Upgrade? And other Hi-Tech Scams

[Moderator 2]

I checked in with Rob today.
There’s no update from the webmaster, or estimated time for troubleshooting to be complete.
Functionality and most features seem to work, so carry on.  

[TomK]

I checked in with Rob today.
There’s no update from the webmaster, or estimated time for troubleshooting to be complete.
Functionality and most features seem to work, so carry on.  

Yes, it looks to be working just fine.

[ironyak]

In looking at this problem a bit, it looks like MyManao is on the right path in that these css stylesheets are missing:

https://punaweb.org/forum/cache/themes/t...global.css
https://punaweb.org/forum/cache/themes/t...rating.css
https://punaweb.org/forum/cache/themes/t...thread.css
https://punaweb.org/forum/cache/themes/theme1/css3.css

MyBB stores the contents of these stylesheets directly in the database, but generates the files as needed after the theme is edited.

Has anyone used the ACP (Admin Control Panel) to just make some basic edit to the theme and save it so as to regenerate the css files above? ETA: The doc link below has some other things to check as well.

https://docs.mybb.com/1.8/administration/theme-problems/
"The CSS of your theme is cached in the cache directory and if this is modified or deleted (for example by accident during an upgrade) you can regenerate it by saving your theme again in the theme editor. To do this go to ACP > Templates & Style > Select theme > global.css > Save changes."

[MyManao]

In looking at this problem a bit, it looks like MyManao is on the right path in that these css stylesheets are missing..

I get the same info from searches through MyBB's troubleshooting and discussion boards and such. But if it's a bigger more convoluted problem, and if it was mine to deal with I'd set up a clean install in a different folder and build a system there rather than keep banging my head against a, seemingly, insolvable problem. Or, alternatively, just go back to the older version, which I hope was backed before the upgrade. And, still, do all upgrades to a copy of the site rather than directly to the publicly accessed version, before bringing them live.

As to all the old mid '90s silly graphics.. they depress me. When the net first came about, I was doing a lot of graphics works.. besides the layouts for my books I was working with a graphics concern in Kona doing business stuff.. cards, fliers, restaurant menus, corporate material for conventions, etc., and as I started figuring out HTML.. I jumped in with Netscape Navigator 1.1 around April 1995.. and was really hoping the world would bring to the net the same discerning eye as clients did to their printed material. But no, it quickly became obvious the net was going to bring the world down rather than up. Which seems to have been proven over and over since.. it's always the lowest common denominator.. not the highest.. in any situation. And all this silly graphics from back in the day just remind me of those unfulfilled hopes and dreams.

Hopefully once the upgrade stuff gets straightened out the bugs in the text editor.. ie posting window.. will be gone. One can hope, right?

[kalianna]

Yes! Netscape in 1995. On a Silicon Graphics workstation. I was using one of the first Adobe versions of Photoshop for some illustrations. I needed a photo of baby chicks and did a search for just that. I was met with the most spectacular pornography that I couldnʻt even have imagined. That sort of told me which way the wind was gonna blow.

[ironyak]

MyManao - And, still, do all upgrades to a copy of the site rather than directly to the publicly accessed version, before bringing them live.
But deploying straight to production is a time tested practice - usually best done on a Friday afternoon, just in time for pau hana, right? ;)

kalianna -  Netscape in 1995. On a Silicon Graphics workstation.
Seriously right, everyone tried to get time on our one SGI machine - Mosaic and Gopher just flew! We actually ran a coil of liquid nitrogen (common in the lab) around the CPU to get that extra ~25-50 MHz boost. As for the pron, that's how all technology is used, as monkey brains be wired that way (printing press invented mid-1400s & smutty images commonly printed by the early 1500s, phone invented 1876 & by 1890s "verbal exhibitionism" is a thing, etc, etc. Nothing new under the sun, just upgraded versions with higher resolution and fidelity ;)

MyManao - And all this silly graphics from back in the day just remind me of those unfulfilled hopes and dreams.
Feel you there - psychonaut, tech pioneer, and all around good human, Douglas Rushkoff did a run down of this somewhat forgotten history and lost promise recently with Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) on his podcast. Talks about the changes from people downloading and forming a well articulated response to upload (verbal chess by mail), to an attention economy after the highest number of "eyeball hours" and the overall move to "using the technology on people instead of letting people use the technology." Part of what happens when the economics get centered instead of any sense of quality, community well-being, or aloha.

That said, during all this rain, I've been catching up with some albums from musical artists that I missed when they first dropped, but now are all online from their official channels, and with an adblocker, completely for free, outside my monthly ISP fee. And to help make sure those creative folks can keep making art and music, I donate directly to them via their site, no middle man, other than a charge processor I guess, and no need for carbon to be expended on making any merch or physical embodiments of their work and shipping them halfway round the world. So today's tech is not all bad, just have to deliberately utilize it in pro-social and mutually supportive ways, same as it ever was, same as it ever was... (Into the blue again, After the money's gone, Once in a lifetime, Water flowing underground) - sounds like rain storm round two!

