Thoughts on some of the questions that get asked

Slightly off-topic I know, but I can't help but question the motives behind some of the questions that get asked here. A couple of current threads such as how to load another program before the operating system, how to assume control of all system message boxes, how to format hard drives programatically seem to me that they could be used for nefarious purposes and although I supposed it's possible, aren't likely to be used in legitimate programs. I'd suggest trying to determine what the person has in mind before supplying information in these cases.

Not very sure about that. If somebody doesn't know how to format a hard drive from own program then doubtfully this person will manage do any real harm at all.

I don't think it's our responsibility to filter the help that is given. Granted, some questions seemed geared towards causing harm, but, how can you actually know? And, if the requestor does not get what he wants here, he will eventually. The only thing you can hope to do is make it a little tougher at the expense of those who are asking legitimate questions.

CodeGuru has a reputation to maintain. Just look at the advertisers here. Mostly, they're responsible, "big name" outfits such as IBM, Symantec, Adobe, Microsoft etc. Will they still want to advertise here if they think we're helping hackers to damage their customer's data? This might seem like a trivial argument - but if I had a big advertising budget, I wouldn't want to waste it on a site with that kind of dodgy reputation.

Although we've got no actual obligation to filter out dubious requests, everybody has a moral obligation to use their common sense. I routinely find myself wondering what is the intention of some posters. I'd never complain about anyone else helping them but I don't tend to help them myself. I just think it's irresponsible to help people who are patently out to cause damage to the people we work for (i.e. computer users).

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Originally Posted by Mike Harnad

I don't think it's our responsibility to filter the help that is given. Granted, some questions seemed geared towards causing harm, but, how can you actually know? And, if the requestor does not get what he wants here, he will eventually. The only thing you can hope to do is make it a little tougher at the expense of those who are asking legitimate questions.

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You can ask. The user may eventually find what they're looking for, but I think as a community of professional, responsible coders, we should be careful that we don't provide assistance to those who have chosen the dark side.

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You can ask.

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And, how will you know that the reponse is legitimate? Unless you are clairvoyant, there's really no way to know. How, or who will decide what the resquestor's intention is? I think this type of situation is best left up to each indiviual to decide. As John E states,

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I'd never complain about anyone else helping them but I don't tend to help them myself.

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This seems to be the only way to proceed.

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Originally Posted by Mike Harnad

And, how will you know that the reponse is legitimate? Unless you are clairvoyant, there's really no way to know. How, or who will decide what the resquestor's intention is? I think this type of situation is best left up to each indiviual to decide. As John E states,

This seems to be the only way to proceed.

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I'd be curious to see whether you think this guy should be helped or not.

http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376269

"I intend this program to put text into every and any "pop-up"/dialog box that occurs in windows in every program. As an example, when a user goes to save his picture and the save option box comes into focus, it would say "Dont forget to register MyProduct /n" and then the text from the native popup box."

Admittedly, I would have avoided this question. But, do you fault Golanshahar for providing an answer? I would not.

Something to look at is how many posts the poster of the question has.

This isn't a great indicator, but I would be more willing to help those that have been around this board for a longer period of time since it would seem that their questions are more "legitimate".

A post about something that seems shady by someone with only one post to the forum raises a flag.

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Originally Posted by Mike Harnad

Admittedly, I would have avoided this question. But, do you fault Golanshahar for providing an answer? I would not.

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I bear no grudge or anything, but I do think he, or anybody else would be wrong to provide assistance, and I said so in the thread.

Anybody deliberately setting out to sabotage or interfere with the legitimate use of anybody's computer deserves a brick upside the head, not support and advice from people who should know better.

I agree to a certain degree with what GCDEF has raised, particularly with the links to back him up, but there are a number of questions that needs to be asked before ANYONE decides if the question is appropriate or not.

1) What if the person who is raising the flag has misinterpreted the question;

2) What happens if the person asking the question does not completely understand what it is they are asking for? I, myself, is guilty of this from time to time.

3) Because of the worldwide appeal this forum brings, there are times that the person asking the question may not have a clear understanding of the english language and the person reading it, again, may mis-construe it to having nefarious purposes.

4) What is going to be an acceptable level of tolerance of the question being asked as to dertemine whether it's legitimate? This question can be viewed as being hand-in-hand with the social tolorences between countries that this forum brings.

These are just a few questions that really need to be answered thoroughly before we even consider taking such a step.

I just think that we all should be responsible as to whether we answer the question or not. If it looks suspicious, then ignore it - its as simple as that.
Regards

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Originally Posted by Vaderman

I agree to a certain degree with what GCDEF has raised, particularly with the links to back him up, but there are a number of questions that needs to be asked before ANYONE decides if the question is appropriate or not.

1) What if the person who is raising the flag has misinterpreted the question;

2) What happens if the person asking the question does not completely understand what it is they are asking for? I, myself, is guilty of this from time to time.

