John’s latest missive through the mailing list, after the update today.
I’m officially depressed. I feel so helpless and there is simply nothing I can do to get the website back. I just have to sit here and wait and hope they come through.
I am glad that there will be a lawsuit, because that at least will put some pressure on the fuckers. But it doesn’t help me get the site back.
I feel like someone whose house has burned down with all their shit in it.
I am, however, once the site comes back, get more involved in the day to day operations of things, because i never want to feel this helpless again.
That’s all I have. Miss you guys.
Carlo Graziani
Hang in there. Some day this will be a (side)-war story.
John Revolta
How can you miss us when we won’t go away?
BJ isn’t the “website”- it’s the jackaltariat!
cain
I hope that we get back all the history it would be a huge loss if that happens.
Andrya
Second what Carlo said- hang in there. And there is one good aspect to this awful situation- it has made a lot of jackals, including me, realize how much we value BJ.
MisterForkbeard
I’ll say. I can cope, but without the Frontpage (and the rest of you jerks) it really does feel like I just am missing a bunch of friends and community.
Can’t wait to get BJ back up and running at full speed.
eclare
We miss you too! Thanks to WaterGirl, aka the Professor, we are getting by. We’ll be here when the lights turn back on.
JWR
‘@Andrya May 25, 2022 at 1:10 AM
Remember the day the site went down, and you thought to yourself, well, I’ll just check back in 15 minutes? Err, 30 minutes, from now. No wait, 90 minutes. Okay then, I’ll check back tomorrow, it’ll all be good. No? Time I give the place a rest, anyway. But only for one more day! Well, two more days, but that’s it!! Okay, three days, but I swear, that’s really gonna be it!!! Yeah, me to. ;)
Hang in there, John. And thank you sooo much for this lovely place, regardless of its state.
JWR
‘@Andrya May 25, 2022 at 1:10 AM
Remember the day the site went down, and you thought to yourself, well, I’ll just check back in 15 minutes? Err, 30 minutes. From now. No wait, 90 minutes. Okay then, I’ll check back tomorrow, it’ll all be good. No? Hmm, time I give the place a rest, anyway. But only for one more day! Well, two more days, but that’s it!! Okay then, three days, but I swear, that’s really gonna be it!!! Yeah, me to. ;)
Hang in there, John. And thank you sooo much for this place, regardless of its state.
JWR
Hmm. My comments are being eaten,
ETA. Okay this one went through.
JWR
‘@Andrya May 25, 2022 at 1:10 AM
Remember the day the site went down, and you thought to yourself, well, I’ll just check back in 15 minutes? Err, 30 minutes. From now. No wait, 90 minutes. Okay then, I’ll check back tomorrow, it’ll all be good. No? Time I give the place a rest, anyway. But only for one more day! Well, TWO more days, but that’s it!! Okay then, THREE MORE DAYS, but I swear, that’s really gonna be it!!!
Yeah, me to. ;)
Hang in there, Mr. Cole, and thank you sooo much for this place, regardless of its state.
JWR
Anyone else having trouble with the site? I can’t imagine why, unless WaterGirl is up to her tricks again. ;-)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
The site may be in limbo, but the community that John Cole and company have built endures. We will not simply be deleted. And to quote a cheesy movie, we will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.
opiejeanne
Aw, John. It’s hard, but know that we love you and Balloon Juice.
SpaceUnit
Dude, we’re all still here. Chill.
We’ll get through it.
SpaceUnit
Still blaming the aliens tho.
Gvg
I think….it’s time to start building a new balloon juice, as close to what we had, somewhere else. Without the past, for now. We can add our past back on when we can get it, and certainly sue the bastards, however waiting on them gives them power and makes us feel helpless which is bad. I guess that is a lot of work when it might not be necessary but it’s not like we are willing to stay with the same company after we get our memories back.
Time for a fund raiser for ourselves!
Spanky
I second both late-night points of John Revolta. And add me to the chorus pointing out that Balloon Juice is people, not vaporware.
Skepticat
We’re here, and we’ll move together to wherever else presents itself. I can identify strongly with JC’s feelings. After losing one home to a hurricane, I just was forced to sell my stateside home, and I’m living in a tiny loaned space without the resources to buy another in this obscene market. However, the cats and I have adapted and are looking forward to a new adventure. A new Balloon Juice will be an appropriate companion on that journey, and we’ll all end up in a good place. Onward ….
RubberDuck
That industry is overbuilt, and the collapse of crypto is the kill shot to the lower percentile operators.
