Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Lotus Land
Posts: 2429

Hi folks! Welcome back...sort of!

Let me first say Thank You for your patience while we undergo massive changes after this month's Cyber Attack, which crippled the CurlingZone.com website as well as our network sites.

Note: If you aren't aware of what happened, check out this story from The Curling News' George Karrys, and also click here to read about a recent update and generous donation matching offer from our friends at Capital One.

As some of you out there accurately pointed out, we are forced to re-build the site which is a big effort and Gerry and I are working every spare moment to get the sections of the site re-built and back in service ASAP. Its going to take some time to get everything going again, but we'll be posting regular updates along the way as sections get completed.

The Good News out of this ordeal is that we've upgraded our servers and firewalls and have a much more robust backup system in place, which should prevent something like this from occuring in the future. In this day and age of the Internet, Cyber Crime is on a meteoric rise, and attacks like this are becomming more and more common. It makes it more difficult (and expensive) for community-based sites like ours that receive massive traffic but are largely volunteer-run. I guess we must have been doing something good to merit the attention of a Cyber Attacker.

Anyhoo...before the Attack, we had a new-look CurlingZone in the works which we had intended to launch at some point later in the season, and we figured that we may as well gear up and implement the new CZ look now, and add the new features we had planned for the site along the way. I think you'll enjoy the new look, as it gives more focus to the user experience, and ties in the different sections of the site nicely. As new sections get completed, links to each section will become visible in the Main site navigation.

The Bad News: Some folks that were active CurlingZone members (folks who registered in the last two years) will have to re-register, as user records were wiped out, along with Forum posts for the last two years. This will impact some of our heavy contributors to the forums, as many great posts over the past two years are lost...but we mustn't pine on the past, and we must look to future, and re-energize the discussion forums on the site! I'm sure some users are eager to get posting, and get those post counts back to where they were before!

For those folks that lost their Username in the Attack, please click here to Register your Username again. If you have any questions about your CZ Account, feel free to email me: dallas[AT]curlingzone.com

With all of the recovery and re-building efforts underway, we still are asking for your support. Every dollar you donate to the site directly helps us with our recovery/re-build effort as well as the higher costs associated with the new server hardware and firewall. Please use the PayPal donation button below to show your support and help CurlingZone remain active.

Thanks again folks! Gerry and I appreciate all the kind words from people across the curling world and we are so honoured to be part of an awesome curling community like CurlingZone!

Please Help Support CurlingZone
	We had several requests to make donations to help fund the recovery effort for CurlingZone and have setup a donation button through PayPal to make this possible. We very much appreciate any help you're able to provide!

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CurlingZone
Everything...Curling!

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location:
Posts: 2418

Well done Gerry and Dallas. Any support I can give financial or otherwise, you've got it! On a lighter note, it feels weird having more posts that Manitoba Legend...

JH

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location:
Posts: 2418

quote:

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Originally posted by J-Ho
Well done Gerry and Dallas. Any support I can give financial or otherwise, you've got it! On a lighter note, it feels weird having more posts that Manitoba Legend...

JH

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AND ya got Dino's avatar pic!

JH

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Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

quote:

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Originally posted by J-Ho


AND ya got Dino's avatar pic!

JH

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Ottawa, ON
Posts: 36

Gerry and Dallas:

Thanks for the hard work in getting the site back up.

Craig

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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: Redneck Saskatchewan
Posts: 1503

Post number one. Sighhhh!

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99% pure.

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Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Winnipeg, MB
Posts: 354

Tks a bunch to Gerry and Dallas. All your hard work is very appreciated and curling wouldn't be the same without this site. And to everyone who donated to curling zone I applaud you as well because Gerry and Dallas needed some help and people stepped up. I wish I could have been part of the group but a poor student lik me could not afford it.

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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Port Elgin, ON
Posts: 122

Thanks Gerry & Dallas,
Even with the BDO running this weekend, Gerry was available to assist our event with any issues we were having, and was very easy to work with at all hours of the day.
Your attitudes have been so calming and optimistic through this entire process, you are both stand up guys!
We are lucky to have you two at the helm of this operation!
Thanks again,
Rob
Port Elgin Super Spiel!

