Note that the site has been under attack for a few months.

This is related to my past fights with comment spammers that have been very successful. This drives the cost up for these criminals which provokes their ire, to say the least.

The recent activity is related to my anti-email-spam activity. I have a brickboard domain that I've donated to a consortium that I've worked with for over 10 years. The malicious activity aims to disable my email activity in retaliation. This is the most likely conclusion to me, but I can't be certain.

What this means is that AWS has shut off my email services until I can resolve this. I have added CAPTCHA to the two site features that are being abused. This is annoying to me, I admit, and I'm sure it's annoying to others. However, it is a good means to drive up the attackers expense (they can attempt to get around but it will cost them $$ to try).

Note that I also have additional means to trap them. Considering that the IPs associated with the rogue activity are tied to pristine IP addresses, this should concern them A LOT. If they are using high priced compromised IPs with no blacklist blemishes, I'll change that fast.

I will reply to this post when AWS agrees to restore email functionality. Until then, you will get no notices from this site.

-JSBB

PS
Please consider subscribing (with PayPal link) to the site. Many have so far, but the site is operating at a loss.

Until I can devote more time to drive the cost down with the changes I aim to make about $130/month in subscriptions is required. I currently get about $35.

Of course, if my time could be compensated, that would be even better. This has been a labor of love for the 24 years I've made the site.

Rough stats are about 10% of frequent users subscribe and most at the $5/month rate. If I could get this to 100%, that would be great, of course.

It's also helpful to share the site with your friends.


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