Site Update and Funding Appeal

Back in March TOO was being deluged with huge numbers of bogus service requests, basically shutting down the site. With the help of our new web person, this has been brought under control, and the site is running fine. Although the site doesn’t look any different (yet), from a technical point of view it is virtually all new. We replaced ancient, non-functional programming and got rid of a low-level site trojan infection which had allowed spammers to log into the the site (but, thankfully, not post their articles). New security software was installed. Because of increased traffic, both legitimate and malicious, we upgraded our site to a dedicated (rather than shared) server with larger capacity.

Importantly, new software now blocks IP addresses that attempt to overrun the site. For example, an IP address in Israel recently attempted to access the site 13,125 times within the span of three days. These attacks are now being blocked. We all know who are the enemies of this site.

All this required an investment in the services of a web person, software purchases, and expenses in upgrading our servers. These expenses have cut into the funds on hand to pay our writers, all of whom certainly deserve to be compensated at least somewhat for what inevitably remains for them mainly a labor of love.

Please help us out. We are of course very grateful to those who are continuing to support us and have helped us in the past.

Our Donation Page gives instructions on tax-deductible and non-tax-deductible donations, as well as the mailing address for money orders and checks.