Came across this page which adores Subdreamer. It seems if the owner of SD made this site but the main interest is the links.. check this out..
http://ninepx.com/ (IGGYS Ninepx Media)
Subdreamer skins, plugins, and assistance.
Dead, check the download section :)
www.ohareportal.com (Ohare Portal)
Home of RandomNinaAtk &
Some of the best Subdreamer media related plugins available!
Very much alive, hanging with his fingernails on the edge ;)
www.72dpi.net.au - (72dpi's Homepage)
72dpi offers web hosting, tutorials, code and more for professional business and personal websites alike featuring plugins and more related to Subdreamer.
One of my favorites.. went completely Joomla hahaha now that is a smart person!!!
www.thedeadrat.com - (Dead Rat)
Homepage of 'HeavyEddie', one of Subdreamers top community contributors/developers.
Dead as a rat, Eddie went away a long time ago... good choice..
www.indiqo.eu - (indiqo.media)
indiqo.media is one of the premier design studio's on the web who use their artistic abilities to create visually stunning pages that retain functionality. They are the creators of many of Subdreamers finest skins.
Nice guy, still alive but so biased as his income is Subdreamer dependent ..
www.jaspersrealm.com - (Jaspers Realm)
Custom Subdreamer Solution provider. Skins, plugins and more.
Dead....
www.sddepot.com - (Subdreamer Depot)
Website providing custom skins and plugins for Subdreamer CMS.
Dead....
www.brilliantwebsolutions.co.uk - (Brilliant Web Solutions)
Provides custom addons and enhancements for the Subdreamer CMS System, most notably the PayPal Addon for Subdreamer Download Manager.
Dead....
Cool huh? This great showcase can be found here http://www.gustoes.com/links/p16_sectionid/2
Posts tonen met het label cms. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label cms. Alle posts tonen
zondag 19 juli 2009
The harder you squeeze
As i am still following the SD movements and and amazed by the amount of patience some people have. We have been reading for over 14 months about new versions and such.
First there was a 2.6, then a 2.8 and the holy grail would be 3.0. In the meantime they skipped 2.6 all together.. state that they will offer a small update and in the meantime change licensing policy. This will offer only yearly contracts on the " pro" version.
Looks to me he is harvesting as much money as he can from many suckers willing to pay for nothing.
Even the die hard followers know it in their heart... people who do not allow any critical voice on their product what so ever are not to be trusted in the end..
They will sucker you, take my word i have been long enough on this globe to know this ;)
So today another thread on vague promises and people getting tired of waiting was deleted from existence ... which led me back here... to warn you about Subdreamer CMS software. Whatever you do.. do NOT buy this.. don' t believe me? Do your own research... post a thread on the forum with critical questions and challenge the man for anything. You will get deleted and even banned ...
Do you trust a person like that?
My saying for the day.. "The harder you squeeze, the more will slip through your fingers..."
Don't buy Subdreamer CMS!
First there was a 2.6, then a 2.8 and the holy grail would be 3.0. In the meantime they skipped 2.6 all together.. state that they will offer a small update and in the meantime change licensing policy. This will offer only yearly contracts on the " pro" version.
Looks to me he is harvesting as much money as he can from many suckers willing to pay for nothing.
Even the die hard followers know it in their heart... people who do not allow any critical voice on their product what so ever are not to be trusted in the end..
They will sucker you, take my word i have been long enough on this globe to know this ;)
So today another thread on vague promises and people getting tired of waiting was deleted from existence ... which led me back here... to warn you about Subdreamer CMS software. Whatever you do.. do NOT buy this.. don' t believe me? Do your own research... post a thread on the forum with critical questions and challenge the man for anything. You will get deleted and even banned ...
Do you trust a person like that?
My saying for the day.. "The harder you squeeze, the more will slip through your fingers..."
Don't buy Subdreamer CMS!
dinsdag 23 december 2008
So what is next?
Been quiet for a while now on the Subdreamer front.Not that is has changed much it has been annoyingly the same last weeks. The Org is still dictated by the SD people (well that is one i believe at this moment) and the .com has no way to say anything.
