(Bumped again. This fundraiser has been live for just under 24 48 hours, and we are almost 80% 90% of the way there, with over 300 donors. A very impressive outpouring of support for this critical piece of netroots infrastructure. If you can help, we'd really appreciate it. After all, this is your blog. - promoted by David)
As you all know, Soapblox was seriously hacked a couple of days ago. Much of the Soapblox network (including BMG) was off-line for several hours, and for a while there it looked as though it -- and we -- might never come back.
Fortunately, the immediate crisis has been averted. But the episode revealed major vulnerabilities in Soapblox, and made obvious what probably should have been obvious before: one guy managing Soapblox in his spare time was a disaster waiting to happen. Paul Preston, who developed and runs Soapblox, has done extraordinary things with it -- it's a powerful and inexpensive platform that now runs dozens of blogs, including most state-level community blogs as well as national operations like Open Left and Pam's House Blend. But in a sense, Paul is a victim of his own success. The Soapblox project is now simply too big, and too important, to be managed in the haphazard fashion that has prevailed until now.
 Inevitable conclusion: we need to raise money, both to handle the short-term fixes that the hack showed to be necessary, and to set a longer-term foundation for a stable and secure blogging infrastructure.
And so we are asking all of you to consider a small donation to preserve and protect Soapblox. This is national effort -- there is a front-page post at Daily Kos and at Open Left by Chris Bowers (reprinted below) making the pitch, as well as similar asks on state-level blogs around the country. Chris's post explains in detail the importance of Soapblox (which you already know), and breaks down the plan going forward and the financial requirements. Here's the short version from Chris's post:
Here is what Soapblox needs in the immediate short-term to become safe and secure once again:
--Recharge ten servers
--Perform a full security audit of the SoapBlox server/unix infrastructure to prevent hackers from gaining access
--Ensure all backup processes are working and functional to guarantee that if hacking happens, data is preserved
--Perform a security audit on the SoapBlox code itself so that hackers cannot exploit the SoapBlox code itself.
--Migrate to new, secure servers
The good news is that, in addition to restoring full service for Soapblox, Paul has already found a system administrator who lives in his area and is able to help. All of the work listed above is currently underway. Here is what it will cost:
--Recharging ten servers at $100 apiece: $1,000
--Purchasing new, secure severs, and migrating the data: $8,000
--One month of full-time work at $50 / hour in order to complete all of the tasks listed above: $8,400
So, for a total of $17,400, we can secure Soapblox, and ensure that yesterday's dangerous attack can never be replicated. Let's make this happen.
Now, I know that many of you harbor worries about Soapblox going forward, even if this fundraiser is successful. So do we. But the fact is that, as of right now, Soapblox is an essential part of the progressive netroots infrastructure in this country. There may be other options out there for us, and for other blogs. But going to any of those options poses technical and financial challenges that require a lot of study before undertaking. Soapblox needs help now, and it's important to us both here in MA and around the country that Soapblox gets the help it needs.
So we hope you'll participate, either by a one-time contribution, or -- even better -- by committing to a monthly donation. Contributing just $5 a month for the next year would be a huge, huge help.
Thank you.
(Technical note: the fundraiser is being held on ActBlue via BlogPac, which is a federally-registered PAC that Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, and others set up to fund progressive infrastructure projects. Among other things, BlogPac has underwritten the hosting costs of many state-level blogs (including BMG) for the last couple of years.) |
