Still a long way to go
June 23, 2007 by William K. Wolfrum
Melissa over at Shakesville is still working to get her site back up after a denial of service attack (DOS). Such things are normal for a feminist blog she has let her contributors know, especially when attacking such topics as rape and the casual ways it is often treated in the media today.
But while the contributors and readers are aware of the latest attempt to shut down Shakesville, it appears few others either know, nor care. Outside of Melissa on the old Shakespeare’s Sister site, and the contributors, here is a comprehensive list of outside blogs that have noted that misogynists and their ilk have knocked the site off the Internet:
Thus endeth the list.
At very least, however, most bloggers are aware of what Melissa and Amanda Marcotte are actually blogging about.
From the Washington Post on June 1, 2007:
Edwards stumbled in February when two religious bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, resigned from his campaign over past writings that blasted religious conservatives as “Christofascists.”
–WKW
Update: Shakesville contributor Mustang Bobby has more.
I just posted about this at my place.
See, I can’t even spell my own name right!
It is hard to phathom Phydeaux.
Obviously, however, what melissa has done has definitely gotten attention of some who feel the only way to counter her is to try Internet parlor tricks to shut it down.
I’d be pretty much willing to bet, however, that come Monday, we’ll all get up and keep doing it again over there. Which is the ultimate FU to those who wish to quiet such a site.
I still would like to see some of the bigger names in the blogosphere address things like this, however.
-WKW
I’ll try to get a post up today, with at least the barebones info. Should I send folks here for more info?
Rana,
I think basically right now, Shakesville’s return is just sort of waiting on the job to get done by the new hosts. I would suspect it will be up sooner rather than later. Melissa has kept the contributors informed of what’s up, and the latest is that it will be up when it’s ready, but she hasn’t mentioned any big delay or anything. If Melissa does tell us any breaking news, I’ll update here, but I’m pretty sure things will be back to normal soon.
–WKW
I put up a post this morning, too, but I’m a contributor…
I just heard from someone very much involved in the process and he said they are waiting on the hosting company to get their…uh, sand in one pile, so to speak. I’m guessing it will be sometime within the next 24-48 hours (from 5:01 p.m. EDT, 6/23/07).
Thanks, MB.
I can vouch for Rana’s post, since I found out about the DOS over there.
I put one up a couple of hours ago too, and I saw via sitemeter that at least a couple of people hit it, so word’s getting out.
Thanks for helping out with this, btw. I’m sure Melissa really appreciates your words, thoughts and help. I know I do.
Bill
I think part of the reason that people haven’t said more about it is because of how depressingly routine this type of thing is. The other, perhaps bigger, part of it is that very few of us bloggers, even us progressives, are the entire package, so to speak. And the most common area for progressives to still fall short, in my opinion, is understanding and just plain noticing the way women are treated, “even” in this country.
I have written about the DOS attack at Roger Ailes’s blog, where I am one of the cadre of fill-ins who are posting there while Roger goes on vacation.
I’ll get a post up shortly, I was hoping the outage would be over sooner and Melissa would be explaining what happened.
Ah, Conservaibertarican support for free and open discussion at work again. Well, I’ll just keep trying back. I am going through a bit of Shakesville jones at the moment, however.
[...] Update: Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, Shakesville, and of course Shakesville. [...]
Stephen: “the most common area for progressives to still fall short, in my opinion, is understanding and just plain noticing the way women are treated, “even” in this country.”
What Stephen said. What Stephen said, again. And again. And again.
The really deep question is WHY are women always the ones shoved so far onto the back burner they fall behind the stove?
Maybe progressives could learn some useful things about bigotry, where it comes from, how to cure it, if they got better at finding the motes in their own eyes.
Maybe Melissa’s treatment, coming right on the heels of the Kathy Sierra mess could be the catalyst for a sea change!
/*I can dream, can’t I?*/