( – promoted by pfiore8)
From Dean Barker in dKos essay
Soapblox sites hacked? Info gathering thread
(+) SoapBlox is Dead
by: pacified
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January 07, 2009 at 08:15:46 MST
It was a good ride, but it’s over.Thanks for all the fish.
All these hackers messing with our stuff, and we here at SoapBlox have no clue what to do. We don’t have enough knowledge, time, money, or care to fix it.
So I hope the Hackers are happy.
If you want the data from your blog, we will get it. But we are not going to try and restore anything.
Consider this the “We’re Out of Business” post.
Most of the servers have been taken off line because they were being used to hack and exploit other websites. The hackers install this crap on servers after they get in. SoapBlox’s ISP then takes the servers off line.
We do not know when they will come back online.
We do not know if they will come back online.
Some important thoughts (8+ / 0-)
I think this is a very sobering moment in which a lot of people (other than the blog owners who understood this already) have the nickel drop that Paul Preston as an individual was single handedly one of the most crucial components of progressive infrastructure.Everyone needs to realize that if Paul walks away from this because there is a lack of support or will to help him, that 90% of the the 50 State blogosphere will collapse. And not to mention anyone else served by his platform.
I was literally planning on writing Paul today about the next evolution of where soapblox could go as I for the first time was transitioning into positioning Burnt Orange Report to become a full time project within a year. I can count in the last week a number of stories and narratives that our existence as a state blog has been key to (including the toppling of our Republican Speaker of the House this week for one). Soapblox is critical and I will do whatever I can to support and encourage Paul through this.
I would hope others on here understand this if they didn’t before. Yes, something is seriously fucked up and there will be the question of could it be avoided. But last I checked, Paul was still doing the coding as a part time job because it’s not something that paid for itself. That fact alone boggled my mind as we whine and piss away dollars on any number of consultants or useless projects in the movement.
Karl-Thomas
Burnt Orange ReportP.S. Burnt Orange Report seems to have stayed up but that’s no telling what that may or may not mean.
Follow Texas Politics at Burnt Orange Report
by KTinTX on Wed Jan 07, 2009 at 11:37:54 AM EST
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from srkp23 . . .
overwhelmed… (37+ / 0-)
The constant slog of SoapBloxing takes its tole on a man. I wish it were different, and me smarter and stronger.Maybe the code just needs to be given away, and the sites hosted on another ISP?
The problem is we do not have enough time, money, or resources to ensure that things like hacking do not happen, and are resolved in a timely manner.
I just don’t know what to do. Maybe I should have put my faith in you all earlier, as I now ask for help and ideas on what can be done.
Listen to the songs I write
by pacified on Wed Jan 07, 2009 at 12:58:51 PM EST
[ Reply to This | RecommendHide ]Well let’s do that (14+ / 0-)
Do you have time to join a conference call later today if we can put one together? There are folks who want to help make this work and provide the support we need to keep SoapBlox up and running.Walking away is not a smart solution. Let’s figure out how to move forward.
-Robert at Calitics
I’m not part of a redneck agenda – Green Day
Neither is California High Speed Railby eugene on Wed Jan 07, 2009 at 01:03:50 PM EST
[ Parent | Reply to This | RecommendHide ]i do. (7+ / 0-)
that’d probably be a good thing.I am awed by the willingness of others to help, and regret I did not seek such things earlier!
Listen to the songs I write
by pacified on Wed Jan 07, 2009 at 01:13:04 PM EST
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i think KTinTx has it right.
what do we do about this?
…that there is a front page bulletin right after the gbcw. It got a huge smile. And yes, I’ll be ’round to your neck of the (neatly manicured, professionally maintained, european) woods as soon as the real world gives me a few days breathing room, provided y’still want to see me :}
As to thes bulletin…kind of depends on the level of vulnerability. Ek? Ek? If a login is required to run the exploit, then…um…freeze accounts?
Many sites never register a domain name (www.docudharma.com) but instead run as something like docudharma.soapblox.net. They will vanish completely and have a very difficult time rebuilding.
If it goes down Docudharma has a big advantage over many other blogs, because the registered domain name is hosted and redirected.
What that means in English is that the domain name http://www.docudharma .com can be redirected to any new blog we build, anywhere we build it, on any platform it is built on, which would provide a seamless uninterrupted transition to a new platform… i.e. people will still be able to get to Docudharma without having to search for it.
Docudharma will NOT disappear into thin air, in other words.
Same goes for They gave us a republic, My Left Wing, and some other blogs.
10 minutes before I had to leave for work. I can’t really do anything from here – and I can’t really do anything regardless. All our content is hosted on SoapBlox servers. If anyone has some essays they want to preserve they should start copying the pages right now.
pacified never contacted us so everything I know is what is in the diaries at DKos. Still a little in shock. Sorry to everyone who posts here and all the SoapBlox sites.
I have no idea what this means on a physical level. I can’t believe that hackers could create such a mess. Will this effect local sites like Blue Oregon? Can’t this be counter acted and fixed by the community at large? What can us non techies who use and depend on Soapbox do? I feel that this will effect the whole blogesphere as it will knock off the sites that are not able to afford huge servers and take away the whole concept of information bottom up democratic information. Rude Pundit? Lordy this seems immense to even this semi Luddite. How did this happen?
I have no freaking idea how I can back-up my 1.5 years worth of posts quickly. *sigh*
Haven’t heard from On The Bus yet re backup.
We have not heard directly from pacified/soapblox, as far as I know.
But IF….and at this point as far as I can tell it is a BIG if soapblox closes down, we WILL emerge from the ashes in a new form.
Heck, it was time for some spring cleaning/remodeling anyway!
As I have become fond of saying….Hold onto your hats!
At the request of another soapbox user, I did some knocking on several soapbox sites. Seems pacified left some rather obvious hacker/cracker doors open.
Pacified, if you are reading this, why is the “admin” username left open with no password? not even “public”?
Why did I not even have to get off the http protocol to achieve this:
At the request of another soapbox user, I did some knocking on several soapbox sites. Seems pacified left some rather obvious hacker/cracker doors open.
Pacified, if you are reading this, why is the “admin” username left open with no password? not even “public”?
Why did I not even have to get off the http protocol to achieve this:
http://i399.photobucket.com/al…
Close the damn “admin” login pacified! Jesus.
And oh buhdydharma old buddy, you are fine. It seems only people physically hosting there are subject to this low low grade exploit.
but totally clueless about backing up or what to do.
I was down Yesterday, but fine now.
I was offline most of the morning and come back in just now to see this… gack!
Is there anything I can do to help?
Also, my tuppence: many MANY people got laid off at LiveJournal recently… just something to roll around in your collective noggins one time.
Qui Bono here.
Answer. The status quo enforcement unit of Homeboy Stupidity? Neither party is ever ever going to get rid of that retarded War of Terror sales pitch as very simply the mitilary-industrial complex does own them all.
The last vestiges of Satanists led by Karl Rove from Cheney’s undisclosed bunker?
“The right” is up in arms with all kinds of talk about Obama snuffing out all of their talk radio stations
Both of the Above!
Above both political parties we still have the “Illuminati” and people getting together outside of a strictly controlled lamestream type of media format is and always will be under constant attack. Just like Star Trek’s Borg collective the historization of the internet rears it’s ugly Satanic head 24/7. Look beyond the single battle and keep in mind all of the ongoing programs unfolding specifically designed to shut everybody up.