Read about it here.
I can't comment on the censorship (I didn't even realize they had the same problems as TwilightMoms) but hacking a web site is immature and certainly doesn't help the cause. Sad.
Update: The TwilightMoms forum is down too. Weirdness. I hope everything is okay.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Twilight Lexicon Has Been Hacked
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9 enjoyed the bouquet.:
Link isn't working. What happened??
Weird! It was just up. The gist of it was that they had been hacked out of retaliation for censorship. They talked about how they didn't feel like they were censoring / not allowing free speech. They said the Lex is a FAN site and no one would come if it was all negative.
It was about four paragraphs long. Wish I had captured it...
Found it: http://www.twilightlexicon.com/yes_our_boards_were_hacked.htm
In case that goes missing, here's what it says:
Update: Both the blog and the forums of the Twilight Lexicon were hacked. At the time we were dealing with a large variety of incoming troll accounts from people who based upon IP addresses had never posted on our message boards before. The posters were all unhappy because of the posting regulations on our forums. Our posting regulations were cross posted to other websites and for whatever reasons their members felt the need to come over and say "we don't like your site rules" and create accounts "to tell it like it is" when they had never shown any interest in our site before. Because our mods were so wrapped up in dealing with the incoming trolling nonsense, we didn't realize we were being hacked until it was too late.
Was the software vulnerable? Apparently so, but does that mean we were "asking for it" and "deserved it" as a poster on Alphie's LiveJournal seemed to imply, does it make it any more right than entering a house or garage with an unlocked door and destroying things. Just because it happens to be the Internet doesn't make it any less time consuming for us to fix, doesn't make it any less of a violation of personal property, and yes on a personal level it hurts too.
Regardless of what the specifics of those regulations were ranging from limiting netspeak to stating character bashing wasn't allowed, it was our website. We have as much right to decide the content on our website as a does any other site. We don't go trolling the "anti-twilight" sites, or the snark sites to get them to change their content. Interestingly enough those sites even have rules for posting or membership, yet for some reason the trolling people from there don't see that as a form of censorship. Why should others then feel it necessary to get us to "see the error of our ways". They seem to accuse us of being the thought police, but by their actions how are they different in demanding that we meet their standard? If you don't like a site go someplace else, build your own there are 1,000's of twilight sites out there. Why destroy something that is not yours, and is not threatening you in any way? If many people think like you, they'll join and you can take it from there...by the way, you'll have all the other headaches of running a site too.
At least one major Twilight site was closed in the last year because the moderators couldn't take the nastiness of people screaming "I have free speech. You are censoring me." anymore. Sure free speech exists, but there are limits and repercussions, try calling your boss an effing moron (though an effing moron he or she may be) and see if you are not fired. Sure you have an opinion and have free speech, but by working in a company there are also terms of conduct that are abided by to make everyone's life more pleasant. If you are constantly complaining on the job, and harassing others no one wants you around. In it's simplest terms that's all we were trying to do with the forums. We wanted to provide an environment on a fansite (fansite...as in we are fans and like the material, if you are no longer a fan, why would you stay around?) that worked for the majority of the thousands of posters, not the disgruntled vocal minority. When you are a huge site, you can't be everything to everybody; it just doesn't work that way. Just like with the boss and employment, no one is forcing you to stay there. If you don't like the rules, find a new job. However continuing to stand for days on end in the employee parking lot and scream at management and the current employees only makes you look silly and obsessed.
So, where does the Twilight Lexicon go from here. We'll be back. We have files that were backed up within the last week and the last month. We will put it back together again. It's just going to take awhile.
Lori and Laura
AKA Alphie and Pel
Wow. I can't believe someone would do that - if that's the "reason" they hacked, it's totally hypocritical.
I'm sure moderating comments is a hard thing to do. Glad we don't have to.
Yeah, I totally agree Erin. I feel bad for the Lex.
It really does say something for the passion that SM has created with Twilight though. I mean ...I get it if people don't like the books but to take all that time and trouble to hack a site to protest? Are the hackers really that interested in free speech.
The hackers doth protest too much.
the hacking was totally uncool. if you don't like the site, just don't go there. I don't go to a bunch of sites that started irking me with their policies. done and done.
I did think that their explanation was good, but I think they are a little naieve to think that the only people creating dummy accounts were just haters... likely many were lex users upset at what was going down and didn't want their accounts pulled or whatever. thats a pretty typical way to circumvent things on the good old internets...
That is so not cool! I can understand wanting to voice your opinions, but hacking a site and destroying what these people worked really hard to create is poor sportsmanship.
Why do some people think a way to be heard is to destroy others things? Other than that I agree with every thing said so far.
Anywho... I like this blog better than the other one I go to. They post every couple days, you post 3 times a day. Just thought I'd let you know!
L8r,
Z~Z
Thanks Z~Z! You've made my day :)
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