Jinchi
You’ve built a great site here John. We all look forward to it being back up and running again. Wish this wasn’t getting you down. Take care of yourself.
lee
Working in IT, more than likely the entire site will be back.
Now it might take all the jackal IT professionals burning the midnight oil to get it back online but I feel pretty confident it will happen.
Miss Bianca
We miss you too, JC! But you and WaterGirl have built a new jackal watering hole here, and for that I am grateful!
Ohio Mom
I’d say (((hugs))) but I can’t think of anyone who would appreciate that less than John Cole. But the underlying feeling, that I share your grief and stand with you, that remains.
Sometimes whether we like it or not, the universe calls us forward into the unknown. We will go forth and make a new Balloon Juice because that is our only option.
WaterGirl
I have been about a week ahead of Cole in my reactions to this, quite likely because anyone with an IT background could see right away how hinky the handling of this situation from “353” was.
So, yes, last Wednesday I had my own “oh my god, what if we lose everything” thoughts and I felt like I was going to throw up.
By Thursday, I told John that we had no control over any of this, and that we have one job right now, and that’s to keep our community together.
So I proposed the home away from home site and before I went to bed on Thursday, we had a temporary home.
The thought of losing 20 years of history is heartbreaking, and just the thought of it makes me sick, but I do not think that is going to happen.
Our site hosts do not think that is going to happen.
So as we wait, it’s what I call “one foot in front of the other” time, and I am very grateful that we have each other to share the ups and downs and to help process the world around us, even if it is on this little temporary home on the internet.
The Moar You Know
I dunno, John. We’re all still here, you’re still here, and this site frankly kicks the shit out of (no weird errors, fast as lightning) the last version. Just point the DNS for balloon-juice.com to this instance and run it as Balloon Juice. If 325 DataKiller Centers ever manages to decrypt the old site, then you can have a discussion about how to bring that back in. But I have serious doubts that this will happen anytime soon, if at all.
The Moar You Know
I dunno, John. We’re all still here, you’re still here, and this site frankly kicks the shit out of (fast as lightning) the last version. Just point the DNS for balloon-juice.com to this instance and run it as Balloon Juice. If 325 DataKiller Centers ever manages to decrypt the old site, then you can have a discussion about how to bring that back in. But I have serious doubts that this will happen anytime soon, if at all.
Tony Gerace
I “worked” in IT for almost forty years. Downtime off 15 minutes was considered a crisis. I do not understand how these servers can be down for almost two weeks.
Mo MacArbie
I begin to wonder if all of us can join the class action suit. You know, the pain and suffering from losing our emotional support blog. ;)
It will be back in some form, perhaps even this one. Or a revamped Ballon Juice Twoce. Or, perhaps, the interblognum will end in glorious restoration. I’m hoping for the latter—since awareness of all internet traditions depends on it—but, in the worst case, the world can survive the loss of whatever shit I thought I meant in my comments.
Scout211
Our oldest and his family lost their house and everything it, including 4 cats, last year in an electrical fire. It hurts, it really does.
But the whole “rise from the ashes” saying is not just a saying. Like WaterGirl says, one step at a time is the only way to move on.
Our son’s house is being rebuilt and they are living in a rental with rented furniture, courtesy of their good homeowner’s insurance. They now have a temporary “home away from home,” just like balloon-juice does.
Thank you WaterGirl, your skills, your kindness and your energy are amazing.
We all do appreciate you even though we may complain a little (a lot?).
FlyingToaster
‘@Tony Gerace Per the Reddit thread, it’s a ransomware attack using a known and widely warned-about ‘sploit plus some social engineering.
The likely outcome is that once the ransom is paid, the cloud services at “353” will shut down, because nobody will ever insure them for this service again.
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/urybn4/365_data_centers_ransomware_attack/?sort=old
The Lodger
I just found out about this site. For a work-around, it’s pretty impressive. (I think it will take a while for it to climb to the top of the Google results for “jackal-action,” though.
PS The nym and email filled in automatically for me on my first comment. Nice!
Ruckus
For them to say that everything is there but you can’t have it, and then restore service and there is nothing? They’d get their asses and every other cubic inch of themselves sued until there was absolutely nothing left, by every single customer. That makes me somewhat assured that the sites are still there, as they were when whatever part that they fucked up got that way, whatever the cause is. Somewhat assured. I’ll believe it when I see it. I can imagine two possibilities, ransomware or massive design flaw of the server system. Either way money is involved, as it always is. And from the looks of it, I’d say a lot of it.
VFX Lurker
De-lurking because I want John to know he’s awesome, this community is awesome, and to send virtual hugs to everybody. ❤