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Adonis

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Twin Snowbanks
Posts: 2068

Slow and steady wins the race. I only lost about 200 posts... but Dino... I won't be racing you to 1000. No worries ML... I hear the bugle call for all of your lost post. We have the gist of it, they are still with us.

Thanks Dallas Gerry and all for the hard work. Cyber dessimation sometimes has a clensing feel. Slow and steady, to the last post. (paraphrase of Harry Lauder).

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Lots of major youth (<21) events. Nice for Murdoch... and us :-D.

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Lotus Land
Posts: 2429

Dino: email me and I'll help you reset your password.

If anyone needs any assistance with their account, I can be reached at: dallas[at]curlingzone.com.

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CurlingZone
Everything...Curling!

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 440

So do you guys have any idea what the motive behind this cyber attack was, or was it just someone who likes trashing websites for no apparent reason?

EDIT: And I just noticed I'm back to a paltry 14 posts!! Oh well, I'll survive.

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 1441

Great job getting the forums back up, I'm sure the new look Curlingzone will continue the growth of this invaluable piece of the curling world.

It's brutal how much work and info was lost, two whole years worth of data. If there's anything I can do to lend a hand, let me know.

The new design looks great, I can't wait to see the finished product.

On a positive note, at least I still have over 1000 posts!! :-)

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"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice"

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location:
Posts: 2418

quote:

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Originally posted by Viich
Gerry and Dallas:

Thanks for the hard work in getting the site back up.

Craig

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At least you got your pic back. I can't access mine!

JH

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location:
Posts: 2418

quote:

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Originally posted by Dallas
Dino: email me and I'll help you reset your password.

If anyone needs any assistance with their account, I can be reached at: dallas[at]curlingzone.com.

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I lost about 1500 of em! Oh well...time to get busy retyping!

JH

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Registered: Sep 2002
Location: vernon bc
Posts: 2340

glad to have you back boys. Even you too Legend...

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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. Thompson

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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1992

Is there counselling for us? It's been really dramatic!

Welcome Back Everyone

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Lotus Land
Posts: 2429

While we couldn't recover the posts, Gerry was able to recover some of the last Post Count numbers from some of the site's more prolific users, so I've gone and updated many of your Post Counts to reflect those stats.

I hope that helps bring a bit of cheer back to some of our heavy posters!

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CurlingZone
Everything...Curling!

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location:
Posts: 2418

quote:

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Originally posted by Dallas
While we couldn't recover the posts, Gerry was able to recover some of the last Post Count numbers from some of the site's more prolific users, so I've gone and updated many of your Post Counts to reflect those stats.

I hope that helps bring a bit of cheer back to some of our heavy posters!

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The hard work you and Gerry did in bringing this back up is cheer enough Dallas!

JH

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"Good Sliding"!

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Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

On getting back online so quickly. We missed you

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 1441

It just hit me why all this happened....

Our Korean hacker friend really wanted to end that Lady Gaga thread once and for all, and he needed to wipe out the last two years to make sure he got everything!!!

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"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice"

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Registered: Feb 2005
Location: Ottawa
Posts: 184

Yay, it's back! It's been difficult using google cache these last few weeks to get my stats fix. I would've donated more money if I had it, considering I use this site so much.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/curling

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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: Redneck Saskatchewan
Posts: 1503

quote:

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Originally posted by duct_tape
It just hit me why all this happened....

Our Korean hacker friend really wanted to end that Lady Gaga thread once and for all, and he needed to wipe out the last two years to make sure he got everything!!!

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99% pure.

Last edited by dinorock2005 on 02-01-11 at 01:18PM

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Toronto
Posts: 2668

I think the posters here would like to know how much has been raised? We must banish the myth that curlers are cheap!

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Well Behaved Women Don't Make History.

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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 221

Welcome back to all registered and unregistered users. Also a big hats off to Gerry and Dallas for their efforts.

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