This thread is a continuation and the future of the GM/Master Maphack thread initiated by Zwei and then resumed by Nunez. Feel free to discuss about hackers, the program, the website, option you want to have, suggestions, everything you want !
Original Hacker's Thread : Original Thread
First, i would like to show my respect for Zwei and Nunez for work and i'm glad that Nunez is a part of the project's future.
As you know, tracking down hackers is a full-time job. Even if you find a hacker, you need to find information to manually compare these information with the database of the thread.
Secondly, the update is directly related to the members who analyse the replays and we all know that's a hard work that can take hours while work and family are a part of the equation.
In this perspective, a website will soon be available. This site will include tools to help you detect a hacker, a thread for each replay, alias analysis, multiple search options, a list of hackers updated in real time and many other things ...
To assist in this research, a program was created (Sc2 HDB Online Checker). This program retrieves the list of confirmed hackers and notify you in the game, even in the loading screen, if you played a hacker known.
Although the program only reads some data SC2 minimal, it is against the Blizzard's EULA. You should use this program at your own risk. If you read the Blizzard's EULA, you can see this :
D.Use any unauthorized third-party software that intercepts, "mines", or otherwise collects information from or through the Game or the Service, including without limitation any software that reads areas of RAM used by the Game to store information; provided, however, that Blizzard may, at its sole and absolute discretion, allow the use of certain third party user interfaces;
A word by Nunez
motivation
one of the key motivators for me contributing to the tl/gm master hacker thread is that when people who follow the thread queue up vs a guy they know is a hacker, they can adapt their playstyle and have a much easier time avoiding defeat. the downside to this kind of set up is that the only people who can reap the benefits of my contribution are the people who follow the thread and remember the names. with more and more barcodes appearing, this facet of the thread is growing ever weaker.
enter Sc2HDB
this tool by Sc2HDB potentially puts it right back into business, and if used could be a vast improvement over the old set up. now the only steps you need to take to take advantage of this community effort is to download this app, and it will notify you when you queue up vs a hacker in the database. we could even in the future see an automatic subission of replay vs confirmed or supsected hackers, or automatic reporting to blizzard. contributing would be really easy.
the nitty gritty
what the app does is simply to download a list of confirmed hackers from a server, and checks if the id of your ingame opponent and you are in that list. if one or both are it will beep and display them as "reported".
requirements
we, the community, will still need to put effort into this if we want to combat this problem. the database will still need to be maintained by volunteers in similar fashion, and this will still be tedious work. hopefully this new potential gain will rejuvenate the thread and encourage more people to contribute, more people to take advantage of this list as well as making hacking less rewarding.
a call to action
it would be very nice if the people who think they might want to be a contributor would send me or Sc2HDB a pm. i can't tell you what this specifically will entail yet, but i don't think it will be any different from how the TL GM/Master Hacker thread operates.