The Perfect Storm...

[liz_marcs]

Let's see if LJ lets me post this.

I've been involved off and on with fandom since...ooooo...grammar school (that would be pre-teens for you non-U.S. people). I can't say for sure, but definitely almost that long.

And I have to say, before this week the only Perfect Storm I knew about was the one I lived through back in 1991 when the No Name nor'

Comments

[wesleysgirl]

When I saw it hitting my FList this morning I was skeptical at best. It was too vaguely worded, and I couldn't find a source of the rumor. The closest I was able to get was the dreaded, "I have a friend who heard from a friend..."

Yeah, not exactly winning points with me, either.

It was a shitty position to be in, I can tell you. People I knew (personally) were saying they'd been told this by an LJ employee, which was far enough from the source to be questionable but close enough to be possible. Did I say nothing and feel guilty later for not passing on (clearly dubious) information if something DID come of it? Did I say something and contribute to what was likely and hopefully nothing but a rumor?

I really, really wish that LJ had posted something about the DDoS attack. (And I don't know enough about DDoS attacks to know if not talking about them while they're happening is the only way you can mitigate damage, or something.) A statement like "This, specifically, is what's going on," would have gone a long way toward easing the paranoia and irritation that a lot of people were expression on the support boards etc.

[liz_marcs]

See, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to be paranoid about it. Given the atmosphere in the U.S. these days, paranoia strikes me as smart.

Now I can see LJ not wanting to advertise a DDoS attack. The servers are overloaded and they don't want to give anyone ideas. But at the very least they should've said they were having technical difficulties with the servers, rather than the vaguely worded answers we were getting.

And, yeah, you were in a tough place since your sources had currency with you. I don't envy your spot at all. I think most people handled it the best they could (and I put you in this spot), but there was a small subset that were hyperventilating and spinning doomsday scenarios.

But the thing that got me is that people were afraid because too many people opened their mouths on this issue or that and drew attention to what actually are serious issues (even if they're under the guise of fandom). Meanwhile, I'm like, "Duuuuude! Can't you see? Power. That's fucking power."

Hence this post. :-)

[wesleysgirl]

I was in such a hurry to get this comment posted (and not sure it was going to go through) that it's not even accurate. *Rolls eyes at self*

People I knew (personally) were saying they'd been told this by an LJ employee, which was far enough from the source to be questionable but close enough to be possible.

should be

People I knew (personally) were saying that they'd been told this by a friend of an LJ employee (etc)

Which is definitely a slightly different story. I was hearing a variety of things, including that we couldn't post about it publically because the fact that people were locking down their journals "looked bad." Which, yeah, to someone who thinks we're a bunch of pervs, I guess it *could.*

Now I can see LJ not wanting to advertise a DDoS attack. The servers are overloaded and they don't want to give anyone ideas. But at the very least they should've said they were having technical difficulties with the servers, rather than the vaguely worded answers we were getting.

Yeah, I've gotten some more clear ideas as to what DDoS attacks ARE in the past ten minutes or so, LOL, so now I get why they didn't want to get that specific. But I completely agree that even something as simple as "technical difficulties with the servers" would have had ME, at least, nodding and being a heck of a lot more understanding and patient. Sometimes I just feel like the LJ people (employees, managers, whatever) don't "get" customer service.

The point of your post is a good one, though, and I'm going to come back and read it again when my hair's not dripping down the collar of my shirt. :-)