"Anyone read today's Wall Street? Biggest security leak in awhile surfaced on Discord."
Google shows many serious breeches going back awhile including identity theft and ransomware attacks. In fairness some also affected the major players like Meta and Apple. No site is immune from hacking. Our agency had a whole security team that was responsible for fighting off attacks - they were pretty busy. I retired 12 years ago but still call when I am in doubt.
When you join our Discord, you'll need to sign in with a Discord account - which is separate from your HipStamp account. If you don't already have a Discord account, just follow the instructions to create a new account. You should also be able to sign in with a Google, Apple, or Facebook account as well.
The security leaks I was referring to in the WSJ article were not of websites or platforms, but of major national security issues, including how the US has been capable of obtaining Russian movements and plans re: war in Ukraine. Not something insignificant in the least!
Actually, since I am here to buy stamps and to learn about stamps, I really have no need for the bug report or feature request sections. Move them all you want. What I need and use will still be here.
My concern is like Luree's - there is an incredible wealth of fairly easy to find knowledge on this Forum. Will this still be available to us when they switch to Discord only or are all these years of knowledge going to be destroyed and/or inaccessible in which case I need to buy another big box of paper and ink cartridges and start preserving the stuff that is important to me.
Most forums can be searched back to the beginning, But I have never had a forum make such a drastic change in format. Still trying to figure out how to find individual threads and haven't looked for a search function yet. Not a newbie (started with room size mainframes back in the 70's) up through state of the art government mega systems through when I retired a few years ago.
We NEED to find out whether this incredible wealth of knowledge is to be archived and accessible or is to be destroyed.
Mark, As the great Publilius Syrus said "I can endure any what when I know the why". Adding the context about the current forum software being unsupported for several years makes it clear as to why there is a focus on migration. I understand the appeal of the choice of Discord. It is likely to have some difficulties in migrating the full community (as mentioned by several). We'll give it a try. As mentioned we're already on Discord for other purposes. I'm not sure overall though that it is the best landing place for the forums. Time will tell.
Once we fully move the community to Discord, we would intend to leave the current forums available in read-only format. That being said, it would be great to learn more about what type of historical posts you're referring to on a regular basis?
Although I don't deal in US stamps I think Scott's lessons on Franklin- Washington issues are priceless. They deserve to be readily found on whatever forum Hipstamp discussions end up at.
Hi Bill, I feel your pain. However, there is a solution if it's just the readability at issue. Go to the settings button at the bottom left of the screen (it looks like a gear), select that then select Appearance and change the theme from the dark grey circle to the white circle. I find Discord defaults to the "dark mode" which I'm not a fan of. But setting it to white makes it much more redable.
Day by day I'm understanding more of DISCORD. Has anyone learned how to change the order of posts in a thread - to newest at the TOP, rather than the most recent posts showing up way at the bottom, which seems to be the default, and requiring a lot of scrolling to get there? I can't find a setting option for that preference anywhere. ????
Dave, Not really, but it is the same here at the Hip forum. The order is oldest at bottom, and when you enter the discussion thread on Discord, it automatically takes you to the bottom of the discussion (i.e. last post). You can "read up" from there, which is exactly the same as the order of discussions here. That said, such a programmatically easy thing to do to change the order, the only place I could find to do that is if you search specific items or threads, the result set there does let you pick "Newer or Older" order.
Thanks Scott. Slowly moving along. wish HS would pick up on some of the issues we are talking about and help us navigate, we would move along much faster. Your tutorials has help a lot. Thanks again
Thanks, Scott -- you're of course correct about the order of posts being the same as here! My brain must have short-circuited because every time I went to a thread, it would open on the very first post from the earliest date! But that has since somehow been corrected, and I am now taken to the bottom of the thread (but unfortunately, not to the last message I had read). Wading through this slowly!
Dave, it's most likely because the thread wasn't yet long enough to fill the whole screen. So it "looks" like it was starting at the top, because your eye goes there and then follows down. But once it passes the height of the screen, it "starts" at the bottom, and pushes the rest of the text up. I noticed that same "perceived result".
@Bonaparte Moore I'm glad this is helpful. I mean, given the option, I'd rather keep this cleaner style of forum, but I do understand the business need to have something that won't just "break" and vanish since it is so many years now unsupported. It's a smart move for Hip to fix it before it breaks. Change can sometimes be painful and requires effort. I'm just trying to help people transition as much as I can, feeling the same pain they do.
One more thing I just noted Dave, this is an "inconsistency" in Discord, and may also be the reason for confusion around threads. I just noticed that in the "General Channel" area, at the top of the discussion threads, there is a "Sort" button. But in all the other non-general threads, this doesn't exist.
