Arranging a Lainchan Hackathon

>>6491 Count me in

>>6491 Assemble a group of senpais to build new CTF's. I'm a still a noob but I'll try my best.

>>6491 I'm a noob when it comes to CTF, but I study computer science. I'd like to participate, even if just to observe.

What kind of hackathon?

more of 24h programming challenge than CTF

>>6498 I'd be more interested in an OpenBSD style hackathon were we develop new features for an existing project, like the Lainchan software. Either this or a cozy game jam. Solving programming puzzles is like kicking dead whales down the beach.

>>6500 >programming puzzles is like kicking dead whales down the beach. It's not true. Solving CTF allows you to understand certain aspects of the programming language and why it is implemented. Also, it gives you an edge because you've to think out of the box for certain problems.

I'd attend a hackathon if it's more like a bunch of people who enjoy computers building stuff together. I would not attend any of the VC-funded rat races, which is what most of them sadly are (at least where I live).

>>6491 Are you serious OP? WTF is hackaton, don't create threads if you're only interested in reaction. As for other Lainons who posted here: we should really plan what type of hackathon majority of Lainons prefers. I personally like CTFs but I don't mind game jam.

sure, I'd participate

>>6500 >I'd be more interested in an OpenBSD style hackathon were we develop new features for an existing project, like the Lainchan software. I would love to participate in something like this. Are you talking an IRL or on-the-wire hackathon?

>>6500 This could be a good idea (fixing up the vichan fork). Could lead to more active contributers. I know I've looked over the source code before but haven't had much motivation to actually contribute... mostly because I don't have a ton of experience with php.

I'd be down for some group coding, a game-jam, or a CTF. I may be inclined to work on building a VM for a CTF I guess. I do enjoy server stuff. It would probably be too easy for lains though, as I'm no red teamer.

>>6532 Alright kids, let's get this show on the road. http://www.polljunkie.com/poll/xcgnpo/lainchan-hackathon

big dad?

>>6540 Are you the OP? If yes, find a way to assemble a group of qualified Lainons to organize this event and spend some of your quality time here...ffs

>>6544 I am not, but no one else was doing anything. So I'm trying to do exactly what you said. However only one person whose partaken has said they are available to help. So... step up lains. I'd say three people could probably pull something off. However more would be appreciated.

To arrange an event, a theme and date should first be decided. Suggestions of a game jam, writing small and useful software, or focusing on improving existing software have all been mentioned and would seem to be good themes to pick from. As for the date, it should be sufficiently far in the future to allow for preparation and also sufficiently long for those with varying schedules to participate. It is suggested that using April 20th, the anniversary of Lainchan's founding, would be a good choice of date for this. As for continued discussion and suggestions, use this thread. I believe I speak for many here when I write that a poll website will not be used by the majority interested, leading to skewed results and whatnot. Lastly, it is in the spirit of the /λ/ board to support Free Software under the many licenses that qualify; only affecting discussions of improving already existing software, it should simply be considered to use the license already being used, so as to allow the project maintaining to accept and make use of the contributions if desired. With regards to the other two categories under main consideration, it should simply be the case that we can share and have fun in that spirit, whether it be copyleft, permissive, public domain, or a similarly suitably free way. Remember that this is about having fun with our shared hobby, programming, first and foremost.

I won't participate in a CTF. However, I would love to work on software, in general. To put an idea out there, what about new imageboard software for lainchan built by the community?

>>6545 Poll guy is back, current results appear to highly favor a CTF. I set the poll to expire this Sunday. There's only 8 responses currently, one person available to help. I'm fine with heading up the event, but no one wants a two man team working on a lain CTF. We could all decide on a vulnhub challenge to do, but that's lame and not the lain spirit. I'm debating on how long to keep the poll going before creating a new thread with the final outcome. If letting it expire this weekend seems like enough time then that'll do. But other opinions are welcome. The next challenge after the event is set is going to be finding a time that everyone can participate, and working towards having something ready by then. I do think I'm quite capable of getting something together whatever ends up being the final event (my guess is CTF, sorry coding guys). If that's the case I'll be posting it in /sec/ There isn't anything wrong with you coding guys hanging out with challenge participaters if it is a CTF :) Everyone is in agreement that IRC/Lainchan are the best places to converge it seems as well.

