NATION

PASSWORD

NationStatesNationStates News RSS

News Archive: 202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012201120102009200820072006200520042003

Damn you, proxies!

by Max Barry
Mon, 09 Jun 2003

Whoa, that didn't go down so well. Our shiny new PIN authentication procedure quickly blocked out hundreds of legitimate users, mostly from AOL. So we've removed the code again. Hmm.

Nation Stealers Begone!

by Max Barry
Mon, 09 Jun 2003

In a major step forward in the campaign against people who have nothing better to do than steal other people's nations, NationStates now attempts to block unauthorized PIN usage. The PIN is the session identifier built into most hyperlinks (it looks like: "pin=1234567890") and tells the game who you are: if someone else gets hold of this, they can sometimes log in as you. For this reason, the FAQ strongly advises that you never publicly post a NationStates hyperlink with a PIN in it.

But nobody pays that much attention to FAQs, and people have been posting their PINs all over the place. The new code means that in most cases, attempts to use somebody else's PIN will be blocked.

Incidentally, the second-most frequent cause of nation hijacking is using a public computer and leaving auto-login turned on. Don't do this.