Timeline for What to do with the "rm -rf" hoax question
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
55 events
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:14 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://serverfault.com/ with https://serverfault.com/
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| Apr 27, 2016 at 19:24 | comment | added | Lzh | @Sven, that's enough proof for moderation purposes. But what kind of publicity is one that shows how BAD and risky it is to get services from that service provider? Maybe his confession is what is false, and he is trying to undo his mistake of showing everyone that his company isn't following best practices. Maybe he wasn't expecting publicity. Just a hypothesis. | |
| Apr 27, 2016 at 9:18 | comment | added | Sven Mod | @Mzn: He admitted it in a mod message. | |
| Apr 27, 2016 at 6:07 | comment | added | Lzh | What's the proof that the question was a hoax? The italian article doesn't show any "proof". | |
| Apr 26, 2016 at 14:22 | comment | added | WoJ | @MichaelHampton: (unrelated to the conversation) you may want to add a Google Translation link (translate.google.com/…) for the article in Italian you linked in the (now locked) question. | |
| Apr 22, 2016 at 18:28 | comment | added | yagmoth555 Mod | Question for a mod/community manager, any update if we nuke the account ? as it seem a option the community want. | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 4:22 | comment | added | Andrew B | @aroth Hrm, my apologies then. I did look at the permissions list and I thought you'd at least have enough to suggest an edit. (just not enough to apply it directly) | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 4:16 | comment | added | aroth |
@AndrewB - I'm pretty sure I don't have enough rep on serverfault to click the 'edit' link? The only option it gives me is 'share'. @gldraphael - You may be right. Or at least, his claim that "the command that I mentioned in the article is harmless", where the command is rm -rf /, seems to be false. Unless Ansible really does prevent that sort of thing? I have no idea if it does, but seems a bit far-fetched to think that it would?
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| Apr 20, 2016 at 4:09 | history | edited | Andrew B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added a link in English per contribution in comments
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| Apr 20, 2016 at 4:05 | comment | added | Andrew B | @aroth At the time of the posting it was the only article, because the publication had direct contact with the author. The link you shared was posted two days after this meta topic, and no one was stopping you from clicking on the edit link. :) | |
| Apr 19, 2016 at 10:46 | comment | added | user56reinstatemonica8 | @gldraphael I wonder if it could possibly be connected to this story of a real UK hosting company who did very recently accidentally delete the entire contents of several servers: bbc.com/news/technology-36072240 | |
| Apr 19, 2016 at 7:05 | comment | added | galdin | Something tells me that this isn't a hoax. He's just covering it up to save the reputation of his company. | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 16:34 | answer | added | Ash | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 14:32 | comment | added | aroth | At least use a better link to an article explaining the hoax. The current link points to an Italian website. Here's one in English. I don't think many people here are fluent in Italian? | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 14:09 | comment | added | default | Maybe the comments to journeymans answer should be cleaned up as well. the OP talks about recovering the data via a company which analyzed their discs, which I guess is not quite true. Will any moderator take a look at it or should I flag those which I feel are untrue? | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 3:51 | comment | added | HopelessN00b | @AaronHall Only the person who asked the question can accept or unaccept an answer. | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 14:55 | answer | added | Florian Heigl | timeline score: 28 | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 12:52 | answer | added | Basil | timeline score: 5 | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 12:44 | comment | added | Sven Mod | @AaronHall: I did merge the questions. This doesn't delete it outright though, but if you come here as an anonymous user, you get redirected to the merge target immediately and never see the hoax question. | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 12:23 | comment | added | Aaron Hall | Since we didn't delete, you should unaccept the delete answer. | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 7:02 | comment | added | Sirex | @Massimo we went into it thinking he was an idiot. We've came out of it thinking he's an idiot, but for a different reason. I don't think the joke is on us. | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 0:23 | answer | added | Chris Martin | timeline score: 9 | |
| Apr 16, 2016 at 19:01 | comment | added | Sebb | Is there an english write up article on how this was revealed? | |
| Apr 16, 2016 at 18:20 | vote | accept | Sven | ||
| Apr 16, 2016 at 18:19 | comment | added | Massimo | @dualed Not only against SE; looks like he posted the same fake request for help to other sites, too; this was one of the few place where someone actually catched something didn't smell right. And yes, in his interviews he shows a "you all fell for this and I'm SO smart" attitude which is IMHO quite childish. | |
| Apr 16, 2016 at 12:51 | history | edited | SvenMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 205 characters in body
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| Apr 16, 2016 at 9:56 | comment | added | dualed | The hoax author seems to mouth off against SE users in the newspaper article for not catching him at his hoax. Can anyone with more italian knowledge than my google translate skills verify this? I think this would make a dangerous precedent (@Massimo ?) | |
| Apr 16, 2016 at 3:31 | comment | added | joeytwiddle | @MichaelHampton It's actually shocking to see how "respectable" newspapers have run this story as fact, without any research (like trying to find the name of the company he works for or any of the websites affected). But it is at least a good demonstration of which news sources cannot be trusted. | |
| Apr 16, 2016 at 1:12 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/ServerFault/status/721144174557425664 | ||
| Apr 16, 2016 at 0:06 | answer | added | user87122 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 23:01 | vote | accept | SvenMod | ||
| Apr 15, 2016 at 23:01 | |||||
| Apr 15, 2016 at 22:31 | comment | added | ott-- |
It even made it into a german newspaper (sueddeutsche.de/digital/…). They missed the / in the rm -rf / tho.
