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BlenderArtists: Message from Roel Spruit

61

Roel writes:

Hi all,

As you probably have noticed BlenderArtists has been unavailable for a few days. I would like to explain the reason for this and the actions we are taking to resolve this issue.

A while ago we started having problems with the stabillity of the site. Careful examination revealed that we were having load issues, caused by a trojan / virus that made a lot of requests to the site. I worked had to resolve this issue but the last few days / weeks the issues returned.

Several experienced server administrators helped me diagnose the issue and we found out that someone was trying to exploit a security issue in our forum or website software. We have no reason to believe any private information from our visitors was compromised but I shut down the site to try to find a permanent solution for this issue

These issues, my lack of experience in security issues and a serious lack of time on my part have made me decide to step down as owner / administrator of BlenderArtists.org. I have been involved with this site for over 10 years and I think it is time to hand it over to someone who has enough time to give this site the attention it deserves.

I am currently talking to a few people within the Blender community that are willing to take over the day-to-day operations of this site. The goal is to revive the site as soon as possible and start thinking about the handover after that. Hopefully we will have the site running at the end of this week (13-02)

When I have more information to share with you I will do so on this page.

Greets,

Roel "Goofster" Spruit

Thanks for all your hard work, Roel! You've been one of the cornerstones of the Blender community. Next time we meet, the beer is on me!

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

61 Comments

  1. Terence Nyandoro on

    I haven't been a member of the site long but its clear to see the effort that went into running the site.
    i share Barts sentiments thanks for all the hard work Roel!!

  2. dang... I had just registered on the site about a week ago and I still haven't made one post yet. Hopefully it'll be back up soon. :) It looks like a really awesome site! :)

  3. Best to you dude, what an amazing resource it is! Thank you for sharing your time to give the blender community an outlet to share, collaborate, and even complain at times. I hope to see it back up and running strong soon!

    Cheers,

    jikz

  4. Roel, thank you for your years of service to the blender community. BA is such a essential hub to this community, I hope the transition is smooth and successful.
    Thanks again,
    mattthew

  5. Roel, gezien jij dicht bij het vuur zit; Kun je mij met een paar woorden zeggen, waarom de lieden dit gedaan hebben of heeft het geen enkel doel gediend dan 'leuk'?

    Translation: Roel, thank for the past 10 years, if it wasn't for the proper info, Blender would probably still have failed open-source...

  6. Thank you sir, I wish I could slap the trojan writer silly for causing you such pain. I am always amazed at the selfless effort people put in to such efforts as this and yours has been amazing.

  7. Alex Delderfield (AD-Edge) on

    Cheers Roel for providing and maintaining such a good website/forum for a whole decade!
    Its definitely appreciated.

    Regards, Alex

  8. Roel, I would like to thank you because if it weren't for Blenderartists, I would have never gotten much past moving the default cube in Blender. From BA and all of its contributors I learned enough Blender to get a job with it. Thank you, so very much.

  9. Thomas Eldredge on

    thanks Roel, BA is a solid fixture in the Blender landscape and clearly we've all come to take it for granted.

    also - curse that Trojan and the horse it rode in on!

  10. Noooo! Goofster we need you!
    Dont be put off by the random bandit.
    I miss my blenderartists like crazy but I will get by...
    Your ten years has been commuted to a life sentence by the community ;)

  11. Perhaps "another few hands to help shoulder the load" will be what Roel needs. It's hard enough to run a successful site at all, let alone to deal with one that is under continuous attack.

  12. Not running the site doesn't necessarily mean he has to 'disappear'. :)

    @Roel - Thanks for the past 10 years! I've gained so much from Blenderartists.org (and elysiun as a lurker). All the best with the transition.

  13. My only question is why someone would want to screw with Roel so much as to mess with his site? why pick his site? Its so peaceful...

  14. Thanks for all the kind words folks. Of course I'll drop in now and then! who knows, maybe I'll even have time to USE Blender again :)

    I'm discussing handover details tomorrow, hopefully some more info during the weekend.