[HiloJulie]

And yet, no matter how technology is advanced and improved, the nefarious actors can find a brand-new sucker to use it on every day:

Hawaiʻi Island police warn about phone scam involving Federal Trade Commission : Big Island Now

Sniped:

The Hawai‘i Police Department is advising the public about a phone scam involving individuals falsely identifying themselves as high-ranking members of the Federal Trade Commission.

In one reported incident, the scammer used a technique known as “spoofing,” in which a legitimate phone number is copied and displayed on a caller ID to make the call appear credible.

The suspect used the Hawai‘i Police Department’s phone number and the name of a Hawai‘i Police Department employee in an attempt to validate the scam, fleecing the victim of nearly $200,000. The case is under investigation, according to the police news release.

Fleeced for 200 grand over the phone????? 

Makes me wonder how someone could have amassed 200 grand in liquid assets to be able to give away in the first place and yet fall for such a scam.

[ironyak]

MyManao - But if it's a bigger more convoluted problem...
Yeah, feels like there may be a few ways to skin the cat (copy the css files from elsewhere, code by hand some workable replacements, reset to a backup, etc), but hard to know without the inside view of the errors. At least things are generally working, but the formatting issues seems to be hampering the normies from posting, so hopefully Rob considers taking up any offers to help.

HiloJulie - Makes me wonder how someone could have amassed 200 grand in liquid assets to be able to give away in the first place and yet fall for such a scam.
While noting that anyone can fall for a scam, the combination of wealth and susceptibility suggests a kupuna may have been targeted.

https://www.smphawaii.org/news-alerts-up...-overview/
"Scams targeting kūpuna—Hawai‘i’s cherished older adults—are not just rising in numbers but evolving in sophistication. Between 2020 and early 2025, Hawai‘i has witnessed an alarming increase in fraud cases that cost kupuna and their families tens of millions of dollars."

Gotta remember those early lessons from watching Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of Honeycombs, that the entire ocean can be out to get Moby, and Mighty Mightor isn't always around to help (pretty sure the clips below were taken from off the local coasts Mod2 ;)

[HiloJulie]

hopefully Rob considers taking up any offers to help.

While noting that anyone can fall for a scam, the combination of wealth and susceptibility suggests a kupuna may have been targeted.

Maybe another consideration is for the financial institutions (legitimate ones) to institute some type of "double check" when faced with a kupuna making a large non normal withdrawal. Government regulation perhaps? Typically, someone with a few hundred grand in liquid cash does not just keep that in their simple interest passbook savings account or no fee checking account. Generally, those funds, if properly managed, would be in annuity or likewise type of accounts that normally are not accessible for immediate withdrawal, which begs the question as to what point does wealth accumulation as one ages become in some form regulated for the protection of the individual? I highly doubt a scammer is going to wait several days/weeks for a kupuna to have to fill out a withdrawal request from an annuity and wait for the funds to be deposited. But having a few hundred grand in an account that all one needs to have is a routing number and account number to suck the money to zero, in today's hi-tech world, is simply unimaginable.

Now, I am not saying that a person should not allowed to spend their money as they see fit, but, as a good example, one of my neighbors, we'll call her Myrtle, calls me the other day all in a panic. "They are going to arrest me!" she claims. "For what," I ask. "Unpaid traffic violations" she says." I tell her, "Myrtle, Myrtle, I says, you don't own a car or have a driver's license." "Oh, you know, you're right. But why would someone do that to me?" "I'm still worried, what if they arrest me?" I told Myrtle that if they do arrest her, I'll be there to bail her out, but, if they arrest her on a Friday, she will have to wait until Monday to get bailed out!

Maybe, those who are more "tech savvy" here on the Big Island and elsewhere in the State, could put together a community outreach programs that can help our kupuna navigate and educate them against falling for these types of scams? Seems to me that would be a better use of their tech skills versus putting up blinking flashing 1990's HTML code on a tech damaged PunaWeb.

As for Rob and the PunaWeb problem, I'd suggest it is time he demand to speak to his webmaster's manager! Or at least a strongly worded email versus accepting help from one or two somewhat questionable helpers!

[ironyak]

ignoring link already provided on the topic, proceeds to make more demands of the youth to solve the boomers' self-created problems
Kupuna would have to listen to the woke youngsters though, and they know better than that! Who are you to tell them how they can spend their money, they earned it, damn it, and waifu808 loves them for who they are and just needs some help with their bills! Who could ever lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over the phone or online - that's "simply unimaginable." Why is pig butchering a bad thing, kalua pork is ono!