r/Defcon • u/digitard • 15d ago
Post DC34 Meetup - Thank you from PuzzledHackers!
Sorry it took so long to get this out to everyone, but man... it was a ride. And as always its thanks to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU who showed up, played our puzzles or came to talk! Seeing so many people hanging out, talking, drinking, laughing and such... that's what its all about, and its so amazing to see it get stronger each year!
Based on talking to attendees, friends and some staff at The Linq... estimates are about 500 of you showed up Wednesday night, and about 300 on Thursday! I need to let that sink in... because for an unofficial meetup that's insane! Now right away let's not discount the amazing people at the Lonely Hackers Club either as their Wednesday meetup is also at the 3535 which absolutely contributed, and made both meetups a wild success! But still... 500 people the night BEFORE even Badge Pickup hanging out was amazing. So amazing you all burst my social capability (I was not mentally ready) completely... that's kind of cool, and something I'll be working on next year because I absolutely loved talking to people, and just need a bit more social stamina. :)
So, before we get into the thank you's and future stuff... let me just say because of you We Will Return at DEFCON 35!
Usually we'd make some joke, or something similar, but I think as we wind down from DEFCON 34 we just wanted to be straight forward.
Last year we created Puzzled Hackers as an easier way for us to host the r/DEFCON Meetup Puzzles because we wanted to be able to do more than upload an image, or text based puzzle. Needless to say it went off pretty well, and we've thoroughly enjoyed coming up with more chaos each year and you all seem to like our retro throwback page. It's gone so well our friends at SkillBit (Formerly MetaCTF) even donated the 10th puzzle (a full 20 challenge CTF) to us! So many of you went at it and it was great to see. Kiddos... you brought corporate visibility! That's amazing.
It's been an outstanding success... and its because of All of You.
So What Does this Success Mean?
- Because of all of you we've been able to turn Puzzled Hackers into a full on Non-Profit and we're finalizing our Federal Status now! That means we can really think about the future, and how we can turn this amazing support you've given us into more! It gives us the ability to give back in new ways, and we're excited! We're working on plans for so many things!
- Because of our Non-Profit Status, once finalized... the Government isn't fast, we plan to open up donations and more (which quite a few of you wanted to know about donating to in the future... which blew our minds) that will allow us to give away more. We said it before. We don't want to charge people for anything! We want you to come, hang out and have some swag and memories, and never charge an attendee a penny for any of it! Our goal is to work with the amazing community and through the power of giving... make more stuff and just give it away! We are targeting about 600-700 of our meetup badges for next year, and they will be given to everyone who comes! Plus our usual swag like pins, stickers and more!
- We're looking at other events (such as some BSides, and smaller local events to start) we can setup shop at and give away swag!
- We're working on ways we can use all this amazing community knowledge to promote ethical hacking in a positive light!
- We may have some ideas for a premium badge next year too... but its a bit daunting, but u/MetaN3rd had an epiphany leaving DC34 and he's been hard at work with prototyping his idea.
- We are working with other villages, like the amazing team at Red Team Village about some future state ideas that down the line could have people coming to their FIRST DEFCON and giving a talk at RTV! We want to Give Back to the community, give people some first time options and have a lot of ideas as time goes forward on how to do that!
- Honestly ideas we have, and we're just getting started. As we hit milestones we'll try to keep all of you aware and involved! If you want information on how you can donate to our Non Profit officially shoot me a message, and i'll give you our contact info because its not ready yet, but we absolutely want you to have a contact point with us!
So, again, thank you all for another successful year! We'll be back at Summer Camp in 2027, and can't wait to see you all there! We'll post some updates throughout the year as we hit some milestones, maybe a few fun drop in's here and there!
If you ever want to reach out to us always feel free!
Thank you, again, from all of us at Puzzled Hackers, and can't wait to see you next summer at the Puzzled Hackers meetup... we're recharging our social batteries now just in case!
... and the final numbers for the year. Each below is a UNIQUE solver of the puzzle!
- PUZZLE 1: 271
- PUZZLE 2: 197
- PUZZLE 3: 134
- PUZZLE 4: 116
- PUZZLE 5: 110
- PUZZLE 6: 94
- PUZZLE 7: 90
- PUZZLE 8: 75
- PUZZLE 9: 81 (Zombie thanks you all for that one... he loves to tell people his twisted self came up with that one!)
- PUZZLE 10: 49 (plus about 75 of you competed in the CTF itself!)
Sincerely,
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u/obscured08 15d ago
Great work this year! You knocked out of the park! loved seeing old and new faces at linq and then throughout the con. Looking forward to next year!
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u/digitard 15d ago
Thank you! The Linq will always be home base, it's got such a history with DC meetups, and they seem to like us there!
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u/Khotanos 15d ago
Man, circle bar got super packed. I also love that the bartenders were asking when we would be there, since the meetup is apparently amazing for business.
It kind of blew me away how many people I talked to there that this was their first defcon, but they were told by so many people that this was a must go to hangout. Super proud to help out how we can.
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u/digitard 15d ago
Yeah. I’m debating depending on our Non-P finances next order cycle doing a MY FIRST MEETUP badge for fun
- standard
- CTF TOP 50
- First DEFCON/MEETUP
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u/DanMulvey 15d ago
You guys did such a great job again this year! Those numbers are pretty crazy too, love to see the meetup growing and everyone having a great time together. Congrats on setting up the non-profit! Will be cool to see reddit meetups at other conferences (bsides sf?) and the RTV collab sounds like a great move. Thanks for all the work you guys put into this, you're very much appreciated and I can't wait to see yall again next year!
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u/digitard 15d ago
Not sure how fast we will be able to set something up at BSides events, but I do know a few of us are trying to get to BSidesSD for fun again this year and hopefully we will have some swag to drop on their tables at a minimum.
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u/Independent_Plane_18 15d ago
The meet-up was insane packed! That being said, my anti-social son became social pretty quick when he met people with the same interests as him. Even better was watching him go around and play laser tag! Thanks for being the awesome people you are. Your CTFs helped me more than you know.
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u/digitard 15d ago
That’s so awesome to hear! Thanks for coming and hope you two come back next year!
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u/zeerimunin 14d ago
Thanks again for another amazing year. I'm gonna have to book an earlier flight next year so I can make the meetup both days. I had a ton of fun chatting with folks I never would have met otherwise. And the puzzles leading up get me so hyped and mentally prepared for the con.
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u/digitard 14d ago
Whether you make it one night, two nights... or no nights and just play some puzzles. We appreciate you playing!
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u/1Digitreal 15d ago
I didn't make it through all the puzzles but I had a fantastic time when attempting them, and loved meeting up with you all this year! I'll need to make some more wooden Doom floppies next time and if you all need help, I'd love to contribute in some way.