    Roel

  15. Thanks for providing a great service.
    But I know how a website can become a full time job.
    Good luck on finding a good person to hand it over too,
    and good luck on your future endeavors wherever they may be.

  16. Roel, without BlenderArtists, I never would have achieved the proficiency I have with Blender, nor discovered all of the amazing things happening in the Blender community. Thank you for your service! May you Blender forth great things!!

  17. Is there need for something like a small crowd-funding-type project to jumpstart getting it back up and stabilized (virus-free)? I would personally put a few $$s in and I am sure many others would be willing to do the same if it meant getting a solid site back.

    jikz

  18. A very sad day.
    Thank you, Goofster, for all of time and hard work that you
    put into Blender Artists. I think that without you and BA
    that Blender would not have grown as fast as it has.
    You are a true unsung hero. Thank you.

  19. Goofster,

    Thanks for the super duper hard work all these years, glad to see that you still be around. Its a huge responsibility and we thanks you for holding the fort all along with mods.

    Thanks and have fun.

  20. Sad to read this happened. Roel I want to thank you for all your work over the years. I know you must be very busy the last months with all that unexpected issues. I do not know how you managed your life beside blenderartists.org.

    It must be a hard decision for you to hand it over to someone else. But with the increasing popularity of the site there are also bad wishes growing in the dark. Which makes blenderartists a target of abuse. I think it is the right decision to get more experience into the boat. You could still be an administrator.

    I would appreciate that.

  21. Shit dat is balen Roel.
    In ieder geval erg bedankt voor al het harde werk als ik nog iets kan betekenen hoor ik het graag.

    What a shame
    Thanks hank you Roel for your dedication over the past years

    greetings
    Anton

  22. Blenderartists.org was a huge repository of information. What a bummer. The world is hard enough without people f#$%!ng everything up with viruses. I think I had posted like 900 times there.

  23. I've had issues in the past with exploited web code. So I have purchased IPSentry Network Monitoring Suite to detect unusual bandwidth usage on my server and has worked well. It's an affordable one time cost. If anyone else has any other tools that they use to monitor server trafffic i'm sure it would be appreciated.

  24. If it's an exploit in the forum. Get rid of it and have a facebook page where people can interact. Simple enough solution, don't you think?

  25. to Ian Cameron

    Facebook is not a solution. You are very limited to facebook functionality then. As a Web developer I would not recommend it as website platform. As marketing platform it's OK, but not as dedicated website. I hope only, that Autodesk has no hands with this trojan case :D

  26. @cgexnet
    "I hope only, that Autodesk has no hands with this trojan case :D"
    Why would they? It's far more beneficial for them when BA is up and running. That way they can pick up some ideas for their own merchandise. "Der Feind hört mit" so to speak.

    @Roel "Goofster" Ik ben géén BA gebruiker, surfde er af en toe eens langs. Maar vroeger wel regelmatig op Elysiun te vinden (hijothema). Dus ik weet wel ongeveer wat de site voor de community betekent. Dus ook van mij: dank voor je 10 jaar inzet.

  27. Thanks for all your hard work Roel. Its seems a recuring theme lately, in that its is so much easier to wreck something than to create somthing. I hope the hand over goes well and look forward to the new BA.

  28. Thank you Roel for the service BA provided to every Blender users.

    The board has always been so helpfull to everyone seeking some Blender help , information exchange was always going strong in the dedicaced boards.

    I hope someone will be able to take over soon as the new admin and will be able to fix the security issues.

  29. Come on Goofster! I'm going nuts without getting my BA fix. The people around me are noticing I'm getting irritable and becoming abusive. BA! I must have my BA and soon!!!!

  30. Very sad news. Thank you Roel for all your efforts and the great service given to the community during all these years.

    I have learnt so many things thanks to BlenderArtists and the helpful community present here !

    I hope that this "Sweet Home" will come back soon and that pirates will be thrown to sharks !

  31. Hi Roel,

    Thanks for the hard work and time. Blendernation.com has always been first and foremost in my bookmarks for the latest news from the blender community.

    Just wish you get someone as enthusiastic and passionate

    Cheers

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