No new version as testing still goes on for 2.6... and V3 is plain out of sight.
Most that where unhappy left SD (if possible) and some remain and take the pain. Which brings me to... tatata
What if you want to change? What is our option? We all went for subdreamer one time.. not due to the glossy site or outstanding openness of the thing but because it does what is says it does. The admin as great and remains unbeaten in my book. Many try and get it sort of right but none as fast as SD.
Ok enough with SD.. we are beyond that ;) what's next?
E107?
Wordpress?
Joomla???
I went for E107 at this time and that seems to be a well maintained piece of software with forum already in place. Also has understandable plugins and is well supported in open source communities. For me it works...
What are you doing?
No new version as testing still goes on for 2.6... and V3 is plain out of sight.
Most that where unhappy left SD (if possible) and some remain and take the pain. Which brings me to... tatata
What if you want to change? What is our option? We all went for subdreamer one time.. not due to the glossy site or outstanding openness of the thing but because it does what is says it does. The admin as great and remains unbeaten in my book. Many try and get it sort of right but none as fast as SD.
Ok enough with SD.. we are beyond that ;) what's next?
E107?
Wordpress?
Joomla???
I went for E107 at this time and that seems to be a well maintained piece of software with forum already in place. Also has understandable plugins and is well supported in open source communities. For me it works...
What are you doing?
zaterdag 8 november 2008
Article on http://www.knownothing.net
I snipped this article from http://www.knownothing.net/subdreamer
Pretty interesting stuff...
----------------------------------------------------
Subdreamer is a CMS (Content Management System) made by Subdreamer, LLC. The principle individuals of this LLC are Ziad and Alice Hilal allegedly out of Florida. Exact location of Ziad is unknown. This will be explained in the report below.
On October 23, 2007 I purchased Subdreamer Pro ($99.95) + Brand Free Option ($35). The brand free option is the ability to remove the "Powered by Subdreamer" text in the footer. When you purchase this option you are given a PHP script that removes all instances of "Powered by Subdreamer" for you.
At first everything seemed to go well. It was soon, though, that I noticed shady activity. The first issue I encountered was a security vulnerability in the software that allowed non-registered users to post comments to articles. Mr_Bob on the forums had initially discovered and posted the issue (read forum post here). As you can see in the post Brent, a Subdreamer team member has a very carefree attitude about the situation. This carefree attitude either means he truly doesn't care about the security vulnerability or that he does not have the knowledge or experience to understand the severity of it.
The issue was initially posted on October 26, 2007. On October 3, 2007, I submitted an official support request, therefore, the team knew about the matter (read support request log here). On October 7, 2007 Brent stated that the matter was being looked in to. Ziad had even promised a fix "right away." Over two weeks after the promise from Ziad a fix had still not been released.
It now states that the matter will be fixed in the next release of Subdreamer. In other words, instead of them releasing a patch, they rather let their customer's website be vulnerable until they decide to release another version of Subdreamer.
The next issue was the advertisement of six months of free hosting when you purchase the Pro license. This is a very deceptive offer. The truth is that the only way to get 6 months free is for you to sign up for one year of hosting. When you sign up for the one year of hosting you have to pay for the other 6 months in advance. I posted my concerns here.
Brent made a few statements that didn't make sense and seemed to be belittling. First is that he tries to say it is "very simple" as if I and the others are incompetent or children that need explaining to. Next he makes the comment of:
"The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure."
I had actually posted a response to this comment, however, Brent or a team member deleted my post. At first I thought maybe the website messed up and my reply didn't actually get posted. So, I ended up posting two more times. This time, though, I saved a copy of my post as a text file as well as made sure I saw that the reply was posted. Both times I posted my post disappeared within 24 hours. Below is what I had posted:
"[QUOTE=Brent]The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure.[/QUOTE]
The fact that a person has taken the time to purchase subdreamer and sign up for the hosting should be some indication of a legitimate interest. The partial statement of "...giving you something for nothing." in reference to somehing for "free" is completely contradictory. If something is free, then it's free. There are no fees attached to it.
