Today a number of us that have blogs on the SoapBlox network were fearful based on some hackers attacking several of the sites last night.
While my site, The Progressive Electorate was not directly in danger I understood that we were all affected.
Several of my favorite sites like Swing State Project and Blue Jersey were down at some point. Here were my specific thoughts this morning after learning about the breaches.
There were a number of lessons that we should learn from this near catastrophe this morning. Most importantly we need to urge better financial support for our state and other progressive site bloggers.
First, let me preface this with the caveat that I am not just asking for donations. While I hope that I have affected the progressive movement in some shape or fashion, there are other blogs that have full-time bloggers. Fortunately, I am not relying on my blog as a single stream of income. In fact, my only hope is that my blog would be self-sufficient and that I can pay for hosting through donations and advertising.
The suggestion has been made that SoapBlox raise their prices. While I'm certainly agreeable to that idea, I also am a little concerned about the bloggers that do not have the financial support to continue. Advertising revenue for everyone is certainly down after the election and as a result of the economic crisis. However, we also are not asked to give money every five minutes to a Presidential campaign or a Senatorial campaign. I am anticipating that someone will draw attention to the fact that there are some important off-year elections and special elections due to appointments. While I do not ignore that potential pitfall, we must better support state and other progressive bloggers.
Regardless of what ultimately happened with the SoapBlox concern, we have all learned that we must backup our data and deal with security issues on our sites. Most bloggers in our progressive network have other streams of income, but we know that their are some that are full-time. We should be able to support more financially. Most blogging sites have donation buttons, but rarely do they receive donations based on my experience and discussions I've had with other bloggers. I'm asking you now to take $5, $10 and donate to your favorite progressive site. With a small amount a month many of your sites will be able to improve performance and continue to provide you service.