A Blog Update
If you've tried to access my blog in the last few days you might have had issues. That's because Typepad experienced a massive DOS attack. Yeah, I had to look it up, too–DOS means Denial of Service. Apparently, the cyber thugs send huge amounts of traffic to a site and then ask for a ransom to make it stop. When the site pays the ransom, they do it again–and ask for more. As far as I know, Typepad was not dumb enough to pay a ransom, but they paid the price in other ways.
It started last Thursday when blogs went down. They came back up and we thought all was well. Friday morning, down again. Back up, only to go down on Saturday. This was repeated on Sunday and Monday until finally on Monday they went down for the count. I only just got my blog back today (Tuesday) around 3 PM.
I have to say, it was weird not having my blog up. After seven years of blogging, it has been one of my steadiest companions, and to have it suddenly inaccessible felt very strange. But I also knew that Typepad was doing all that it could to deal with the situation. Let me just say–I've been told for years I should migrate to WordPress and stubbornly refused. I like Typepad. They are host to some of the most beautiful blogs on the interwebs. When I started blogging, nobody had heard of WordPress. I liked Typepad then and I like Typepad now. I'm familiar with the interface, and I like the fact that if I need help I get it promptly and cheerfully. So I'm not changing.
Here's one of the cool results of this situation: I've made some fabulous new blogging friends. A bunch of us hung out on Twitter on the #typepadstatus thread and consoled each other and tweeted back and forth and that was a lot of fun. Of course, there were also the folks who demanded immediate access and to know what was going on–geez, people, entitled much? Honestly, it wasn't Typepad's fault.
So I'm back. Yay! Thanks for those of you who tweeted or emailed–I so appreciate you! I'm here for the duration and I'm not switching to WordPress, even though, as Seth Godin says, all the cool kids tell me to.
Thanks, Typepad. And thanks to you, my loyal readers for hanging in there!
Stacie Walker
It’s been a huge headache but it seems as if the nightmare is just about over for everyone. It’s an honor to connect with you, Charlotte.
Best,
Stacie Walker
J.D.
Great to have you back, Charlotte. This has not been a good week. Nothing serious, so I shouldn’t complain, but …. I’ve missed my friends from this blog. Everything else has been bumpy as well. Today will start a new trend :-)
Zan Marie
{{{{hugs}}}} I’d wondered what the problem was, Charlotte.
Don Williams
They say that you “don’t really appreciate something until after its gone,” and the lost of Wordstrumpet over the past few days helped to brings that reality to mind. That massive DOS was bad, but it’s really good to welcome you back
Charlotte Dixon
Thank you so much, Don! It is great to be back. I missed you guys over the last couple of days.
Charlotte Dixon
Just so you all know–comments seem to be a little wonky still. Milli couldn’t see them last night and I responded to a bunch of them via email this morning and those didn’t seem to go through. (Now watch, I’m going to respond again and soon I’ll have double responses.) I’m sure everything will be back to normal soon.
Charlotte Dixon
I do think the nightmare is over! At least we had fun connecting while it was ongoing. And I am thrilled that you and I connected over the crisis.
Charlotte Dixon
Thanks for hanging in and checking back, Zan Marie!
Charlotte Dixon
Oh, J.D., I’m sorry to hear that you’re having a not-so-good week. I’ve missed you and my other regular readers so much. And so yes, we will state firmly that this is the start of good things happening the rest of this week!
Stacie Walker
You are a very creative individual. I’m totally loving your content. I have added you on my favorites. Have a wonderful day, Charlotte:)
Charlotte Dixon
Stacie, thank you. And I urge all my readers to go view Stacie’s site–she’s got great stuff for entrepreneurs!
Milli Thornton (@fearofwriting)
So glad you’re back, Charlotte! I definitely missed your blog while it was MIA. (By the way, I can see comments just fine now and enjoyed reading what everybody else said.)
I’m happy to hear you managed to have fun and make new friends during the DOS. Kudos to you for having a great attitude!
Charlotte Dixon
Thank you so much, Milli! It is so good to be back, I can’t even tell you. I missed everyone so much.
J.D.
Well put, Don.
Charlotte Dixon
Oh, J.D., thank you! I've missed everyone, too, so much. It has just been the strangest experience not to have my blog up and running. And, I know people suffered a lot worse things, lots worse, so I'm not going to complain. I hope your week does start to go better. I appreciate you so much.
Charlotte Dixon
I was this close to putting up a temporary landing page (an idea I got from Stacie Walker, a new friend I made via the #typepadstatus Twitter stream we all haunted) to tell people what was going on but then my blog reappeared. Voila! The Typepad outage didn't get a lot of press, though it affected a lot of people, so it was hard to get the word out about what was going on. Thanks, Zan Marie.
D young
You’re back! I was wondering….thought maybe you blocked me from accessing your blog:) just kidding. I figured it was technology. Have had similar issues myself with technology. Some days I feel we would be better without it all. But we do get more done in less time…. Such is the way of the double edged sword…
D young
Agreed! Funny how a sense of calm came over me when the page actually began to load for me this morning..
Charlotte Dixon
I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to hear that!
Charlotte Dixon
You know I would never block you! I missed you guys so much and there was really no way to let people know other than Twitter and Google Plus. (And yeah, if I was better at Facebook, that too.) Technology is a pain at times and so wonderful at others. I’m on a need to know basis with it. Thank you so much for coming back!
D young
I thought I had you on Facebook- but couldn’t find you. I think I follow on Pinterest but that’s not quite the same…status/update..etc. so I just stayed patient!
You have quite the following!!
D young
Charlotte- does typepad state if something like this could happen again? I’ve recently shut down my blogger account and am wanting to possibly start up a new blog. Type pad was on my radar.
Charlotte Dixon
D, I am terrible on Facebook. I am on there and go ahead and friend me and I’ll friend back–but then I rarely post anything. However I am on Twitter all day every day, Pinterest a lot, Instagram and Google+ more sporadically. And thank you for staying patient and checking back, I so appreciate it! And yes, I have the best blog readers in the world!
Charlotte Dixon
I love Typepad. Most people would tell you to go with WordPress and it is great, too. But what I love about Typepad is that they have support available. So when something goes wrong, you open a help ticket–or tweet them–and they’ll figure out what’s going on. As far as I know, the Typepad folks have done their best to prevent this DOS attack from happening again, but these hackers seem devious. It was interesting during the outage to read the Typepad Twitter streams. While some customers were cranky and demanding immediate action (like they weren’t trying), many others were echoing my thoughts about being a loyal customer. You can actually start a free trial and get into the back end and see how you like it. Hope this helps you decide!
Charlotte Dixon
Stacie, you're the best! I'm so glad we got connected through this crisis–truly its the best thing to come out of it! Thanks for commenting.
Stacie Walker
Lol! Thanks for being a huge support during our time of crisis. You are a jewel and I look forward to us continuing our conversation from this day forward. Have a wonderful day:)
Charlotte Dixon
Me too! You’re doing amazing things in the world!