Message from Jan Still

[Frank]

I just received this message from Jan and thought I would pass it along to the folks on this Forum.

"Fellow collectors

On Wednesday (08/13/03) a hacker destroyed the German Lugers, Central Powers & Axis pistols site. This destruction included the boards, posts and member names, everything. The attack was directed at our site and only our site. This sophisticated attack was aimed at the both the boards and its back up (our site was backed up three times a day).

Possible this was a random attack. However, it could also be an attack by someone that felt threatened by the historically accurate information exchanged on our site (Some refer to our site as the Harvard of collectors sites). It is hard to imagine what sort of person would destroy the hard work (photographs, research, articles, etc.) of so many pistol collectors.

As you read this Tuco and his Gunboards team (our host) are building a new German Lugers, Central Powers & Axis Pistols site (GLCPAP). It will be based on a new- up to date- system and will have superior protection with redundant back ups and a simplified registration process. A test site will be available next week and the new site will be available for members shortly there after.

Some of the lost photographs, articles, and data were saved on individual collectors computers and can be re-posted on the new boards. Thanks for your help, encouragement, and patience. I particularly want to thank John D (Luger Discussion Forms) for his offer of help and support. WE WILL BE BACK. (Please pass this on to fellow collectors as my communication is somewhat limited because of the destruction.)

Jan"

[Pete Ebbink]

Thanks, Frank, for the update...

If this hacker is ever caught, I think fitting punishment would be to have him/her swallow a dozen Luger take down tools and let them pass through their system...

Only a really "sick" person would do such a hack.

Pete...

[John D.]

Hi Frank..!

My thanks for posting that note from Jan - it's much appreciated....

As well, when Jan's site comes back on-line this Forum will be closed for a few days so that folks from here will register on Jan's site.

Why?

Just because.

In my world, limited as it is - it's the right thing to do. And because NO SITE should be hacked, comprimised or folks who have contributed "knowledge" and content should be "erased" by a hacker....

My thanks to Ed and others who will send Jan saved "threads" for the re-opening. As well - I'll be posting there a HK Photo/commentary that folks on this Forum have not seen - ever.

So - Frank, my thanks - and to Jan and all - we'll see you on your new site...!!!

Best to all,

John D.

[Thor]

I sent Jan a list of the photos that I have downloaded in the event he needs any of them! It is tremendous to see the support for Jan here.

[Luke]

John D,

You are a real gentleman.

___________________________________________

Frank & Ted,

I have already emailed Jan with some technical items that I had saved from his forum which I can reproduce for the new forum. I suspect that between all the members we can recreate a lot of the lost data.

Regards,
Luke

[Navy]

John D..
Sir, a tip of the hat. You live the gentleman's creed.

With admiration,
Tom A

[John Sabato]

I have several photographs that I downloaded from Jan's forum in my photo archive... I can send him those if it will be of any assistance in building this new board...

Since it appears that John D has posted publicly that I will have a few days off soon I can certainly find the time to register on Jan's new forum and help out if I can.

See you all over there sometime next week!

[John D.]

Just a bump back to the past.

This was a time when site owners acted as gentlemen - with site owners acting in unison and protecting each others interests in their respective communities and members.

To those of you on Vertical Scopes new "LugerForum" rip-off fake site?

This thread should be a startling reminder of what we did as gentlemen back then, when both Forums served the collecting interests and maintained privacy of User Data.

I have hundreds of others I'll necro-bump as well in the near future, just to remind you of where you are - as their "there" is not "here". Their "here" is trying to get you believe you are there - and not "here".

John D.

[Edward Tinker]

John, I was surprised to see this - then thought of Frank and Jan.
Frank passed, what 4 years ago? Jan is still alive and kicking but has memory problems. He no longer lives at home - but if you call and talk to him, he sounds like Jan, he just can't remember the more recent details.
I have kept that except from my best friends, You, Dwight, Lyn, Jerry, Marc, Vlim, 1903 and Don
and several others, but, this is probably a good way to say - that you have always been a help to collectors.
Most people probably don't know, but my website, Simsonlugers.com is hosted by John D - His orphanage is a testament to mankind and his humanitarian interests.

