FYI: Raid on the site

Crumpet 5/24/2022 05:21 pm 6011

Hi everyone,

There was what I will call a small raid on the site this afternoon. It was multiple people in different countries and states spamming the threads with hateful content. They also tried to post a lot of comments, but luckily auto comment approval is off for most users, so their comments didn't get through. However, their dozens of threads did. They also sent messages to a few users.

I'm in England and have work in the morning so I was in bed, but strangely I couldn't sleep (I've been sleeping well lately so it's unusual for me). I checked my phone and had an email from someone alerting me to the raid (thank you), so I dived out of bed and came to start blocking. deleting, saving details etc. I've been doing that for the past 1.5 hours or so. I wish I could have seen it sooner but I'm very glad that I was able to hop on.

In retrospect, it was very risky to have thread auto approval on for all users. I shouldn't have had it set up that way and will not be having it that way in the future. For now, all comments and threads have to be approved by me. I am also being careful about what I let through, so some legitimate threads might not be approved. I will also need some other kind of anti-raid measures in place, but I'm not sure what yet. Possibly a better emergency alert system, approvals for messages, and more moderators.

You all handled it very well and did exactly what you were supposed to do: report it. I hope that nobody was affected by the content you saw. These people are pathetic trolls trying to get a reaction and trying to make themselves feel superior. But they're not. I have previously been a troll myself, and I even trolled people who I thought were faking conditions like they did. I know exactly the type of person that does this and what kind of mindset they have (since I used to be one), and they're complete losers. Don't let losers like these determine how you feel about yourself. You're awesome and nobody can take that away from you.