Miscellaneous Information

[Ghost Rider]

This is a collection of facts and subject matters that aren't specific to the rules. Herein are what these items are.

SSL logins

Important safety tip: if you are paranoid about someone snagging your login password (this is more important for moderators than for regular users, since a moderator login is of greater value to a would-be hacker), it is highly advisable to not leave your computer logged in, or to set it to remember your login. Also, it is possible to log in with SSL encryption in order to evade sniffers.

To use SSL encryption, simply use https://bbs.stardestroyer.net/ instead of http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/

SA linking

Never, ever direct link from somethingawful.co*. The image produced will be one of a large penis. We don't need that here.

Again:
Never directly link images from somethingawful.co*

Thank you.

Backups

Just in case anyone's curious or worried, this entire board is backed up every night with a scheduled cronjob.

In the event of a server crash, an ISP dropping my account, or some other bizarro calamity, the entire board could be quickly restored and operational on some other server, probably within a couple of days.

Posting HTML with formatting intact

In order to convert an HTML file for use as BBcode while retaining bold-face, italics, image, and link codes (note that it only works with absolute links, not relative links), click here to use our local HTML to BBCode converter. Simply copy and paste the HTML source code into the text window, hit "Submit", and you will get BB code.

Please note that this utility was written "quick 'n dirty" so it's not nicely formatted, nor does it contain detailed instructions. Also note that it ignores any float DIVs and forms, and it splits tables into rows.

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/html2bbcode.php

Paypal

Just so people will quit asking, yes Mike has started accepting donations for his website/ message board via PayPal. Is the board in danger of being closed down? The answer is absolutely not! However we were exceeding the amount of bandwidth allowed by Mike's old provider and he had to switch to a new, more expensive, one. The website/board costs approx. 100 US to run per month. So in Mike's words

I'm not destitute, but if anybody wants to contribute toward the costs of running the site, I would certainly appreciate it....

Anything you can contibute is appreciated.

SD.Net Staff

Excessive Pics

For the sake of our dial up users don't post excessive pictures as images in threads not specifically for pictures. If you have to post them link to them instead. This spares those stuck on dial up while keeping the pics in the posts.

Certain members have been warned about this. Their offending posts will simply be deleted if they continue. We aren't here to clean up the messes you make.

Legal advice and other such.

I have lately been receiving a series of PMs from various users asking for Legal Advice, Opinions, Help with Letters, etc.

Despite what it looks like I am actually quite a busy person while here at work. I can post often sometimes simply because I sit at my desk reading or writing something simultaenously. My work may not require me to do much anything outside my office and computer, however it DOES require alot of my attention and especially time.

There may have been some PMs I haven't responded to in the last few weeks and I'm sorry but work has been extremely busy for me, my weekends are dedicated to me and I certainly don't want to spend my off hours talking 'shop' or doing what I do for too many hours of my life during my down time not to mention trying to spend quality time with my daughter.

I ask that you please respect the fact that I am not available for free legal advice, assistance, opinions (in fact I really shouldn't be handing out opinions to anonymous folks on the web in the first place and how the hell do you know if I'm not just totally wrong - it happens)

As an example would you send Mike blueprints or circuit drawings and ask for his advice, if we had a doctor in the house would you ask him to take a look at your recent lab results? To those I have not responded to I apologize, I'm not trying to be an asshole but I really don't have much time or inclination to go handing out advice and opinions randomly. So from now on please think about it before asking me for help on such matters.

[Darth Wong]

Updates

• The SSL information was updated, since it was extremely out of date.
• The "Posting HTML with formatting intact" section was changed from a tutorial to an actual web-based conversion utility, which is far more convenient.
• The "Search" section was removed, because the technical information in it was made obsolete a long time ago.
• The "Avatar Gallery" announcement was removed. The avatar gallery has been up and running for a very long time now.
• The "Netscape/Mozilla" warning about DNS caching has been removed. It has been obsolete ever since I switched to a fixed IP address.