Anyone know what's happened to board.win32asmcommunity.net - it's been broken for ages. Also, anyone know why exetools forum has become private? I used to have an account there, but it seems to have been deleted...

First, question #1. I have no idea, but I *thought* OllyDebug's forum was off of there, and it's up (usually). Considering the time (sleepy), I'm probably mistaken, though.

Question #2. If you had registered with their site using an e-mail that is either no longer valid or if you accidently bounced back a message from them, your account was probably removed. They might also delete if there is a period of post inactivity, but I'm not sure.

The win32asm board seems to have a problem with the vBulletin software, possibly after a failed upgrade or something like that. Hopefully they should be restored soon.

I don't think the Exetools forums have gone private, your account has most likely just been pruned due to inactivity, have you tried to create a new one? For a definitive answer, I'm sure JMI can offer a comment.

I think I got pruned due to inactivity. I was away for a long while. When I try and log in with my old u/p, it fails. If I try and create a new account, it says (to the effect of) "The administrator has disabled this".

Odd.

As for exetools, it has not gone private. At the moment it has over 14,000 "registered" members, most of whom simply "registered" to get access to the ftp. Recently Aaron announced that he was tired of getting email bounces from "members" with invalid email accounts and that he was going to start deleting those without valid email after May 1, 2004. Actually I had been a member for a sufficient time that the original email I had registered with was no longer valid and needed updating.

Then he decided that the ftp access needed to be changed. There were so many people on the ftp all the time that the "regular" users of the Forums had difficulty gaining access. Also there was too much non-programming material being uploaded. As a result Aaron instituted a second policy change requiring at least 10 posts for access to the ftp. He has also announced that those who don't post often, but upload some useful things will be given consideration. Again only programming related materials are permitted.

He has also closed new registrations for the time being. He has said that it will remain closed this year, but he may reopen after he has had time to prune the huge membership of its dead wood. He has also announced that if a "registered" member does not post for six months or visit for three months, their account will be deleted. We'll have to see what happens after the cut-down is in place for a while.

Regards,

Ah right. That's a real shame, I was away for a long time so couldn't get on the forum. I didn't post much, I spent time reading what was there (had little use for the ftp).

Any chance of getting an account before next year?

The decision on whether or not to reopen registration and when is solely up to Aaron. Looking at the listing on the bottom of exetools this afternoon I notice that the "registered" members are now down to 3,800+, so some 11,000+ "registered" members have been culled. After he sees how that goes for a while, he may re-open registration again. I really do not know.

Regards,