Thanks for your patience guys. We're back online form the Netherlands.

https://check-host.net/ip-info?host=betselection.cc

These have been some messy days but all the wishes to continue developing for you to enjoy remain intact

Time to resume regular operation!

Vic

You were gone all week??  Really?

Quote from: alrelax on October 20, 2017, 11:14:47 PM
You were gone all week??  Really?

Obviously you haven't noticed it! 

Quote from: VLS on October 20, 2017, 11:10:50 PM
Thanks for your patience guys. We're back online form the Netherlands.
Vic

Very good.

But one minute Iceland was the flavour of the month.  The next minute  no more Iceland, and now we're in bed with the Netherlands.

So what happened?

Is the insecure connection issue going to be fixed ?
(or was it addressed already ?)

[attachimg=1]


https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Insecure_passwords

Quote from: esoito on October 21, 2017, 06:33:45 AM
But one minute Iceland was the flavour of the month.  The next minute  no more Iceland, and now we're in bed with the Netherlands.

So what happened?

Prices on the one hand. Iceland host was extremely good legal-wise but prices were quite high. For instance a €100+ euro per month plan gets us fewer resources than a less expensive plan we can order for ~€25 @ the Netherlands.

On the other hand, most web hosts merely require nothing but a simple abuse@web.host email to get your entire web operation shut down which is unreasonable. Especially for sites like ours, open to 3rd party posts/submissions. A small negotiation period does wonders(!).

We have western values and our forum has a report button on every post, so as long as there's a reasonable argument for it, we'll take it down. All we ask for is due process. Something very good about legislation in the Netherlands being the fact truth is a valid argument, made in good faith to help the public interest. It's a very reasonable legal protection to have:

"Libel (Art. 261(2); smaadschrift) is an act of defamation that occurs by means of publicly accessible writing or images. It is punishable with a fine of the third degree of imprisonment for up to one year.
There is no liablity for criminal slander or libel if the act was necessary to defend the offender’s interests or the interests of others or the offender believed in good faith that the allegation was true and was necessary in the public interest (Art. 261(3))."

Source: http://legaldb.freemedia.at/legal-database/netherlands/

Original: http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0001854/2017-01-01#BoekTweede_TiteldeelXVI_Artikel261

Iceland keeps on doing it great protecting journalists and wistleblowers but we aren't particularly concerned about the government coming after our small betting-study web operation so it may be an overkill. Furthermore, now we're focusing our offer on public domain releases we can safely say it would be a stretch to be fearful about groups of power targeting us. Possible threats are most likely disgruntled individuals. We have a reporting process to address this scenario.

In the end, we're happy enough with a hosting company that isn't keen to shut us down unless there are actual legal grounds for it + a fair legistation protecting individual free speech reasonably.

Lawsuits cost time and resources. Direct 1-to-1 resolution is in the best interest of both parties and precisely the (best) course of action we want to foster.

Quote from: TurboGenius on October 22, 2017, 02:11:01 AM
Is the insecure connection issue going to be fixed ?
(or was it addressed already ?)

We had it addressed at one point, green https://. After so much reinstalling back & forth it's back to red. Chances are we make a bold move by getting rid of this whole zombie SMF forum, continue developing our new one 'in vivo' then import the data as soon as we have a reasonable "feature-match" state.

A decision regarding "when" is going to be taken rather soon. Our forum's data is backed on multiple locations & we have all the reasons for moving toward having a rock-solid, hand-crafted engine of our own (initially) then devoting it to the public domain to complement our new site & offering

This operation is largely a hobby. We have no vested interests and our main fuel & intrinsic motivation is being a great platform for like-minded people to discuss betting topics.

That's truly it

Cheers & many thanks for caring! Every word of support means a lot

Thanks for the reply, Victor.  All good reasons for making the hosting switch. 

As for the insecure login:  given that no money is changing hands on the site does it really matter?

Surely, it matters only if people are daft enough to use the same password for all their logins elsewhere. In which case, they should start changing to different passwords right away.

For the rest of us who already use different passwords why would it matter? I'm open to valid reasons. 

Quote from: esoito on October 22, 2017, 08:32:38 AM
As for the insecure login:  given that no money is changing hands on the site does it really matter?
Surely, it matters only if people are daft enough to use the same password for all their logins elsewhere. In which case, they should start changing to different passwords right away.
For the rest of us who already use different passwords why would it matter? I'm open to valid reasons. 

Your post is a nightmare lol.
Would you openly post your password for this forum for us all to see ? I would hope not.
Gambling forums are notorious for trouble-makers who love nothing more than to cause grief.
Suppose for example someone gets your password (thanks to the insecure connection) and then posts "as you".
It's entirely possible and someone could be damaged by it in more ways than one.
Also - not everyone is "daft" as you say - but people tend to use similar passwords on sites, maybe changing one or two letters.
You could log in here as esoitobetselection for example as a password and any hacker who isn't "daft" (most are very smart) would be able to log into most places online that you use as well just by assuming how you pick passwords.
It's not a huge issue - just bringing it to the admin's attention. Firefox puts these warnings out for a reason - not because people are "daft", but because people are at risk due to the insecure connection.

In my frequent role as ' the devil's advocate ' I wrote "I'm open to valid reasons."  And you've provided some. 

If anyone uses the same password for everything (I'm talking generally; not for just this forum) then that is plain daft, and I certainly won't resile from that fact.

During several pen testing courses I've taken the point was made again and again that because folk don't use different, fairly long passwords, consisting a mixture of random characters, numbers, upper and lower case letters -- and change them frequently -- they make life a lot easier for hackers.... But that's another story for another day.


Meanwhile, perhaps some other members can also offer reasons as to why an insecure login is undesirable. 

I'm still getting an error when attempting to go to the home page:

QuoteSecure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to betselection.cc.

SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

Error code: <a id="errorCode" title="SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG">SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG</a>

In fact, I only got back to the forum indirectly from clicking on a link to another part of it, otherwise I would still be thinking that it was down. Using my original bookmark to the site still gives the error. This should really be fixed because there are likely to be others who are having the same problem.

My issue is not so serious, I just don't receive any notifications about posts.