And we wonder why people quit this game? Here is one possible reason

[Ephemeral]

Let me say upfront that I made a mistake and stepped into this pile of shit myself. I was being asked to join the RSHL and went to go apply in the HZ zone the other night. I had a password for the RSHL web site back in 2002 and tried to rejoin two years ago. After a bunch of hassles I finally gave up then but thought I would try to support them this year.

I was told by someone in HZ to try resetting my SS password, so while in HZ I executed the ?password command. I typed in a secure alphanumeric (with special characters) and logged off. Apparently I must have mistyped the password because when I tried to get back in it failed. Of course with the password attempt lock out set to just a few tries, there is no way that I am going to be able to guess at what I missed typed.

Next step, do the ?lost password process. Oh wait, the billing server has stored my original email address from 1998. Is there are way to update the billing server email address? Yes, but it has been disabled for years.

Next step, complete a form on the Billing server and submit a help ticket. Oh wait, this might takes many days and TWL is on Sunday. So I get into TW on another name and start trying to find some help. Left_eye, Beasty, and many others staffers were all subjected to my ranting over the broken process but the bottom line was clear; only two people, mom and spacehiker, are billing server sys ops and have access to reset a password.

During this time I have had no fewer than 6 people tell me that I am wasting my time, they have lost password that they could never get anyone to reset.

So it’s been several days and TWL is tomorrow. I am sure that I could suck more peoples time with my simple mistake and get Reck/Tiny or someone to add me to the TWL roster but that is just sucking more time over a what should be a common and simple process. There is no way that something as simple as a password reset should be this difficult.

I am very close to just saying ‘fuck it’ and uninstalling SS. But before I go I wanted to at least see if I might be able to suggest a few things to help prevent this in the future.

1. The zone always seemed to have no shortage of new features. How about fixing a most basic process of allowing users to update their email address so the ?lost passwords process would work?
2. Or how about adding a way to make the user verify the changed password by typing it a second time like every other password entry system in the world?
3. Or how about automatically turn on logging so that if the user mistypes their password they have a way to go look t see what it was?
4. Or that the very least, how about a message to users to go turn on logging before changing passwords?

I apologize to everyone for sucking their time over this issue the last few days; maybe something good can come out of this situation.
eph

[Reckful]

Cranium already brought this to my attention if its not fixed by gametime tommorow I intend to add your other name so you can play =p. As for all the ?lostpassword shit its hit or miss netops are always difficult to find when needed and in short supply. However, they are not part of TW staff nor under our realm of control in anyway.

[Ephemeral]

Reck,
Understood (and your offer is appreciated). But point is, here is a player who has wanted to play a dying game for two days and cant. No TWD, and I can’t even get added in a ?go base or hockey game. Additionally, I have impacted a number of staffers and their time over something that that shouldn’t be sucking any time at all.
eph

[Reckful]

Personally I think they need to hire a new active billerop but SSC pretty lazy.

[Tiny]

M_M God FTW.

[Ricko]

I vote pee pee sock for billing sysop.

On a more serious note - we really should try to contact mom and spacehiker and get this process sorted out as ?lostpassword is dealt with incredibly poorly (I've lost an old name years ago and I'm not allowed it back as I have no idea what email address I entered 12 years ago).

[M_M God]

I will talk to Mom and SpaceHiker about this and see what we can do to improve this current mess, I know they enabled the ?setemail command a few years ago, but I believe only PriitK can enable that command again. Mayb there's another way around it. Did you get in touch with a Net Op in the meantime btw?

[Ephemeral]

When it first happened I immediately went to the Billing server and opened a ticket. Since then I also have talked to Left_eye, Beasty, Qan, Rushed, Poid, and several other staffers. All were sympathetic, Left_Eye went above and beyond and said that she would contact and/or leave mom a message about the issue. Others, like beasty and PoiD, deferred to Lefty and said she had a good relationship with mom. But since that time I have noted that both mom and spacehiker have each logged on twice over two additional days. They both seem to log on between 1AM-2AM EST only.

I do not understand why they have not taken action. I can understand that they might not be making the Billing ticket a priority. But I trust that Left_Eye did indeed either talk to or left message for mom. I am trying hard to give benefit of doubt here but this is shaping up to be exactly what many people have told me happened to them; that the name is lost forever and there is no way to get it back.

Yesterday I wanted to play a few BDs with my squad. I asked staffers if an exception could be made to allow me to be TWD rostered on a second name without removing Ephemeral name. The answer was no. Not sure why, it’s not really double squading since both names would be on a single squad. Obviously no one would want to consume two roster spots on same squad except in an unusual circumstance such as this. It crossed my mind to just do and risk being banned it but I was afraid that there would also be retribution to the squad (like disqualifying them).
eph

[kthx]

Yeah, most of the SSC is useless to be honest, the billing server issues is just a small fraction of the problem.

[kthx]

I don't login much anymore eph, if you want to send me with a message with the closest thing you think the PW might be i can give it three attempts and try again later over and over since im not going to be logging in anyways. I will obviously give the name back etc.

[Raver420]

Hey EPH!

Hey eph when you login into ss do you have it in your auto box in your profile to do this?


?chat\?log\?obscene well at least the log part if you do you should be able to see what you typed as your password

[Shaddowknight]

having a ?log can be useful. Also if you had actually entered name/address/anything etc. that helps greatly in getting a name back. Also usiong the same computer you've BEEN using can be a good indicator for them if they take the time to actually look at the info. IMO the SSC is more of a problem than a boon anymore. The ONLY benefit is the cross-zone chatting. Having your name the same in each zone is okay, but theres like 3 active zones anymore, so even that is kinda meh.

[Azov]

Mom is usually pretty good about getting back to a player within 24 hours. Just ?message her in game.

[roxxkatt]

lol guy too dumb to see his name next to his posts is also too dumb to pay attention while being dumb enough to ?passwd

[paradise!]

I hope that the netops pull through. Those guys are some of the most corrupt motherfuckers I've ever seen (not talking about SpaceHiker, he's pretty new). There are rumors they are resetting old names for EGers and SVSers. Including changing ?lp emails of active players in order to steal names.

In an ideal world, those of us who have owned and used our names for at least a decade should be given a chance to update our ?lp emails. But, the netops would rather do this hand-wavvy application process.