If actions like this are normal procedures, then such "procedures" are what the FTC considers "false advertising" and "deceptive trade practices." "
Prior to emailing Ziad, I submitted a support ticket. I was told that the matter would be forwarded to the owner (Ziad). I received the following response from my email to Ziad:
"Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:08:47 -0800
From: Ziad Hilal
Organization: Subdreamer, LLC
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728)
Subject: Re: Free Hosting Offer Issues
Dear Nicholas,
Can you please explain to me the exact process you went through when obtaining your hosting? Did you go with anhosting or midphase? At what part did they ask you to pay? How much did they ask you to pay & for what reason? Are you saying that the only way to obtain those six free months of hosting is to pay a certain fee up front? If you could give me more detail on this I would reatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Ziad Hilal
Founder, CEO"
I did respond with step-by-step instructions of what I done. I personally think I was getting the runaround. In an email I received from Ziad which was a response to my concern about my posts being deleted, Ziad stated the following about the continued issue of the free hosting offer:
"I've been looking into the situation and have been in communication with anhosting/midphase to find out what's going on. If things are like you say they are then we will of course change the description of the free hosting."
Once again, it seems Ziad is trying to give the runaround and be evasive. How so? The statement of "If things are like you say they are..." That is ridiculous. All Ziad had to do what go to the page where you sign up for the free hosting on one of the hosting providers and he could see for himself that it asks for payment up front. I don't understand why he keeps beating around the bush as if this were some federal investigation still being processed. In the word's used so often by Brent, "It's very simple."
"I was always under the impression that customers did not have to pay a fee up front. This is a promotion we have had running for a very long time and have never heard one complaint about it so I'm actually a bit shocked!"
I don't believe this at all. Why? First off the offer is deceptive. You say "free" that means free. There are strings attached to this offer that were not mentioned before. Next is the fact that I am not the only one to comment about this. In another post a user made a comment, but withdrew it, however, judging from Brent's response it seems they were not happy with this deception either. You can read the post here.
It seems that the Subdreamer team are childish and immature. Either they delete posts they don't like or they lock topics after they make a smart remark. An example of the locked topic would be the previously-mentioned post.
As usual, Brent tries to belittle people by stating that if they would just read. Brent then comments on how "simple" this is. What Brent seems to forget (or refuses to mention) is the fact that you can read until you are as blue as a Smurf, but the offer page (view here) did not tell you about having to pay for a year in advance. It states it now because of my complaints to Ziad. Before Ziad changed the offer page to reflect the truth you did not find this out until you went to sign up for the hosting.
I have copies of all of the posts as Subdreamer likes to delete posts that make them look bad. It seems, though, that this unethical tactic is catching up with them. I have copies of all of the posts and support tickets mentioned just in case they try to delete those posts as well. I think it's pretty sad that you have to make copies of all of the posts and support tickets because a company is so unethical that they delete proof of their incompetence and poor customer service.
Unfortunately this is not the end of the Investigative Report. I have noticed that Subdreamer also has "multiple" and unexplainable addresses. Furthermore, Subdreamer is now hiding their information. Doesn't Ziad realize how shady that makes his company look?
On the contact page of Subdreamer is the following address:
Subdreamer, LLC
8374 Market St #447
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202-5137
If you do a WHOIS query on the domain, subdreamer.com, there was the address of:
Hilal, Ziad
Subdreamer
2139 NW Cedar View Ln
Portland, Oregon 97229
United States
5031111111
If you'll notice, the phone number is fake. Another issue is that the address for the CEO, Ziad Hilal is all the way in Portland, OR. Oh wait! It gets better. If you look at the corporate filings for Subdreamer, LLC (view here) you will notice the address of Alice Hilal, the address for the corporation (which was on the WHOIS), as well as an address for Ziad Hilal all the way in California!
