Due to a recent attack on Utopian services, flaws in our system have been exploited, allowing for full disruption of one of our main production servers and partial loss of data.

[EDIT]

Rewards from this post will be donated to Busy.org / SteemConnect for their help in stopping the attack.

The Attack

The attack started yesterday. It was initially identified as a service disruption only, but it appears that wasn’t the case.

• Our main production server was completely erased.
• Our CDN, which contained files and backups, was erased .
• SteemConnect Tokens were leaked from our DB and today used to bulk downvote/upvote random posts.

NO WALLETS OR KEYS WERE COMPROMISED OR WERE EVER IN DANGER OF BEING COMPROMISED DURING THE ATTACK.

The incident was resolved and all the tokens were permanently revoked.

Was my wallet or private keys compromised?

No. No private data was leaked and your wallet was not at risk at any point.

What can one do with a SteemConnect token?

Only basic actions like posting and voting, but never transfers of funds, delegations etc.

Can this happen again if I use SteemConnect to login another app?

The Utopian application database was leaked due to a successful hacking attempt on company servers. The leak was not caused by any security issue in SteemConnect and you are totally safe to use SteemConnect in the future.

For more information: https://steemit.com/steemconnect/@busy.org/automated-votes-abuse-on-steemconnect

Do I have to change my password?

No passwords or keys are stored by SteemConnect or Utopian. This attack does not demand you change your keys or passwords.

Is the issue over? Can my account be misused to vote random posts?

Yes the issue was resolved and existing SteemConnect tokens revoked. No other operations can be broadcasted with the leaked tokens.

Is the hacker or hackers responsible being traced?

We are making efforts to trace and investigate the source of the attack and are checking all possible leads. Working in cooperation with the team at SteemConnect, our hosting service providers, and making use of all available forensic tools, we hope to pinpoint the source of the leak and take legal action against the perpetrator.

What Now?

To ensure your account was not misused, and to undo whatever actions were taken with the use of your token, please go to https://steemd.com/@youraccount and check if any vote was broadcasted without your consent. If so, please revert the vote/downvote.

Within the next few days, we will publish interim guidelines on contributing to Utopian while we restore normal operations.

We thank you for your patience and continued support and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

This page is synchronized from the post: Utopian.io Hack - May 3rd - May 4th 2018. No Wallets Or Keys Compromised.

Due to unforeseen technical issues with our servers, Utopian.io services have been taken offline while our team attends to the issue. We hope to restore and resume normal operations as soon as possible, and apologize for the temporary inconvenience.

For updates, please join the Utopian.io Discord server.

Thank you for your patience and continued support!

This page is synchronized from the post: Unexpected Downtime [May 3rd 2018]

The Utopian team is working hard to make Utopian.io better for you by adding features, improving performance, and fixing bugs. We need to take our services offline for a short period of time while we run the update.

System downtime is expected between 2PM and 4PM (GMT +2). For live updates, please check the Utopian.io Discord server.

Please be sure to backup any unsaved drafts you currently have saved on Utopian.io before the scheduled downtime.

Planned Changes

• Revised scores for the Quality Questionnaire
• Updates to the Terms of Service
• Removal of unused categories: Sub-projects
• Removal of categories which need revision: Translations, Task Translators, Task Thinkers.
• Bug fixes on Moderation controls, including reservation for rejected posts and staff picks.

Thank you for your patience and continued support!

@freedom - Vote Witness	@misterdelegation
@ned	@wackou - Vote Witness
@xeldal - Vote Witness	@fenghuang

@tykee	@jmromero
@syedumair	@zoneboy
@samhamou	@codingdefined

This page is synchronized from the post: Upcoming Planned Service Downtime on April 27th 2018

Utopian.io is the first platform to implement a decentralized review system that is not based on user stake alone, but also utilizes dynamic reputation.

To improve the scoring system, we created new and improved questionnaires for all categories.

Streamlined questions, answers and scoring weights

The score a contribution receives from the community depends on the answers selected in the category-specific questionnaire. The questions crafted needed to not only be relevant and cover all the various aspects used to review a contribution’s value to the project it is made for, but also clear enough for the community to rate fairly.

Both questions and answers needed to work in cohesion to measure value. For this, we had to use a completely different approach in formulating questions and answers, and the weights they have on potenial contribution rewards.

Well-Balanced Scores and Weights

In all categories, we redesigned questions and answers to make sure that the scores and weights associated with them correctly evaluated contributions. Community Managers shared their expertise and experience in crafting the questionnaires that were then edited for uniformity and clarity across categories.