So in this section, you can pick "Newer or Older". But not in the discussion threads. Weird that. Would make more sense if the interface were consistent in that regard.
Wow, Scott - you are really our new 'Taming the Beast of DISCORD' detective! That would be a great little option to have on all the threads - but as you say, WEIRD that it isn't universal!
Well, change is hard. But if the alternative is the loss of a way to communicate with this great group, it's worth the time to figure out. So, I'll advocate for helping in any way I can. I love you guys, and I mean that.
Once again, Mr. Payton has provided more of the wonderful guidance we so appreciate -- follow his directions above to get rid of the black background in DISCORD and change it to something white, like we have here -- it will make a huge change in your comfort level, and the ability to easily read the new site!!
I have only accessed Discord through my phone. I had no trouble signing in, I am still bumbling around trying to figure this thing out, and I have a white screen with black letters. I have put photos in, I have used private emails to communicate with others, I have commented on the work of other members. Soon I will explore creating my own thread on Discord. Is anything better or worse? Humph, it's a thing. Is the sky falling or the world ending? No.
Oh, just by the by. 80% of the stuff offered by Discord is crap we philatelists would have little interest in, anyway. Especially the dancing thingees. Please keep trying. Your patience will reward you much more than your vindictiveness. And in last resort, ask a young person.....
John, I wish I could tell you. I use chrome on my Samsung and I just glided right in without hassle. One thing I think i have learned is that Discord uses "server" to refer to groups inside the site, not in the traditional sense. Confusing. But keep poking and walk by. That's all I can suggest. This new site seems to manifest in different ways to different systems and browsers, so specific answers are more confusing than helpful.
Comments
Google shows many serious breeches going back awhile including identity theft and ransomware attacks. In fairness some also affected the major players like Meta and Apple. No site is immune from hacking. Our agency had a whole security team that was responsible for fighting off attacks - they were pretty busy. I retired 12 years ago but still call when I am in doubt.
When you join our Discord, you'll need to sign in with a Discord account - which is separate from your HipStamp account. If you don't already have a Discord account, just follow the instructions to create a new account. You should also be able to sign in with a Google, Apple, or Facebook account as well.
Do we need to start printing that information? Or will it be lost in cyberspace?
My concern is like Luree's - there is an incredible wealth of fairly easy to find knowledge on this Forum. Will this still be available to us when they switch to Discord only or are all these years of knowledge going to be destroyed and/or inaccessible in which case I need to buy another big box of paper and ink cartridges and start preserving the stuff that is important to me.
Most forums can be searched back to the beginning, But I have never had a forum make such a drastic change in format. Still trying to figure out how to find individual threads and haven't looked for a search function yet. Not a newbie (started with room size mainframes back in the 70's) up through state of the art government mega systems through when I retired a few years ago.
We NEED to find out whether this incredible wealth of knowledge is to be archived and accessible or is to be destroyed.
As the great Publilius Syrus said "I can endure any what when I know the why".
Adding the context about the current forum software being unsupported for several years makes it clear as to why there is a focus on migration.
I understand the appeal of the choice of Discord. It is likely to have some difficulties in migrating the full community (as mentioned by several). We'll give it a try. As mentioned we're already on Discord for other purposes. I'm not sure overall though that it is the best landing place for the forums. Time will tell.
Go to the settings button at the bottom left of the screen (it looks like a gear), select that then select Appearance and change the theme from the dark grey circle to the white circle.
I find Discord defaults to the "dark mode" which I'm not a fan of. But setting it to white makes it much more redable.
Keep playing with it Bill, we all will get used to it, eventually.
I can't find a setting option for that preference anywhere. ????
Not really, but it is the same here at the Hip forum. The order is oldest at bottom, and when you enter the discussion thread on Discord, it automatically takes you to the bottom of the discussion (i.e. last post). You can "read up" from there, which is exactly the same as the order of discussions here.
That said, such a programmatically easy thing to do to change the order, the only place I could find to do that is if you search specific items or threads, the result set there does let you pick "Newer or Older" order.
I noticed that same "perceived result".
So in this section, you can pick "Newer or Older". But not in the discussion threads. Weird that. Would make more sense if the interface were consistent in that regard.
Once again, Mr. Payton has provided more of the wonderful guidance we so appreciate -- follow his directions above to get rid of the black background in DISCORD and change it to something white, like we have here -- it will make a huge change in your comfort level, and the ability to easily read the new site!!
Oh, just by the by. 80% of the stuff offered by Discord is crap we philatelists would have little interest in, anyway. Especially the dancing thingees. Please keep trying. Your patience will reward you much more than your vindictiveness. And in last resort, ask a young person.....