3) Because of the worldwide appeal this forum brings, there are times that the person asking the question may not have a clear understanding of the english language and the person reading it, again, may mis-construe it to having nefarious purposes.

4) What is going to be an acceptable level of tolerance of the question being asked as to dertemine whether it's legitimate? This question can be viewed as being hand-in-hand with the social tolorences between countries that this forum brings.

These are just a few questions that really need to be answered thoroughly before we even consider taking such a step.

I just think that we all should be responsible as to whether we answer the question or not. If it looks suspicious, then ignore it - its as simple as that.
Regards

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Good questions and that's why I'm advocating determining the poster's intentions when they could be questionable. In the example I posted, I think it's clear the poster was up to no good. In the case of someone wanting to format a hard drive from inside their app, could be either way. I'll admit to being suspicious about the guy that wants to load his own program before the operating system, and to interrupt the traditional boot up sequence with his own program. I suppose they may exist, but I can't think of a legitimate reason to do it the way he's asking. All I'm saying is be careful. If what's being asked can be used for sinister purposes, try to find out the true motives before helping.

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Originally Posted by GCDEF

You can ask.

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Kinda tricky.. If you sound too obvious when you ask, if it is an intelligent person, s/he would frame question in a more intelligent way next time. I guess remaining silent if you think it is suspicious is better

I think that this is another example of the type of suspicious thread GCDEF refers to: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1340181

The author shows compiler error listings that give the folder name of "hacking tools". Moreover, his code shows that he is trying to automate the download of an exe named "updater.exe", which a Google search reveals as a known trojan.

I tried GCDEF's approach of "asking him", but so far there's no response.

You're right MikeAThon :p ...some of these ppl are silly enough to leave trails of suspicion.
Here is another that really looks like someone you really don't want to help:
How to make an invisible program
to add to that, he had a logon id with the word 'virus' in it!

Should always ask to see the code that they already have, to see what's on their mind, and also tell them that we won't write a whole app for them.
I usually ask questions before answering anything that might have evil plans, whether obvious or not.

Just because nobody answers a silly thread, it shouldn't mean that you post working code. I've seen that happen more than once.

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Originally Posted by GCDEF

how to format hard drives programatically seem to me that they could be used for nefarious purposes.

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Oh, Yeah! That was an interesting thread. I thought it would be moved to ChitChat for further investigation. Somebody deleted it :(

Ahhh.......

This thread is indicative of discussions that the moderators regularly have on this forum and on the other forums that I oversee.

Let me answer publicly what I tend to tell the moderators:
For moderators, if in doubt, assume that the person's intents are good.

For almost every bad thing that can be done, there are reasons to do it that are not bad. For example, Adding text to dialogs and such may be something someone wants to do to modify their 'trial version' of software. Granted, this isn't a good solution, but it is a legitimate solution. Creating an invisible program may be something a corporation wants to do to monitor what is happening on their systems. Because they are their systems, they have the right to do this. I use a tool that was created and posted on this site called WInSpy. It shows passwords the passwords behind the asterisks in a windows dialog. It has helped me retrieve many forgotten passwords. Many people would call it a hacker tool.

Bottom line, a person may have a good reason for asking how to do something that seems shady. Because many members of this forum don't speak (or type) English as their first language, some of the requests are written poorly. The best advice I can give members iis simply: If you are unsure of a person's intents and it seems they could be bad, then simply don't respond to the thread.

On a different note....
If someone is asking a question that is for shady purposes, then they have already goofed up. By posting a question in a public forum, they have already left a trail. Even if they have used a site to hide their IP, they have left a trail since those sites also tend to frown on illicit things.

This is a good discussion. What we you don't want to do is attack the person asking the question. That does nothing for anyone.

Brad!

I find the site is good.

POst contents by Ntop40, SuperKoko, googler, etc are very informative. A lot of interesting discussions in chit chat and terribly fun questions and answers too popping up from time to time on board
Other problems like some users'different intents I think shouldnot be taken seriously,

bad and good news always mix come together, positive view would help

Although I agree that I find it wrong and im-moral to help someone who is trying to code bad stuff (spam, hacker tool, what ever), I could very easily be lumped in with that group right now if readers of my thread were suspicious when I first started it. http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showth...8&page=2&pp=15

Because of my low post count and the general nature of my question, I could easily be mistaken for someone who is trying t find a way to break stuff. My intentions are more obvious now that there are some replies and more conversation in that thread but if you just look at the original question, it could look kind of fishy.

Now that I have posted the linkt to my thread here, maybe I can get a little more direction on my project. (Which is legit by the way.)

Just my two cents on it.

Incidentally, I used to have a link to a password * finder, and last week, I needed it again, to snatch moms password out of outlook express to paste into outlook. it won't import!

for now, OE is fine, but I'd hate to have to change a few passwords on a few different programs via long distance!