Clearer and More Relevant Questions

All the content in the questionnaires was edited to ensure that the wording was clear, relevant and consistent. Questions were compacted to cover the important aspects of review and to make the contribution scoring process easier to understand.

What This Means for Scoring

The actual scoring process itself has not been changed. The changes applied were to the content only. For more information on how scoring works, read the detailed post we recently published on the topic.

The new questionnaires were designed to improve the scoring process and we anticipate that this will result in more accurate evaluation of contributions on Utopian.

Studies We Used

Our team utilized various studies to compose the most relevant questions, answers and associate scores to each.

In formulating the spread of scores among the various questions and answers, lessons where taken from these two studies:

• Tilmann Gneiting & Adrian E Raftery (2012) Strictly Proper Scoring Rules, Prediction, and Estimation, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 102:477, 359-378, DOI: 10.1198/016214506000001437

• Staël von Holstein, C.S., 1970: A Family of Strictly Proper Scoring Rules Which Are Sensitive to Distance. J. Appl. Meteor., 9, 360–364.

The ideas we found helped us to create a better distribution of scores, while making sure the questionnaires encourage people to be careful and honest, with accurately defined levels/measures of quality.

An Important Milestone on Our Roadmap

The mass of platform upgrades introduced in the past weeks are creating a foundation for a robust evaluation system that will allow for the curation and organization of all of the community’s contributions. The reputation system we integrated is our first attempt at building a powerful and intelligently designed review system for Utopian.io.

It’s a major iteration of the first few steps Utopian.io is taking to mature out of beta; and realize its vision of creating an Open Source Economy.

Got comments? Talk to us on Discord or write a comment below.

Let’s make Open Source Economy a reality. Together.

@freedom - Vote Witness	@misterdelegation
@ned	@wackou - Vote Witness
@xeldal - Vote Witness	@fenghuang

@tykee	@jmromero
@syedumair	@zoneboy
@samhamou	@codingdefined

This page is synchronized from the post: Better Questionnaires For The First Decentralised Review System!

As part of our planned upgrades, the Utopian Bot has undergone various changes to adopt a more decentralised approach based on our brand new scoring system.

Getting an Utopian Upvote

Prior to this update, only contributions which were marked as accepted by a Utopian Moderator could enter the voting round. Now, contributions with a score of at least 80 and a total influence greater than or equal to that made by one moderator, can enter the voting round. Contributions are only eligible for the voting round 48 hours after submission, for them to gather enough scores from the community.

This spreads the distribution of influence more between all Utopian users, rather than having it concentrated among Moderators alone.

Factors for an Utopian Upvote

The Utopian Bot now considers the following factors for entering contributions into the voting round.

1. Staff Picks

Contributions which were marked as Staff Picks by our Community Managers always enter the voting round first and they are the first ones to be voted. They are an example of top quality and serve as guidance for the community. Such contributions always get the maximum upvote possible based on the categories they are in.

2. Top Scored with Highest Influence

Just after Staff Picks, all the other contributions may enter the voting round. The order starts with those that got the best scores and where the scores were made by users with the biggest influence overall on the platform. The list goes on sorting contributions according to their scores and the relative influence associated with them.

Voting Power Is Limited

Categories no longer have a minimum vote, only a maximum vote as detailed below. The Utopian Bot can only use 20% of its total voting power, in a day. As a result, not every contribution may enter the voting round, making the Utopian.io vote an incentive only for top quality contributions. The Utopian vote is thus not guaranteed for every contribution.

Maximum Vote Strength for Categories

The Utopian Bot will vote on contributions with different voting strengths, depending on category. Every category has a maximum limit.

• Suggestions: 5%
• Development: 30%
• Bug Hunting: 8%
• Translations: 20%
• Graphics: 25%
• Analysis: 25%
• Visibility: 15%
• Documentation: 15%
• Tutorials: 15%
• Video Tutorials: 20%
• Copywriting: 15%
• Blog: 15%
• Task requests: 4%

The values reported above are subject to change as the value of STEEM changes.

Utopian.io is inviting the community to help decide the maximum voting strengths for each of the categories above. Take our survey now!

Moderation Rewards

After restructuring our moderation teams, we turned our attention to their reward structures. They too needed adjustments to reflect the skills, expertise and commitment that Moderators bring to Utopian.