I've heard good things about/enjoyed using wire, signal, and tox (for the poll)

>>6567 I should really take the time to try tox... Thanks for the input mi boyo

>>6565 I've taken the contents of your poll and placed it here, by reading the page source, so one need not run JavaScript merely to use it: Which would you prefer? CTF Game Jam Group coding on an agreed upon open source project Programming Challenge(s) Let's just chill together and work on our own soykaf What ideas for themes/software do you have? How would you rate your programming skill? (1 baby - 10 wizard) How would you rate your skills in computer security? (1 baby - 10 hackerman) What is your preferred method of communication with participants? IRC Discord (hue) Skype (hue hue) Just a thread on lainchan I'll post a different suggestion to the forum (I'm keeping count you mofos) Would you be available to help organize/plan an event? Yes No Answering, in order, I suppose the game jam or last option are best; a game or other software with a nonconventional theme would be interesting, so a game with interesting gameplay not necessarily belonging to a pre-existing genre or a software with an interesting interface or purpose would exemplify this; I'm a wizard and a hackerman; I'd prefer to use this Lainchan thread, but the #general channel of the IRC is also suitable; lastly, I'd be glad to help with the event, yes. >There's only 8 responses currently, one person available to help. By the time I was writing the opening post of this thread to replace with, I'd decided I'd taken a special interest in this topic. I'm certainly going to be helping and I'll certainly be here. >I'm debating on how long to keep the poll going before creating a new thread with the final outcome. You should simply continue to use this sticky thread. >The next challenge after the event is set is going to be finding a time that everyone can participate, and working towards having something ready by then. Again, the anniversary seems like a good time, but this is of course open to debate. >I do think I'm quite capable of getting something together whatever ends up being the final event (my guess is CTF, sorry coding guys). If that's the case I'll be posting it in /sec/ >There isn't anything wrong with you coding guys hanging out with challenge participaters if it is a CTF :) Everyone is in agreement that IRC/Lainchan are the best places to converge it seems as well. Turning a hackathon into a capture the flag event seems poor.

>>6575 >>6575 >Which would you prefer? Capture the flag and Group coding on an agreed open source projects >What ideas for themes/software do you have? Interested in making Lain bot which automatically archive threads which-ve more than 20 replies and when called upon give necessary information on certain programming related topics. >How would you rate your programming skill? (1 baby - 10 wizard) On skills 8 and on dedication 10 >How would you rate your skills in computer security? (1 baby - 10 hackerman) I'm a hackerman >What is your preferred method of communication with participants? IRC and a thread on lainchan >Would you be available to help organize/plan an event? No because I don't have any previous experience in organizing these types of events. >Turning a hackathon into a capture the flag event seems poor. Why not organize both. I mean make & throw 4 to 5 CTFs and mark their difficulty level like 8/10 for guys like us who are interested in CTFs. I don't know this is just an idea. I know we're sort in Lainons who can help organize this event.

>>6575 This is just an idea... Why don't we collect a certain sum like 200 to 300 US dollar in bitcoin for winners. We can certainly give half money to first 3 winners of CTFs competition and half to Lainchan for organizing this event.

>>6575 I'd participate in a game jam; I'm not very interested in infosec or reverse engineering. There's really no reason to have an event for vichan bugfixes or utility software IMO, if you want to do something like that, just do it. I'd prefer a thread and IRC for communication. I can help organize, if it's just talking to people on IRC or stuff like that. >>6578 I'll put up $20 for a jam if that's what we decide to do.

I dont like the idea of game jams, im doing gamedev and keep eye on indie games. There is already too many cheap soykafty games out there and from what i have seen most gamejam games get thrown on the garbage, even the better ones. Id rather we contribute to a foss game or adopt an abandoned game. I know plenty of games and engines that we could use. Id gladly help making a new game, but please do it properly and not another one of those 5min throway garbage games or more of those soykafty 2d gimmick games.

>>6580 Forgot poll >Which would you prefer? Group coding on an agreed upon open source project Let's just chill together and work on our own soykaf either of those, but something that has some merit, not those redundant scripts or soykafty games. >What ideas for themes/software do you have? Know engines for games we could use and foss games that could be hacked on. >How would you rate your programming skill? (1 baby - 10 wizard) 8 I can see the matrix >How would you rate your skills in computer security? (1 baby - 10 hackerman) 2 I know the terminologies but thats bout it >What is your preferred method of communication with participants? Matrix (https://riot.im){4 LYFE} >Would you be available to help organize/plan an event? im not the kind of person who should organize anything

>>6580 A gamejam is about the jam, not the games at the end of it. If you want to contribute to a FOSS game, feel free to do so, but I don't see how it makes any sense to organize an event around it.

>Preferred comms: Riot/Matrix - worst case IRC If we work on team projects maybe a new board/mailing-list(gnu-style) so idea can be pitched as a thread, allows idea to brew for a few days before coming together and working on it for the hack

>>6500 >>6522 >>6523 Let's fix/add needed features to this board >>6554 yes please PHP needs to be burnt slowly away

>>6575 >Turning a hackathon into a capture the flag event seems poor. You know, this whole time I thought there was a mention of a CTF in the OP. But I guess I just saw the comment down below. I don't disagree with you on that, especially since this is /lambda/. But CTF is still the highest voted by a ways, so I don't think we should just cast that out. And thank you for the offer to help. I'll jump into IRC this weekend if you'll be available and maybe we can hash some things out.

