Freethoughtblogs was first born out of conversations between myself and Ed Brayton in 2010-2011, when we were maximally disgusted with the direction the atheist movement was taking. So we set up our own little domain and tried to recruit fellow humanist/secular writers to fill up our pages. That was mostly successful, with a few setbacks now and then.
Then in 2020, Ed, who was suffering with a chronic illness, checked himself into a hospice and died, peacefully. He passed along all the logistical info for the website to me, we thought, so I had the account and password for our domain host, Bluehost. We kept cruising along.
Then Bluehost made a security enhancement: when I logged in, they would send a verification code to Ed, to make sure nothing underhanded was going on. Ed did not reply, for obvious reasons. So we can’t actually change anything about the domain, which again, was OK. We didn’t need to.
But then, Bluehost needed us to pay for their services. They sent notifications and bills to poor dear Ed, who didn’t care, and didn’t contact me in my dreams or anything, so those bills were unpaid. Ooops. Two weeks ago, they pulled the plug on freethoughtblogs.com. And no doubt sent an informative announcement to Ed, who didn’t notice.
So for the last two weeks, I’ve been shouting down phone lines and internet cables with the simple information that “ED IS DEAD, PLEASE UPDATE THE CONTACT INFORMATION AND FIX THE SITE”, and they would send me all these long legal forms that I would fill out with all the information that I had and send it back to them, and they would ignore me, and the next day I’d get into a conversation with a chatbot who would obliviously send me the same requests all over again.
Then this morning, a breakthrough. I didn’t try to update the information at all. I didn’t explain that Ed was dead. I just said, “I understand our bill is past due, here is my credit card number, can I please pay everything off?” and they said “Yes, we would be delighted to take your money” and they did, and they pushed a button, and our service is restored.
The only drawback is that freethoughtblogs is a company that is still officially owned by a ghost. No one cares as long as we the living pay the bills.
I paid up for five years in advance, so remind me in 2031 that I, or someone, needs to generously cough up a few bucks in Ed’s name.
For now, we can resume slapping words on a wall.
I am really sorry that you had to go through all this, and offer my grateful thanks for all that you do to keep this platform running.
I’m happy you were able to get that all straightened out.
PZ, thank you for resurrecting Freethoughblogs.
This is one of my favorite websites and I and we need an oasis of real Thought in these dismal times when our own fascist government is attacking us.
Welcome back to the living.
Just in time to watch the war against Iran start.
Well done and welcome back! You’ve been much missed.
And here I thought the hamsters had died.
You’re back up!
“And there was much rejoicing.. yay.”
;-)
My morning ritual to see the state of the World: Read Political Wire and Freethoughtblogs. Both head guys (Myers and Goddard) got hurt, sites disappeared, and I have struggled in darkness for weeks. And today, finally, the light is back in all the dark corners. Thank you for being alive and keeping kicking.
The site was here the whole time, you just needed to know the IP quad to access it.
Bluehost could try some other bullshit that takes it down entirely, though. PZ should consider running an onion service as a backup or a status page, if only because Tor is fairly censorship-resistant by design, and it’s harder for a Bluehost-like entity to make an onion service go down.
So where’s the donate button?
Thank you very much for going through all of that to get the site back up PZ. I hope a solution is found for the need to transfer the site from Ed.
Pharygula is the last bookmark left in my atheist folder I’ve had since 2006. You have informed, shaped and moderated my views on a lot of things. Thank you for bringing it back up :)
Of all the phrases to use today…
Wikipedia – Dead Hand
Some years ago, one of my favorite sites, called Cute Overload, simply went dark without explanation. It never returned. Fans, like myself, were concerned, at first, and then devestated when it finally sunk in that it was gone. It was sometime later that I learned the owner became bored, or something, and just decided to pull the plug. Clearly, her right, but a simple good bye would have been appreciated. The past few weeks were giving me that same vibe. Suffice it to say, I am greatly relieved that the death of FreeThoughtBlogs was greatly exaggerated. Congratulations on its resurrection.
Welcome back. Hail Ed (just to be safe)
Ed was a friend with whom I had entertaining and edifying online and real-life interactions. I miss him. I would be delighted to contribute to his legacy. Tell me how.
Glad to see you back. I was concerned especially with slactivist owner dealing with a broken computer so not having updated for a month.
BTW there is a legal concept of mortmain (dead hand) to bedevil law students and lawyers
Great to see you back, PZ.
Great sense of relief that the blog is back. I had other fallbacks, like the Discord server and non-Pharyngula sites, but there was this lingering empty feeling the past week. Thanks for going through the frustrations and hassles of sorting this out for now PZ.
Finally! Thanks for getting it back up. I felt lost without my daily fix.
Wait – the Evil Cat™ (having found it too easy to destroy a mouse) has been totally exonerated??!?
One of those hands only has three fingers!
“Paging Giorgio Tsoukalos”
IT’S ALIVE!