HILAL, ZIAD
960 3RD ST
SANTA MONICA CA 97403
Now, you might have noticed that I keep referring to the address on the WHOIS database in past tense. I say "was" because they are now hiding their information. I filed a complaint with the company they register their domain through because of the false phone number. I received an email a day later stating that Subdreamer had updated their contact information. Unfortunately I cannot verify that because Subdreamer purchased a WHOIS privacy guard service. When you do a WHOIS query on the domain, subdreamer.com, you get the contact information for the company they registered their domain through. In my years of experience, any company that hides their information is either a scam or usually doing some very unethical things.
When you perform a WHOIS query on subdreamer.com, you get the following information:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Can you get their real information. Sure. Most of the time you have to submit a letter to the legal department of the company they register their domain through explaining why you want the information. If you have to go through this much trouble to find out information about a company, then they are not worth doing business with.
I have spoken with a few people on the boards privately about Subdreamer. I have been told that this is not unusual that they delete posts they don't like and that they ignore customers. I guess when I starting pressing the issues they figured I'd just go away. Then, when I started digging in to things they decided to hide their information. Does Ziad and the rest of the unethical crew of Subdreamer thing that by deleting "evidence" that no one will ever find about their unethical actions and how they treat their customers? This is what I do! I dig up information about unethical companies and organizations.
On November 27, 2007 I sent a letter to Ziad via the address listed on the website. I requested a full refund. If one is not received within two weeks then I will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, and the Florida Attorney General's Office. Ziad and his unethical team can try and cover up as much information as they want. It's too late. The truth is out!
My suggestion is to either find another paid CMS or use one of the many freely available CMS scripts such as Joomla!
----------------------------------------------------
Pretty interesting stuff...
----------------------------------------------------
Subdreamer is a CMS (Content Management System) made by Subdreamer, LLC. The principle individuals of this LLC are Ziad and Alice Hilal allegedly out of Florida. Exact location of Ziad is unknown. This will be explained in the report below.
On October 23, 2007 I purchased Subdreamer Pro ($99.95) + Brand Free Option ($35). The brand free option is the ability to remove the "Powered by Subdreamer" text in the footer. When you purchase this option you are given a PHP script that removes all instances of "Powered by Subdreamer" for you.
At first everything seemed to go well. It was soon, though, that I noticed shady activity. The first issue I encountered was a security vulnerability in the software that allowed non-registered users to post comments to articles. Mr_Bob on the forums had initially discovered and posted the issue (read forum post here). As you can see in the post Brent, a Subdreamer team member has a very carefree attitude about the situation. This carefree attitude either means he truly doesn't care about the security vulnerability or that he does not have the knowledge or experience to understand the severity of it.
The issue was initially posted on October 26, 2007. On October 3, 2007, I submitted an official support request, therefore, the team knew about the matter (read support request log here). On October 7, 2007 Brent stated that the matter was being looked in to. Ziad had even promised a fix "right away." Over two weeks after the promise from Ziad a fix had still not been released.
It now states that the matter will be fixed in the next release of Subdreamer. In other words, instead of them releasing a patch, they rather let their customer's website be vulnerable until they decide to release another version of Subdreamer.
The next issue was the advertisement of six months of free hosting when you purchase the Pro license. This is a very deceptive offer. The truth is that the only way to get 6 months free is for you to sign up for one year of hosting. When you sign up for the one year of hosting you have to pay for the other 6 months in advance. I posted my concerns here.
Brent made a few statements that didn't make sense and seemed to be belittling. First is that he tries to say it is "very simple" as if I and the others are incompetent or children that need explaining to. Next he makes the comment of:
"The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure."
I had actually posted a response to this comment, however, Brent or a team member deleted my post. At first I thought maybe the website messed up and my reply didn't actually get posted. So, I ended up posting two more times. This time, though, I saved a copy of my post as a text file as well as made sure I saw that the reply was posted. Both times I posted my post disappeared within 24 hours. Below is what I had posted:
"[QUOTE=Brent]The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure.[/QUOTE]
The fact that a person has taken the time to purchase subdreamer and sign up for the hosting should be some indication of a legitimate interest. The partial statement of "...giving you something for nothing." in reference to somehing for "free" is completely contradictory. If something is free, then it's free. There are no fees attached to it.