>>6590 And here's the responses to the themes What ideas for themes/software do you have?: >HACK THE PLANEEEEETTT >Binary exploits, different class of bugs... >turn-base tactical game using HTML/CSS, Javascript and/or WebAssembly >Challenges from exercism.io >Game Jam format, but more general software (games included). Use this as an opportunity for anons to actually come together and work on some of the good ideas we've talked about in various threads. For example: cellular automata simulation, lain chatbot/ai, maybe some data-science projects, creative web services, experimental music software (algorithmic composition, experimental synthesis techniques, etc.). The goal is to give the initial push needed to start projects that will continue after the hackathon is over. This happens all the time with game jams. Contributing to an open source project is a fine idea too (the vichan fork is an obvious candidate), but it's not that exciting, and could just lead to feature creep. >An entirely new imageboard software for lainchan from scratch. >Space, or perhaps Shadowrun >Contributing tools for the board/that apply to the board It seems people want to benefit the board for sure.

>>6590 >I'll jump into IRC this weekend if you'll be available and maybe we can hash some things out. Considering the programming nature of this, I'd prefer to simply use #programming, since that's the only public channel I spend my time in.

>>6592 What would you suggest then? Personally, I think lainchan is perfect how it is right now. If it ain't broke, y'know?

>>6500 yeah, let's add some features to vichan's fork >>6506 +1

>>6603 >>6604 I was the 5th response in >>6592 . My main concern with making vichan contributions the main focus is that the most useful contributions aren't typically the most glamorous. Hackathons are fun because you're just rolling up crazy ideas from scratch and showing off. I'm just worried that we would end up with a bunch of new (admittedly, probably really cool and creative) features that are ultimately buggy and difficult to maintain. I would rather pick a theme to be used as a "writing prompt" of sorts, vs. a set of rules governing what can be submitted. For example, say the theme is 'human-machine interaction'. Teams can then write whatever type of software they want, knowing that it will be judged based on its approach to human-machine interaction. To me, this is more interesting than saying "make a game" or "find a vuln" or "get reply tags to actually show up consistently on lainchan".

>>6523 I would also add that staking a stab at Blazechan would be a good idea as well. https://gitgud.io/blazechan/blazechan >>6575 >which would you prefer CTF and programming challenges (multiple levels) Group coding on an agreed upon open source project >What ideas for themes/software do you have? Basic bash skills testing programming challenges Improvements on Vichan/OpenIB and Blazechan >How would you rate your programming skill? (1 baby - 10 wizard) 4 >How would you rate your skills in computer security? (1 baby - 10 hackerman) 4 >What is your preferred method of communication with participants? Threads, Discord, Matrix-riot or IRC with Matrix Bridges >Would you be available to help organize/plan an event? Yes, on Saturday and Sunday

>>6607 I would argue that we don't need to add serious features or contribute significant stuff. Just board stuff we think would be cool that if generally liked, could be optionally added.

>>6637 Poll guy again. My issue with doing something on an open source project is that people that aren't used to reading code are probably going to spend the whole time just trying to figure out how to add a feature and not accomplish any code writing. Not to mention everyone is saying "let's add features we want" but what features do we want? >>6593 And that sounds good, I'll get in there once I get a chance. I have some work things to do today, then I'm going out to eat/drink with some friends I haven't seen in a while. My tomorrow is pretty open though. Just from the perspective of someone who is willing to organize an event, let me say that a Game-Jam or theme based "code from scratch" is a lot easier to organize. We could do some sort of prize with this, although I doubt it would be anything of great significance. I don't have $300 worth of bitcoins to give away, and I don't trust people taking donations or entry fees. Not that I couldn't, but I think that would add complexity. I'd rather just be in charge of getting something small out of my own pocket. Or forgoing any kind of reward. Because jams are more about the experience and coming to a completed project than competing. >>6607 I like these suggestions

>>6646 >My issue with doing something on an open source project is that people that aren't used to reading code are probably going to spend the whole time just trying to figure out how to add a feature and not accomplish any code writing. Writing unit tests is a good way to contribute to open source and learn how the project works well enough to make code changes later.

>>6682 Yes, telling people to write unit tests is a great way to garner participants...

>>6682 You need to understand the code before you start writing tests, otherwise they'll probably be pretty useless. Reading somebody else's code really doesn't sound like the best way to spend a hackathon.

Guys, let's just do a 'Code what the fuarrrk you want' hackathon.

If we do a programming hackathon instead of a CTF, should we also poll potential participants regarding what languages they feel comfortable in? We wouldn't want to decide to work on Lainchan or Blazechan and then find out half the participants aren't comfortable with PHP or Python.