There is a reason so many of the moderators are on both forums - I trust them and asked for help, and as usual they did.

But this forum is still the place to come for lugers - Jans site is for many other guns, which is good, but the lugers are what is important

I have made life long friends from here - it is an important meeting place.

[John D.]

You and I resonate to the same beat of that drum, Ed. When I pulled this up earlier, before posting my bump - I have to say, I miss Frank. He and I would chat all the time by phone and e-mail. Then he passed... Jan, I really respect - and for the few times we chatted via phone, and often on e-mail, he was always a gentleman.

So many things we have done in the meantime. You've published your own excellent books and done the original research. Me? I built a few things along the way and assisted a few others who needed it.

Now - today is now - it's a different world. This site, this community - is being undermined by those who have different values. If that weren't so - I wouldn't be making this post.

To the contrary - in their world, it's not about the Lugers, you, me, Frank, the Moderators - nor the users and their private data, It's rather about trying to clone this site in hopes they can sell all that off for their "new revenue" model.

I won't play their game. It's why I didn't sell this community. and my other firearm collector site to them, as they wouldn't disclose how nor where they sold their private "user data" - as they are a Canadien Corporation.

I really wish we could step back a decade ago - when it was actually about the "Lugers". It's not anymore. We are playing by "Their" rules now - except, well - for me. I won't play - which is why they set up their fake site.

I will not cave. Sorry - that's just me, buddy...

John D.

[wlyon]

After looking at the new old Jan site I don't think I will be going there much. Bill

[spacecoast]

John -

While I understand your position, especially with regards to the unfortunate domain name assigned to the "upgraded" Jan Still site, I agree with another poster who speculated that the owners of that site do not know about the existence of this site. It will be interesting to see how they respond to Ed's request to change the redirect, although I won't hold my breath since they had to pay to purchase the rights to lugerforums.com.

I have upgraded my membership to be a forum patron here (long overdue), and encourage others to do the same. Thank you for your long and continued service to the Luger collecting community.

Regards,
Mark P.

[MikeP]

There was certainly a lot of good and scholarly information as well as pics on the old Luger forum.
I always wondered what happened to all that when they changed the format here.
I had thought it was archived and accessible.
I joined the old forum about 1997 or 1998 when only a couple hundred or fewer members were registered.
Everyone had to re register when they did the changeover.

[John D.]

Hey folks,

My sincerest thanks for that Mark - I really appreciate both the words of encouragement and the support - thank you! As we know they are now aware of their naming convention, let's give them a reasonable time to take corrective actions.

Mike, all the text posts are in the archive - but the pics get "detached" from the posts, as there was no clean way to import the WebBBS message<->picture structure. Also, back then - I hosted a free upload url, which after a while - I think was being used by a porn site or two? When I opened that raw folders natively - ummm - I was in for quite a surprise - not in a good way, either!

Anyway - my sincerest thanks to all of you - Bill, Mark, Mike and all..!

John D.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by wlyon

After looking at the new old Jan site I don't think I will be going there much. Bill

If you were a member of the old Still site, be aware of this post by CPW -

https://www.lugerforums.com/threads/warning.120981

Warning

Click on your profile picture, go to settings, go to account settings, privacy, and set your likes and dislikes. As default, the entire world without being a member of this forum, can see all your posts, all your details, location, etc. Get this fixed ASAP!!!!!

Also, go to Preferences in account settings and set your likes & dislikes

[Doubs]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

If you were a member of the old Still site, be aware of this post by CPW -

https://www.lugerforums.com/threads/warning.120981

Warning

Click on your profile picture, go to settings, go to account settings, privacy, and set your likes and dislikes. As default, the entire world without being a member of this forum, can see all your posts, all your details, location, etc. Get this fixed ASAP!!!!!

Also, go to Preferences in account settings and set your likes & dislikes

I did that yesterday to keep my information private from anyone who is not a member.

[wlyon]

Help and old stupid computer user. What are you refering to on settings? I see nothing like that in my profile.???

[spacecoast]

Bill -

I think John would rather that we discuss the other forum issues offline rather than on this forum. If you will send me a private message with your email address, I can walk you through it.

Regards,
Mark P.