What happened to the website?

[Finagle]

So, six days outage and no notice to explain? What happened, exactly? Why did it happen? What repairs were done and how have things changed?

[Emperor Ing]

'twas a DDoS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack) attack.

[Brother Oni]

All the admin (Rawhide) will say is that it was a DDOS which hit while the website was doing some administrative tasks, thus completely borking it.

The other thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281419) and Rich Burlew's Twitter (https://twitter.com/RichBurlew) is basically all we know - whether the staff here want to release more information or speculate on why GitP was targeted (it appeared to be a deliberate attack on either them or Cloudflare, the hosting company) is entirely up to them.

[KillianHawkeye]

This is a sure sign of the Giant's popularity.

[ChristianSt]

The other thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281419) and Rich Burlew's Twitter (https://twitter.com/RichBurlew) is basically all we know - whether the staff here want to release more information or speculate on why GitP was targeted (it appeared to be a deliberate attack on either them or Cloudflare, the hosting company) is entirely up to them.

One little nitpick: it wasn't an attack on CloudFlare (Rich posted on Twitter that they had mixed results and took it down, so that wouldn't have affected GitP)

Edit: typo

[blazingshadow]

funny that the site went down at a date when anonymous was doing one of his cyber attacks

[Finagle]

So what's the big secret? Why all the conspiracy? Sites get knocked offline all the time and usually there's a detailed description of what went on when the site comes back. What's the big deal?

[SaintRidley]

There is no conspiracy. The site went down from a DDOS, then when they were fixing it something else went wrong and the site was delayed in coming back.

[Savannah]

In fact, there was an ongoing description of what was happening while the site was down -- see Rich's Twitter account (https://twitter.com/RichBurlew). No conspiracy, just an explanation in another spot that hasn't been copied over here.

[Finagle]

Ok, the site was ddos'd. Who did it, and why?

[Elder Tsofu]

I'm assuming it's purely random until proven otherwise.

Quoted from Twitter for your convenience.

[NerdyKris]

Ok, the site was ddos'd. Who did it, and why?

This is really nothing we need to know. Why do you feel the need to know who and why? For starters, if it wasn't random, that would be giving them the publicity they probably want. But most likely they have no idea who or why. There's no way to trace a DDOS that's being sent through a botnet. All you can see is whose computers were being taken over.

There's a pretty good chance it was just some random attack that meant to go somewhere else.

[Smolder]

Ok, the site was ddos'd. Who did it, and why?

Clearly, it was some forumite who was pissed off that Durkon could still cast...

Mantine...? I'm looking at you...

[The Bushranger]

funny that the site went down at a date when anonymous was doing one of his cyber attacks

They'd explicitly said they wouldn't be attacking, actually.

[The Giant]

So what's the big secret? Why all the conspiracy? Sites get knocked offline all the time and usually there's a detailed description of what went on when the site comes back. What's the big deal?

There is no big deal; the site went down due to circumstances beyond our control, and it's back now. End of story. We don't know who or why it was attacked, and we're not expending any energy finding out. I didn't make a News post about it being back yet because I was out of town for a few days, and Rawhide got it back online before I returned. I'll make such a post later.

But ultimately, the forums (and the entire website) are provided as a free service. Availability at any given moment is not guaranteed, and we're under no obligation to explain beyond, "We're experiencing technical difficulties." Although, I did explain through the means that were available to me: my Twitter feed, and also in the most recent Kickstarter update.

[The Dark Fiddler]

They'd explicitly said they wouldn't be attacking, actually.

Because Anonymous is a completely cohesive group of people with internally consistent goals and a solid way to police the behavior or others in the group, right? :smalltongue:

[happyturtle]

It's web vandalism, not a conspiracy of any sort. Why do people set fire to cars, or spraypaint swear words on buildings, or throw beer bottles in the street? They do it because they're *******s.

[horngeek]

It's web vandalism, not a conspiracy of any sort. Why do people set fire to cars, or spraypaint swear words on buildings, or throw beer bottles in the street? They do it because they're *******s.

Pretty much this.

[Grinner]

It's web vandalism, not a conspiracy of any sort. Why do people set fire to cars, or spraypaint swear words on buildings, or throw beer bottles in the street? They do it because they're *******s.

For the insurance money? :smalltongue:

[ShadowFireLance]

Because Anonymous is a completely cohesive group of people with internally consistent goals and a solid way to police the behavior or others in the group, right? :smalltongue:

Why yes, Yes we are. :smallcool:

[The Giant]

Whoops, I should have locked this earlier.

Question asked, answered, and locked.