The Complete Guide to Forum Takeovers

ABS Forums topic #6495

[by tylerdriver]

The ABS Forums have been taken over before. The following is satire by ABS Member Quicksilver based on such a situation.

by Quicksilver

Have any forums you've posted on:

  • Become uneventful and boring?
  • Died out (no posts in a month?)
  • Been cruel to you?

If you answered yes to any of these, then it's time for a little revenge, or a spice up. Today, I will provide the ultimate guide to Forum Takeovers, and just how easy this is to do. The spammers, sickos and badasses don't want you to know this, but today, I am blowing these secrets open to ensure a swift and humourous Forum Takeover. To start, you need:

  • A cool theme song.
  • A reason for attack.
  • A picture.
  • A cool topic title, exclaiming your successful takeover.
  • A plan of action.
  • A Cool Theme Song.
  • A cool theme song gives you the drive to push yourself and can help generate more hatred for the site after you've forgotten your reasons for attack.

Examples of a good theme song include:

  • Metallica - Seek and Destroy
  • Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
  • Metallica - One

Bad songs are:

  • A Simple Plan - Untitled
  • Green Day - Wake Me up When September Ends
  • A Simple Plan - Welcome to my life

A Reason For Attack

There are several reasons as to why someone would want to attack a forum. The most common ones are:

  • You've been banned (if this is the case, then go to the next paragraph for tips on how to get back).
  • You've discovered that someone has a different opinion to you.
  • You have absolutely nothing better to do on a Saturday night.
  • You want to push your mod powers to the extreme.
  • You're a haXor who wants to test out your skills.

So you've been banned.....

Banned? and you can't get back on? HAHAHA don't make me laugh. To get back, all you need is another computer (I have access to 200 computers, from the home, friends, internet cafes and universities, and you avoid the common amateur error of having your IP match to your original account's IP,) and a different email address. Although you're guaranteed to be banned after your attack, it's best to make sure your invasion is not noticed too quickly. To prevent early detection of your presence, you need an email that is completely different to your original, and you must not provide any other information. Now, some forums might disable signups after your original ban, and although we can't predict the future, it's best if you create a second account straight after the creation of your first account so when registration is disabled, you have another account ready to go and the moderators are none the wiser. (However, this is only necessary if the forum forces it's users to sign on. Posting as a guest is just as acceptable.)

A Picture

This picture will be your tool of destruction. To choose the picture of your choice, consult The definitive list of shock sites and make sure you copy the location of the file. Open up a text document, and enter the location as such:

CODE
[IMG]picture of choice[/IMG]
[IMG]picture of choice[/IMG]
...*65

Save the text document - you may need it for later.

A Cool Topic Title, Exclaming your Successful Takeover

You need to be ready to proclaim to the forum how cool a haXor and attacking fiend you are. To do this, you need to have a cool topic title that exclaims your brilliance and also tells them how mean they are to you. Acceptable titles are:

  • All your base belong to ME
  • YOU LOSE, GOOD DAY SIR
  • I'm baaaaaaacccccck.....

unacceptable titles include:

  • I'm going to kill myself now
  • I hate you all
  • you're all retards
  • f you <insert name>

A Plan of Action

Finally, it's time to act. You have all the tools neccessary and it's time to attack the forum. First, lets get a checklist out. If you have ticks for all the following, you're ready to go

  • There are no moderators online
  • There are less than 20 members online at time of attack
  • No one is acting suspiciously

That's all you really need to be worried about. Now it's time to decide what Plan of Action suits you best.

1. Seek and Destroy

This plan is simple. It doesn't require a picture, but it does require either moderator or admin powers, altough admin is preferred. For this, all you do is delete every topic in a section and leave behind your cool topic that exposes you. The exposure is important because otherwise you won't get any attention, which is essentially what Forum Takeovers are all about. Admin access provides a more swift attack, as in an invisionfree forum, there is an option in the administration panel that allows you to trash every topic with a single button, which saves a lot of time on your behalf. It's simple, but not as fun.

2. Picture tiling (sp? might not even be a word)

This needs admin access but can have intriguing results if done correctly. To do this, you access the CSS style sheet for the forum and change the background to a tile layout for your picture of choice. Shock site pictures are not recommended here, but my recommendation would be a rapidly blinking picture, such as the you belong to me ytmnd. Like before, make sure you have a topic that shows how cool you are to have betrayed the trust of moderators who have tried to make the forums more enjoyable for normal people.

3. Shock Site attack.

Using the txt. file you created earlier, copy and paste the text into a post and post it on every topic on the first page of every category. Simple, and it takes a while to clean.

and finally

4. Spam topics

It is preferred that you be a guest to do this, as guests do not need to worry about flood control. just make as many topics with the title 'spam' and jibberish as a post as fast as you can. Within 5 minutes, you can invade an entire category. In a hour you can attack a standard forum. Just watch the feeble attempts of the good people who try to pick up the pieces while the mods aren't there. Enjoy!

Now we are at an end of what could be the largest post ever made on this forum. So now you have the skills, go out there and make hell!!!

Discuss this and other techniques some of you people have made to attack a forum and truly bring it to life.

December 5, 2005

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