If actions like this are normal procedures, then such "procedures" are what the FTC considers "false advertising" and "deceptive trade practices." "
Prior to emailing Ziad, I submitted a support ticket. I was told that the matter would be forwarded to the owner (Ziad). I received the following response from my email to Ziad:
"Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:08:47 -0800
From: Ziad Hilal
Organization: Subdreamer, LLC
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728)
Subject: Re: Free Hosting Offer Issues
Dear Nicholas,
Can you please explain to me the exact process you went through when obtaining your hosting? Did you go with anhosting or midphase? At what part did they ask you to pay? How much did they ask you to pay & for what reason? Are you saying that the only way to obtain those six free months of hosting is to pay a certain fee up front? If you could give me more detail on this I would reatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Ziad Hilal
Founder, CEO"
I did respond with step-by-step instructions of what I done. I personally think I was getting the runaround. In an email I received from Ziad which was a response to my concern about my posts being deleted, Ziad stated the following about the continued issue of the free hosting offer:
"I've been looking into the situation and have been in communication with anhosting/midphase to find out what's going on. If things are like you say they are then we will of course change the description of the free hosting."
Once again, it seems Ziad is trying to give the runaround and be evasive. How so? The statement of "If things are like you say they are..." That is ridiculous. All Ziad had to do what go to the page where you sign up for the free hosting on one of the hosting providers and he could see for himself that it asks for payment up front. I don't understand why he keeps beating around the bush as if this were some federal investigation still being processed. In the word's used so often by Brent, "It's very simple."
"I was always under the impression that customers did not have to pay a fee up front. This is a promotion we have had running for a very long time and have never heard one complaint about it so I'm actually a bit shocked!"
I don't believe this at all. Why? First off the offer is deceptive. You say "free" that means free. There are strings attached to this offer that were not mentioned before. Next is the fact that I am not the only one to comment about this. In another post a user made a comment, but withdrew it, however, judging from Brent's response it seems they were not happy with this deception either. You can read the post here.
It seems that the Subdreamer team are childish and immature. Either they delete posts they don't like or they lock topics after they make a smart remark. An example of the locked topic would be the previously-mentioned post.
As usual, Brent tries to belittle people by stating that if they would just read. Brent then comments on how "simple" this is. What Brent seems to forget (or refuses to mention) is the fact that you can read until you are as blue as a Smurf, but the offer page (view here) did not tell you about having to pay for a year in advance. It states it now because of my complaints to Ziad. Before Ziad changed the offer page to reflect the truth you did not find this out until you went to sign up for the hosting.
I have copies of all of the posts as Subdreamer likes to delete posts that make them look bad. It seems, though, that this unethical tactic is catching up with them. I have copies of all of the posts and support tickets mentioned just in case they try to delete those posts as well. I think it's pretty sad that you have to make copies of all of the posts and support tickets because a company is so unethical that they delete proof of their incompetence and poor customer service.
Unfortunately this is not the end of the Investigative Report. I have noticed that Subdreamer also has "multiple" and unexplainable addresses. Furthermore, Subdreamer is now hiding their information. Doesn't Ziad realize how shady that makes his company look?
On the contact page of Subdreamer is the following address:
Subdreamer, LLC
8374 Market St #447
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202-5137
If you do a WHOIS query on the domain, subdreamer.com, there was the address of:
Hilal, Ziad
Subdreamer
2139 NW Cedar View Ln
Portland, Oregon 97229
United States
5031111111
If you'll notice, the phone number is fake. Another issue is that the address for the CEO, Ziad Hilal is all the way in Portland, OR. Oh wait! It gets better. If you look at the corporate filings for Subdreamer, LLC (view here) you will notice the address of Alice Hilal, the address for the corporation (which was on the WHOIS), as well as an address for Ziad Hilal all the way in California!
