Look ma! I've stolen a wallet! Can I have a medal?

[zanzarino]

I am puzzled today,

A guy donated $0.01, then altered a variable in the browser, changed the amount to $500 and got a code for 100 shards. A database filter detected the discrepancy and banned him. So far nothing out of the ordinary.

But, I get an email from this guy, all excited, telling me that "I found a security hole!!! I should be rewarded!!"


A few minutes ago he posted on the forum: "I found this money hack (see pictures) and I got banned, why?".
I guess that is when SG banned him from the forum as well.

Now, this is why I am puzzled, example 1:
You are in a church, a little sign says: "Donations: $1 per candle".
You add a penny to the donation box, grab a handful of candles and walk out of the church.
Then, you go back to the church, find a priest and you tell him: "Your donation system is not secure, I put a penny there and nothing stopped me from grabbing a handful of candles"

Example 2, this one I hope that guy will read:
You have a online bank account and you are tampering with the variables in your browser  trying to get more money in your account. It is not going to work, since banks have very high security standards, but that does not matter: you'll find the police knocking on your door anyway. You might act all surprised, thinking it is not a big deal, but it is illegal!

When did being dishonest turned into something socially accepted on the internet?
If you see a car parked on the road and a wallet left on a seat, inside the car, do you grab a stone, crash a window and get the wallet because "it was there and the window was not sturdy enough" ?

Why do people think it is fine to spam, hack, steal copyrighted work, because it is online?
This guy just changed a variable in the browser, but where do you draw the line? If that gets fixed (which I did), what do you do next? Open cheat engine and try to change the variable from there? What if I fix that? Do you de-compile my files and re-republish the altered - now stolen - version?

I do not understand, I mean, I do: being anonymous and hiding behind a nickname feels like you are free to do what you want because your identity is protected. But why should that change your integrity?
I just do not like to think that there are no honest people at all out there, that everyone is behaving like they do only because they are afraid of the consequences. Is fear what rules the world?

If you have better explanations, please enlighten me.

P.S. : My apologies, I promise I won't get this philosophical again in the future.

[Decktrya]

yes fear is waht rules the world humans without fear are humans without rules i will go to his house find him and teach him how to fear me and how the rules are going D
but seariously why would you hack/cheat a game wich is for free this would take the whole fun away from the game

[Arondight]

I really wonder when did being dishonest, instigating, belittling, and obnoxious became the normal on the internet. But, quite possibly it could of always been that way. My thoughts on it is that many people go to the extent of fulfilling things they cannot achieve in real life; that's why many people become addicted to social web sites, massive multi-player games, use the internet to avoid their real problems, harass people behind a simple screen name mask, and so forth. The internet seems to really advocate free speech in exchange for integrity in many cases.

Personally, I would like to have hope that there are actually honest people out there with at least a speck of integrity floating about their being. Although, while dealing with the internet, I tend to have a pessimistic view of the general users. But, hey, I'm on the internet, too; who am I to judge? 

Philosophy is always welcome in my book.

[Hobnob5000]

There was a similar case, this single mother was claiming benefits for her child, and then realised it was easy to claim for children, few details were asked. She was claiming for 16 children (she had 3 I think) when the police got her. She said "I should be thanked for finding a loophole in your system, not punished." Ridiculous. If the filter hadn't caught him, would he has reported the bug to you? I very much doubt it.

[airframe]

Internet is somewhat anarchistic and people go around doing stuff because they can get away with it easily. It's really hard to enforce any laws, so people start thinking laws don't apply.

[Glitch]

You have to realize everyone on the internet has a REASON their on the internet, and it's largely for the anonymity.  Granted, this isn't the case for many people, but let's just look at one of the more popular websites.  4chan exists because people have sick minds and don't want to suffer the consequences.  If you go on kongregate and find a female user, the odds that they are either at least bicurious or a rape victim is way higher than in real life.  On the internet I may openly admit to being in the latter category.  In real life I may not.

