Dear Reader
As you may have surmised, Harry’s Place was disabled by a serious denial of service attack this past week. We’re very sorry it took so long to get up-and-running again, but we’re back. Unfortunately the Internet, while facilitating new forums for discussion and online communities, has also unleashed some very nasty people for whom civilized discussion and, indeed, difference of opinion are anathema. DoS attacks are illegal under US and British law, and this attack is being reported to the relevant authorities for investigation.
This blog has had its share of attempts to silence it over the years as our regular readers know well. But fortunately we keep bouncing back.
Unfortunately, each attack means we have to beef up our servers to make them more robust. This comes at a cost and keeping Harry’s Place running now runs to several thousands a year. As an amateur blog this comes out of our own pockets and it is becoming increasingly difficult to afford this. We need your help.
We will be starting a voluntary subscription system in which we ask those of you who regularly enjoy this blog or value its work to contribute a few bucks a month in your preferred currency in the same way you might for any other magazine or publication, off-or-on-line. Of course, one-off donations are always welcome too, via the PayPal ‘donate’ button on the sidebar or top menu.
Thank you for all the supportive emails and messages we’ve received during the down time too – it’s driven home to us the value of Harry’s Place.
The HP Team
PS. We’ve now moved over to the Disqus comments system because it offers better features than the built-in WordPress one. Hopefully this will make commenting easier and discussions more enjoyable.