HILAL, ZIAD
960 3RD ST
SANTA MONICA CA 97403
Now, you might have noticed that I keep referring to the address on the WHOIS database in past tense. I say "was" because they are now hiding their information. I filed a complaint with the company they register their domain through because of the false phone number. I received an email a day later stating that Subdreamer had updated their contact information. Unfortunately I cannot verify that because Subdreamer purchased a WHOIS privacy guard service. When you do a WHOIS query on the domain, subdreamer.com, you get the contact information for the company they registered their domain through. In my years of experience, any company that hides their information is either a scam or usually doing some very unethical things.
When you perform a WHOIS query on subdreamer.com, you get the following information:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Can you get their real information. Sure. Most of the time you have to submit a letter to the legal department of the company they register their domain through explaining why you want the information. If you have to go through this much trouble to find out information about a company, then they are not worth doing business with.
I have spoken with a few people on the boards privately about Subdreamer. I have been told that this is not unusual that they delete posts they don't like and that they ignore customers. I guess when I starting pressing the issues they figured I'd just go away. Then, when I started digging in to things they decided to hide their information. Does Ziad and the rest of the unethical crew of Subdreamer thing that by deleting "evidence" that no one will ever find about their unethical actions and how they treat their customers? This is what I do! I dig up information about unethical companies and organizations.
On November 27, 2007 I sent a letter to Ziad via the address listed on the website. I requested a full refund. If one is not received within two weeks then I will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, and the Florida Attorney General's Office. Ziad and his unethical team can try and cover up as much information as they want. It's too late. The truth is out!
My suggestion is to either find another paid CMS or use one of the many freely available CMS scripts such as Joomla!
----------------------------------------------------
woensdag 5 november 2008
Quote from Rip Off report
Ran into this nice site which explains a lot :) Read and weep..
-------
On October 23, 2007, I purchased the Subdreamer CMS (Content Management System) from Subdreamer, LLC.
The issues came about when on October 26, 2007, a Subdreamer user (Mr_Bob) posted a major security vulnerability in the software.
http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/project.php?issueid=79
This vulnerability allowed anyone to post comments on articles. The problem, from what I can tell of the coding, is that the Subdreamer team failed to write coding to check to make sure that whom or whatever was posting had permission to do so. On November 3, 2007 I submitted a support request to officially notify Subdreamer of the issue. A few days later I received a response from Brent (Subdreamer team member) stating that they were validating the issue.
I posted some coding that I wrote and worked for me. I posted under the handle krackerjax. Unfortunately, the coding did not work for everyone. Even the owner (Ziad) stated it was incorrect and the correct coding would be posted right away. Well, two weeks later and this coding has yet to be released.
As you can see in the post, Brent has a very relaxed and carefree attitude about the vulnerability. Brent has what is called false security. I guess he thinks just because a few people on the company forums know about it that no hackers or malicious users will ever discover it. Even if they do discover it, to Brent there is no major damage.
There are actually a few things that a malicious user can do:
- Posting of inappropriate comments. What if one of your customers are using SD for a school or church website. What do you think will happen when they get spam comments posted on their articles that are pornographic or spams related to Viagra?
- Posting of a URL to a spoofed website. From national banks to MySpace. These types of accounts have been compromised by people blindly entering in their personal information after clicking on a spoofed website.
- Posting of a URL that leads to a website which may compromise their system using a variety of vulnerabilities in the Windows Operation System as well as software run on Windows.
These are the ideas that come to mind from just a security-conscious person. I can only imagine what some malicious user can think of. In the end, Subdreamer has decided to wait until the next release to fix this problem. I consider this completely unacceptable. Why can't they release an official patch? Why did it take them almost a month to 'Confirm' this vulnerability? Why did Ziad ignore my emails about this issue?
Another problem I have noticed with Subdreamer, besides them ignoring customers, is that they delete posts so that they don't look bad. On quite a few occasions I have posted not only about this security issue, but their use of false advertising and deceptive trade practices.
Subdreamer advertised that when you purchased Subdreamer Pro you would get 6 months of free hosting. In a way that's true. In a way it's not. You get the 6 months free, however, you must sign up for 1 year of hosting and then pay for the other 6. If you sign up for 3 or 6 months, you are charged a $29.95 setup fee. They never stated this with a little * or any other symbol to indicate that there are special terms.
