under.