After collecting feedback from all our Moderators and Community Managers, rewards for moderation activities have been increased as follows:

• Suggestions: 2 points per review
• Development: 4.25 points per review
• Translations: 4 points per review
• Graphics: 3 points per review
• Documentation: 2.25 points per review
• Copywriting: 2 points per review
• Tutorials: 4 points per review
• Analysis: 3.25 points per review
• Visibility: 2 points per review
• Blog: 2.25 points per review
• Video Tutorials: 4 points per review
• Bug Hunting: 3.25 points per review
• Task requests: 1.25 points per review

The maximum weekly cap has also been increased to 250 points.

Upcoming Changes

There are a few more exciting changes to look forward to as we make Utopian.io a better place for Open Source participants:

• Better questions for the Quality Questionnaire
• Enhancements to the Projects and Feeds interfaces
• Switching from Rules to Guidelines

@freedom - Vote Witness	@misterdelegation
@ned	@wackou - Vote Witness
@xeldal - Vote Witness	@fenghuang

@tykee	@jmromero
@syedumair	@zoneboy
@samhamou	@codingdefined

This page is synchronized from the post: Welcome The New Voting Distribution for the Utopian Bot And Moderation Rewards!

The new scoring feature allows every Utopian.io user to influence the quality of contributions found on the platform and help bring rewards and recognition to those of high quality. This post explains how it all works and why we should score contributions.

Scoring Is for Everyone

As part of our efforts to decentralize the platform, encourage users to network with each other and give the community more influence on the distribution of rewards, we recently introduced the scoring feature. This allows every Utopian user to score contributions. To support this capability, we also introduced reputation to the platform.

A Unique Reputation System

Every Utopian account now has a dynamic reputation assigned to it. This reputation is calculated by using various metrics to measure the quality of the contribution you make on the platform. That is then weighed against that of others, with every reputation also weighed against the account that has the highest reputation value. With this, users are encouraged to contribute well in order to maintain their reputation levels in relation to other user’s activity.

The level of reputation you hold on Utopian also affects the influence of your scoring. The higher your reputation, the more your scores affect a contribution’s ranking and rewards.

Reputation Level

Every Utopian account has a reputation level from the ones listed below. Newbies have no influence yet on the platform (to avoid potential abuse) and have to contribute until they get to Beginner, which has the least amount of influence.

Elite holds the highest amount of influence and is gained through consistently making high quality contributions. Community Managers have this level by default, in accordance with the responsibility demanded by their positions. Moderators start off at Guru.

• Newbie
• Beginner
• Advanced
• Expert
• Pro
• Ninja
• Guru
• Hero
• Legend
• Elite

What Affects Your Reputation and How

To increase or maintain your reputation, you will need to continuously make high quality contributions. The more valuable contributions you make, the higher your work is scored, and the higher your reputation goes.

• Quality contributions: these affect your reputation positively. The more highly scored contributions you make on Utopian the better your reputation becomes.

• Your scoring activity: scoring other contributions will have a beneficial effect on your reputation as well.

• Rejected contributions: contributions are rejected for violating fundamental rules and this lowers your reputation on the platform.

• Steem Power delegation: sponsors are also assigned reputation levels according to how much Steem Power they delegate to Utopian.io.

How to Score Contributions

Find Contributions to Score

Visit the contributions feed by clicking on Contributions in the side panel or by clicking the Utopian logo in the top left corner of the screen.

You can filter your feed by category. Choose a category from the list on top of the contributions list. (as seen in the image below)

Click the Score Icon

Once you find a contribution you want to score, open it by clicking on its title. This will bring you to the its content page.

You will find a blue score button to the right of the contribution’s title. The number shown there is the current aggregate score. Click the button to view the questionnaire.

Answer the Questionnaire

To begin scoring, answer the questionnaire as accurately as you can. The answers you pick will be used to calculate the final score given to the contribution, so choose carefully.

To see how other people have scored the contribution, click Most rated.

Leave a Comment

After scoring a contribution, you are encouraged to leave comments with appreciation, tips or suggestions for the contributor and the community.

Utopian will be on the lookout for high quality scoring and those who leave insightful and valuable feedback will get random fat upvotes on their comments.

Go ahead and start scoring contributions on Utopian.io!

@freedom - Vote Witness	@misterdelegation
@ned	@wackou - Vote Witness
@xeldal - Vote Witness	@fenghuang

@tykee	@jmromero
@syedumair	@zoneboy
@samhamou	@codingdefined

This page is synchronized from the post: Let’s Score Contributions!