I mentioned in this in the forums and ended up getting one of my replies deleted twice.
http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10516
In this post, I commented about the details of this matter. One of my posts (below in quotes) was deleted twice. I thought at first maybe my computer was messing up and it didn't post it in the first place. That's when I decided to make sure my post was up there before I closed down my browser.
'[QUOTE=Brent]The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure.[/QUOTE]
The fact that a person has taken the time to purchase subdreamer and sign up for the hosting should be some indication of a legitimate interest. The partial statement of '...giving you something for nothing.' in reference to somehing for 'free' is completely contradictory. If something is free, then it's free. There are no fees attached to is.
If actions like this are normal procedures, then such 'procedures' are what the FTC considers 'false advertising' and 'deceptive trade practices.' '
It seems that Brent or another Subdreamer moderator deleted that post. After all, that makes Brent and Subdreamer look bad. I have talked privately to another user and have been told that it is not uncommon for Subdreamer to delete people's posts that they don't like.
Today I sent off a letter to the address listed on Subdreamer's corporate listing in the Florida Corporate Database. I did find something odd.
Firstly, if you do a WHOIS on Subdreamer, you'll notice they don't give a valid phone number. Below is the information given:
Hilal, Ziad
Subdreamer
2139 NW Cedar View Ln
Portland, Oregon 97229
United States
5031111111 Fax --
The area code/prefix does not correspond to any phone numbers. It's just false number typed in. Next is the address of Portland, OR. That address traces to some female, not even with the last name of Hilal.
Then, on the corporate filings, there are three addresses listed. It shows Ziad Hilal as being located in Santa Monica, CA (even though the WHOIS information showed Portland, OR):
HILAL, ZIAD
960 3RD ST
SANTA MONICA CA 97403
Another address lsited on the corporate filings is that of someone with his last name. possibly a relative:
HILAL, ALICE
7302 DUNES COURT
BRADENTON FL 34202-5137
The official address listed on their website is:
8374 MARKET ST
447
BRADENTON FL 34202-5137
It all seems pretty fishy to me. I guess they figure that since they have such a 'wonderful' product that they can treat people like dirt, censor them so Subdreamer and their staff don't look bad, and simply ignore major security issues. I sent a letter today to their corporate office requesting a full refund. If I don't receive one then I will be filing complaints with the FTC, BBB, and Florida Attorney General's Office.
I am in the process of migrating over to a free open source CMS. It has nothing to do with cost, it just has to do with preference.
My only suggestion is that if you are thinking of using Subdreamer, then think again. The company is very questionable in my opinion, they don't act upon serious issues, and when you try to raise your voice about these issues, they censor you.
Nicholas
Morgan City, Louisiana
U.S.A.
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On October 23, 2007, I purchased the Subdreamer CMS (Content Management System) from Subdreamer, LLC.
The issues came about when on October 26, 2007, a Subdreamer user (Mr_Bob) posted a major security vulnerability in the software.
http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/project.php?issueid=79
This vulnerability allowed anyone to post comments on articles. The problem, from what I can tell of the coding, is that the Subdreamer team failed to write coding to check to make sure that whom or whatever was posting had permission to do so. On November 3, 2007 I submitted a support request to officially notify Subdreamer of the issue. A few days later I received a response from Brent (Subdreamer team member) stating that they were validating the issue.
I posted some coding that I wrote and worked for me. I posted under the handle krackerjax. Unfortunately, the coding did not work for everyone. Even the owner (Ziad) stated it was incorrect and the correct coding would be posted right away. Well, two weeks later and this coding has yet to be released.
As you can see in the post, Brent has a very relaxed and carefree attitude about the vulnerability. Brent has what is called false security. I guess he thinks just because a few people on the company forums know about it that no hackers or malicious users will ever discover it. Even if they do discover it, to Brent there is no major damage.
There are actually a few things that a malicious user can do:
- Posting of inappropriate comments. What if one of your customers are using SD for a school or church website. What do you think will happen when they get spam comments posted on their articles that are pornographic or spams related to Viagra?