So you ask: why do people hack?  Odds are it's some nerd who got bullied all his life because muscle wasn't his strong suit.  As brains are his strong suit, he's always wanted to use them for the forces of evil.  Why?  Because everyone else can!  So he decided he didn't want to be a weirdo all his life and he learned how.  And then when he found the loophole, he probably wasn't doing it on purpose.  He was more beta-testing than hacking.  And when, just for the hell of it, he tried the bug and it worked, he decided to share.  Now you see him as the metaphorical muscle bully, when he seems himself as the victim.

I do not understand, I mean, I do: being anonymous and hiding behind a nickname feels like you are free to do what you want because your identity is protected. But why should that change your integrity?

I ask you, is there anything you've always wanted to try but you were dissuaded by the consequences?  Let's go with an innocent dating example.  Wouldn't you be a little more blunt if you knew that any rejection couldn't be traced back to you?  Wouldn't you be more confident if you couldn't crash and burn?  This kid probably hacked because he's always wanted to try, not because he's some serious jerkwad.  Or... at least I hope that's true.

I just do not like to think that there are no honest people at all out there, that everyone is behaving like they do only because they are afraid of the consequences. Is fear what rules the world?

If it weren't for fear, the cold war wouldn't have been cold, and you and I would be mutant babies.   Besides, if it weren't for consequences, how would you even know what right and wrong were to do the right thing in the first place?

[Kuroaitou]

I find it hilarious that he tried to coax you into giving him some sort of reward for attempting to prove that your security systems were flawed, even though those SAME security systems had detected him and his fraudulent hacking acts. Irony much?

Hopefully, he'll decide to actually PLAY Elements one day and earn his cards rightfully so (either by playing T50 like me, or donating).

I really wonder when did being dishonest, instigating, belittling, and obnoxious became the normal on the internet... [snip]

Blame it on all of the abbreviations and short-hand speech ("lol", brb, ttyl, cya, etc.). Language is an important factor of how people can learn and understand with one another about various topics, even if the subject isn't in any form educational. When you share and read well-articulated opinions and ideas on the internet, you receive a small subconscious form of integrity, respect, and enlightenment after you read something unique and thought out. However, the minute you start throwing in all these little slang terms, and 'elite speak' terminology, the language becomes muddled, the message is skewed...

...and most importantly, you lose respect of the message at hand. When you lose respect, you begin losing the appreciation of the values construed in the message, and generally, either anger/frustration, stress, pity, or apathy follow suit when it comes down to 'Internet Etiquette'. That's why so many people (especially the kids who don't know enough) just throw in all these horrible insults and lies against one another on places like YouTube just because they can.

They've lost the respect of language and the opinions of everyone around them.

[Terroking]

That's just . . .  Stupid.

But, unfortunately, there have to be idiots and assholes in the world, otherwise there couldn't be people like you Zanz.

All got too balance out, see?

[sSethia]

Is fear what rules the world?

Yes.

This is how the military trains their personnel, through fear. My dad came from the military, and he once told me about his days serving the army. Back in Taiwan, the army training there is just vile. Your sergeant is constantly shouting at your back, punishing you with push-ups or something. The fear shapes these men into soldiers who can focus well. He told me that before he was enrolled in the army, he was a slacker; he had very bad grades and did very bad in school. After the two years of military training, he told me that he came out a different man. He went into a university in Florida and became a teaching assistant, grabbing his Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree, and PhD Degree in the minimal amount of years.

Most of that is irrelevant though, and what I'm trying to say is, fear will shape a man into a goody-goody. That's why we have consequences for doing certain things. The only problem is if people think they can get away with something, and they lose that fear, or they aren't scared of the consequences.

Well, there's my two-cents. Keep improving Elements because it's probably one of the best games that I have played (that's free).

[dragonhuman]

well it would've gone better if he had said hey theres a bug in your system and it acted as if I donated more money then I did, you should try and fix it

and if he said that he probably could've kept some of those shards and everyone would be happy, but he bragged and was a jerk and so I guess he deserved what came to him

[killfer8]

I don't believe that we could make the world what we call "peaceful" It will be impossible. Unless They put me as Mayor of the World... mwuahahahhahahha

[PuppyChow]

Simple solution to this dilemma:

Some people are stupid.
Some people are idiots.
Some people are jerks.

Now then, there's bound to be some people that are jerks, stupid, AND idiots, so sometimes you'll just have to deal with that kinda thing .