Hi group! Founder and Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton here. It’s been a VERY long time coming, but at long last I’m ready to resurrect Publetariat for real, with a regular schedule for posting new content and everything! We’re kicking off with a post intended to help keep you NaNoWriMo’ers going.
Why’d It Take So Long?
Anyone who doesn’t know the full story, check out this post: Why, And How, Publetariat Was Hacked.
The first couple of months after Publetariat was destroyed by hackers were spent in recovery and rebuild mode. With the very generous, pro-bono help of developer and author services provider Shawn E. Bell, the majority of site content was salvaged from the decimated Drupal site and ported to the new, WordPress site you’re viewing now.
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
Since Publetariat had already been on hackers’ radar for many months, they weren’t about to give up just because the new Publetariat is on a new platform.
First came many weeks of tinkering with various site features, to try and figure out where and how hackers could still attempt to hijack the site, and disable any and all features that had the potential to serve as backdoor portals for hackers. Hence, no more interactive site features (like commenting) and no more site membership features. This was followed by many more weeks of trial and error in trying various “plug-ins” to keep the site secure without breaking other site features.
Next came several months of “trapping” incoming traffic from hackers so they could be blocked from the site going forward. There’s hardly a thing in this world as persistent and single-minded as a hacker web bot: those automated terrors just keep coming, through slightly altered avenues and with slightly different approaches. I didn’t want to start officially welcoming site visitors back until I was sure it was totally secure, and stable.
What Else I’ve Been Up To
During this time I’ve kept busy with my day job managing the Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily site and writing content for the site, and I’ve also launched a brand-new site of my own: Digital Media Mom. The creation of this site was inspired by my own mom’s call one day, to ask me, “How come my iPad only works at home?”
She didn’t understand that many of the things she liked to do on the iPad required Wi-Fi connectivity, didn’t understand how Wi-Fi works, and had no idea how to get Wi-Fi connectivity outside of her home. I did a little hunting around online for a plain-English tech site for the ultra-non-tech-savvy like Mom, but came up empty.
Since I have both tech and communication skills, and a real passion for digital media and tech stuff, it seemed an ideal project for me to take on. And just like that, the Digital Media Mom site was born. I’ve been helping folks like my mom cope with tech one daily article at a time ever since.
Just about a week ago, I released the first compilation book from the site: The Digital Media Mom’s Guide To High Tech In Plain English, and I hope to keep releasing new volumes in the series each year. I also released my divorce / breast cancer / job loss / home loss memoir, To Hell and (Hopefully) Back, a few months ago.
What Now?
Publetariat will now resume its usual editorial schedule of posting two new articles each weeknight from Sunday through Thursday evenings. This schedule ensures new content will be there Monday – Friday mornings for site visitors from most time zones.
Cross posts and reprints from some of your favorite past Publetariat contributors will be back, along with some new stuff from new contributors.
I’ll be tweeting links to the new posts each weekday under my personal Twitter account, so feel free to follow me there if you want to be sure you’re alerted to new posts.
WELCOME BACK, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!