- Posting of a URL to a spoofed website. From national banks to MySpace. These types of accounts have been compromised by people blindly entering in their personal information after clicking on a spoofed website.
- Posting of a URL that leads to a website which may compromise their system using a variety of vulnerabilities in the Windows Operation System as well as software run on Windows.
These are the ideas that come to mind from just a security-conscious person. I can only imagine what some malicious user can think of. In the end, Subdreamer has decided to wait until the next release to fix this problem. I consider this completely unacceptable. Why can't they release an official patch? Why did it take them almost a month to 'Confirm' this vulnerability? Why did Ziad ignore my emails about this issue?
Another problem I have noticed with Subdreamer, besides them ignoring customers, is that they delete posts so that they don't look bad. On quite a few occasions I have posted not only about this security issue, but their use of false advertising and deceptive trade practices.
Subdreamer advertised that when you purchased Subdreamer Pro you would get 6 months of free hosting. In a way that's true. In a way it's not. You get the 6 months free, however, you must sign up for 1 year of hosting and then pay for the other 6. If you sign up for 3 or 6 months, you are charged a $29.95 setup fee. They never stated this with a little * or any other symbol to indicate that there are special terms.
I mentioned in this in the forums and ended up getting one of my replies deleted twice.
http://www.subdreamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10516
In this post, I commented about the details of this matter. One of my posts (below in quotes) was deleted twice. I thought at first maybe my computer was messing up and it didn't post it in the first place. That's when I decided to make sure my post was up there before I closed down my browser.
'[QUOTE=Brent]The requirement to register yourself and subscribe to a given term is to verify that you are a legitimate and interested consumer in their services/product before giving you something for nothing. This is a normal procedure.[/QUOTE]
The fact that a person has taken the time to purchase subdreamer and sign up for the hosting should be some indication of a legitimate interest. The partial statement of '...giving you something for nothing.' in reference to somehing for 'free' is completely contradictory. If something is free, then it's free. There are no fees attached to is.
If actions like this are normal procedures, then such 'procedures' are what the FTC considers 'false advertising' and 'deceptive trade practices.' '
It seems that Brent or another Subdreamer moderator deleted that post. After all, that makes Brent and Subdreamer look bad. I have talked privately to another user and have been told that it is not uncommon for Subdreamer to delete people's posts that they don't like.
Today I sent off a letter to the address listed on Subdreamer's corporate listing in the Florida Corporate Database. I did find something odd.
Firstly, if you do a WHOIS on Subdreamer, you'll notice they don't give a valid phone number. Below is the information given:
Hilal, Ziad
Subdreamer
2139 NW Cedar View Ln
Portland, Oregon 97229
United States
5031111111 Fax --
The area code/prefix does not correspond to any phone numbers. It's just false number typed in. Next is the address of Portland, OR. That address traces to some female, not even with the last name of Hilal.
Then, on the corporate filings, there are three addresses listed. It shows Ziad Hilal as being located in Santa Monica, CA (even though the WHOIS information showed Portland, OR):
HILAL, ZIAD
960 3RD ST
SANTA MONICA CA 97403
Another address lsited on the corporate filings is that of someone with his last name. possibly a relative:
HILAL, ALICE
7302 DUNES COURT
BRADENTON FL 34202-5137
The official address listed on their website is:
8374 MARKET ST
447
BRADENTON FL 34202-5137
It all seems pretty fishy to me. I guess they figure that since they have such a 'wonderful' product that they can treat people like dirt, censor them so Subdreamer and their staff don't look bad, and simply ignore major security issues. I sent a letter today to their corporate office requesting a full refund. If I don't receive one then I will be filing complaints with the FTC, BBB, and Florida Attorney General's Office.
I am in the process of migrating over to a free open source CMS. It has nothing to do with cost, it just has to do with preference.
My only suggestion is that if you are thinking of using Subdreamer, then think again. The company is very questionable in my opinion, they don't act upon serious issues, and when you try to raise your voice about these issues, they censor you.
Nicholas
Morgan City, Louisiana
U.S.A.
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Abonneren op:
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