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| Apr 15, 2016 at 22:29 | comment | added | Michael Hampton Mod | Someone with a lot of time on their hands could contact all the news outlets which have run this story and advise them of the situation. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 22:23 | comment | added | Andrew B | The mobile version of the news story appears to not display the full article. For me, it stops at the paragraph mentioning "140k persone", and I cannot find an option to display the full article. This is important because the content after that paragraph contains the admission of this Q&A existing as part of an effort to advertise his startup. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 20:24 | history | edited | Andrew B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Question was undeleted, no longer applies.
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| Apr 15, 2016 at 19:57 | comment | added | Chris Hayes | @Massimo From what I know (which isn't much), a lot of the moderation tools around comments are designed for bulk deletion of comments. Oftentimes innocent comments are caught in the crossfire. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 18:17 | comment | added | Mark Henderson StaffMod | @Massimo Oh I think that is highly unlikely. Lots of people are from the same country! | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 18:12 | answer | added | user122772 | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 18:04 | comment | added | Massimo | For the records, I don't know this guy and I don't have any relationship with him; and I sincerely hope whoever deleted my comments didn't do that on such an implication, possibly having seen how we both are from the same country. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 18:03 | comment | added | Massimo | @MarkHenderson Fine, I can't see deleted comments at all; however, one of mine ("I won't even begin enumerating how many errors are simultaneously required in order to be able to completely erase all your servers and all your backups in a single strike. This is not bad luck: it's astonishingly bad design reinforced by complete carelessness.”) was upvoted a lot and even cited in the Independent article talking about the fact; I just wonder what logic exactly led to its deletion. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 18:01 | comment | added | user122772 | Deleting as dup seems wrong. I don't have an opinion on what to do. Maybe just keep deleted but, how can something be a duplicated question if it was a FORGED situation? The problem didn't even existed at first place... | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 17:59 | comment | added | Mark Henderson StaffMod | @Massimo there are a lot of deleted comments on that post. Not just yours. As to why they were deleted, I'm unsure. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 17:56 | comment | added | Massimo | Side question: why were my comments to this question deleted, and only mine (other comments are still there)? They were neither spam nor off-topic, as I was remarking the importance of proper backups and how being able at all to delete everything with a single command implied fundamental design flaws, rather than simple bad luck. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 17:10 | comment | added | Adam Davis | For those, like me, left high and dry because we aren't yet at 10k, google does have a cache of most of the page content: webcache.googleusercontent.com/… | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 17:09 | answer | added | Adam Davis | timeline score: 41 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:54 | answer | added | user9517 | timeline score: 113 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:53 | answer | added | user9517 | timeline score: 116 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:51 | comment | added | tombull89 | @MartinSmith no - it was a duplicate. The original poster said in a recent article it was " a guerrilla marketing operation" so blatant spam/troll. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:49 | comment | added | Martin Smith | Was the question a valid and useful question for server fault? If so why does it matter what the motivations of the asker were? Stack exchange is about building a Q and A for the public at large. | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:47 | comment | added | Mark Henderson StaffMod | Have we had any input from community@stack? | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:47 | answer | added | Desperatuss0ccus | timeline score: 13 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:35 | history | edited | SvenMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 12 characters in body; edited title
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| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:34 | answer | added | SvenMod | timeline score: 55 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:33 | answer | added | SvenMod | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 15, 2016 at 13:32 | history | asked | SvenMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |