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Originally Posted by Thurallor
Interesting. How do you know his real name? Do you have contact info for him?
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The author name is in the API. In the ".plugin" file.
Is it real or not is anyone's guess.
Is "gjit" simply another in-game name for the same account as "Evendale, Evenwym, and Damagemeter?"
No one knows.
Sadly, especially with the advent of F2P, there is no way to relate "real names" to "in-game names."
Gaming in general, and especially MMOs, have evolved a culture where hiding one's identity is not only normal, but is expected.
And if you want to change your identity, you just open a new F2P account.
Similarly, sites such as lotrointerface have no way to identify any "registrant."
All they can do is take whatever information is given them as true.
All of which is to say, enforcement in cases such as this is a "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" issue.
Deleting the download structure eliminates future "infections," but it does nothing for those who have it installed;
it makes collateral damage of folks who are innocent bystanders.
I.e. No word of explanation of the problem and how to treat it in place of the deleted plugin.
Minimally a page describing the problem which caused the plugin to be deleted would be appreciated.
However, fixing the problem would have been a more preferable solution.
By declaring that only the author can fix the problem implies that the author is the one who created the problem in the first place.
A typical assumption, but one not necessarily grounded in fact.
A large number of the plugins on this site have been abandoned.
That is to say the accounts of the Authors have NOT been logged into for many months.
It would be as "just and arbitrary" a "rule" to declare any abandoned account open to anyone for "takeover."
There is nothing on this site (no instructions, policy statements, etc.) which implies what happens to "abandoned" plugins -- deleted or otherwise disabled.
And just for the record, it appears that the idea of "fast action" is not relevant.
The code in question existed in the plugin back in January of 2012 when version 4 was uploaded. (you can check via the Wayback machine)
It went un-noticed by the moderators for two years.
Or perhaps more correctly, no one complained about it for two years.
Looking at the thread on the forums, it was apparently a well-known" hack.