Following up on the mystery surrounding Bugmenot.com's disappearance, Mr. Bugmenot himself delivers the following message to Boingboing readers via encrypted carrier pigeon:
"Our stinkin' host pulled the plug on us without notice (pretty obvious they were pressured somehow). But everything is sweet again- I've been in talk with our new hosts nearlyfreespeech.net — they are very sympathetic to the cause and won't be pulling the plug on us again. Thanks for your support and concern but they are going to have to pry this site from my cold, dead hands :)Also; this may be of interest — evidence that some [registration-required] news sites are starting to use scripts to auto-disable accounts. The numbers in the column on the left represents the number of seconds since the last query."
Within minutes of reading this message, we learn that the site is once again online. Link (Thanks for spotting that, Jean-Luc.)
Update: An anonymous BoingBoing reader writes, "With regard to bugmenot leaving a host that sold racist paraphernalia — their new web host provides service to a combat18 / redwatch site. combat18 is a british neonazi group. Redwatch is their hitlist, a site containing photos and addresses of people who have opposed them in the past including (bizarrely) internet mogul Danny O'Brien. [If they moved because] they didn't want to be blocked by censorship software… Bugmenot had better hope they're not on the same server this time." [Ed note: a banner ad on Redwatch plugs a hosting service identified as "Nigger Free Hosting," but the site does appear to live at nearlyfreespeech.net.]
Bugmenot responds to the BoingBoing update:
"1. Bugmenot was with our original hosting company. They pulled the plug.
2. Decided to move to dissidenthosting.com, redelegated.
3. Two days passed and I still couldn't access the dissidenthosting account + bad vibe so I redelegated again to nearlyfreespeech.net
4. Dissidenthosting decided to take advantage of the situation by redirecting traffic to a neo-nazi site of their choice while the redelegation took hold to nearlyfreespeech.net
5. Things have just about settled down now at our new host
(nearlyfreespeech.net) and everything seems to be working out.
Personally, I don't care if I'm sharing a server with neo-nazis. I might not agree with what they have to say, but the whole thing about freedom of speech is that people are free to speak."
