SDA has been analyzed.
I’m almost embarrassed.

At 7:24 AM EST this morning Colbert’s Comments was hit by hackers trying to erase the blog and the databases. After having been the victim of a previous attack Colbert’s Comments implemented a security protocol that shuts down the site and encrypts the data until the exploit has been located and closed. […] Hopefully the site will be restored sometime today.

Little Miss Attila is holding a contest to name her copyediting business.

When someone sent me a congratulatory email this morning about my ascention to Higher Being status on the TTLB Ecosystem (where SDA is currently ranked #5), I decided to take a look at the details and try to figure out what in tarnation is going on – because it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
It appears that the Blogging Tories homepage is enhancing linkage stats, somewhat artificially. Every time I write a post, the BT site automatically links back to it – at the moment there are over 460 such links (To complicate matters, for reasons unknown, one of my posts from last year insists on having it’s own ranking on the system. I’ve emailed NZ Bear about it.)
So, that’s what’s likely going on. Not sure what to do about it, but perhaps the best solution is to find a way to delist Blogging Tories member aggregator page from the TTLB system?

Sisu, Feisty Repartee and Villainous Company are hosting the Cotillion this week.

Of Belmont Club fame, has chosen to reveal his identity.
If you aren’t familiar with Belmont Club, you might consider remedying that. For military and geopolitical analysis of current events, there is none better – it isn’t every day that major media go about quoting anonymous bloggers.

Brad Farquhar has created a new blog game – GoogleEarthing.

After playing around with it for a while, I figured we could have some fun with a scavenger-hunt like contest that’ll be a whole lot more interesting than Google Whacking. I’ll post an anonymous image from Google Earth, and the first person to send me the correct longitude and latitude of that location wins an unknown prize of little value, to be chosen by me.

Which is a good thing, because, as God only knows – there aren’t enough ways to waste time on the internet!

And a Happy Dominion Day!
(I refuse to call my my country’s national holiday by a name that sounds like the brainchild of a marketer at the Real Canadian Superstore*.)
Have a safe one, be good to my guest authors and I’ll be back early next week.
Before I go – thankyou for the emails and kind comments over the Mark Steyn reference to SDA at Right Wing News. It’s a good thing I already have a world class ego.

A new edition of the Cotillion is up – a collection of voices of women on the right side of the ‘sphere.

Heh.

Up early, worked hard and I’m just now finally able to wind down a little, so there won’t be anything new up tonight unless I get a second wind.
Also, I’ve got another dog show weekend ahead (in Vermillion, SD this time), a ton of stuff to do before I go the first leg tomorrow, and will be offline for good Thursday morning. I may invite a few guests to pinch hit – but keeping in mind that both DOMINION Day and July 4th in the US are around the corner, posting (and readership) is likely to be slow on any account.
Ya’ll behave, eh?

Sir,
We are boaters and hail from Bellingham. We used to like to spend time in Friday Harbor but have gradually gone off the place in the last couple of years due to the proliferation of shabby boats littering your waters.
Behind the marina there are many shabby boats swinging on moorings. In the north end of the bay there are derelicts on the bottom on the beach and many shabby boats swinging on anchors.
Right in the middle of the bay there are several shabby boats rafted together, one of which always seems to be sinking.
Down in the south end of the bay there is even more crap swinging in the wind.
We do not like looking at this mess and are now limiting our time in Friday Harbor because of it.
We are writing local business owners whose businesses we used to frequent to tell them of our shunning of your waters and their businesses.
We would appreciate hearing from you about your intentions toward this mess.
Cordially,Mike

The local newspaper decided to publish a contest to encourage residents of the small community “to tell him exactly how the people of Friday Harbor feel”.

A letter from a Bellingham man to the Port of Friday Harbor complaining about the “proliferation of shabby boats littering your waters.” has triggered a “Shabby Boat” contest. The winner in each category will receive a Port of Friday Harbor coffee mug.
1. Best diplomatic, positive response.
2. Best diplomatic but negative response
3. Best sarcastic but printable response
4. Best unprintable response [very, very NSFW]

Dear Blogosphere; Meet my mentor and favourite asshole on the planet.
update: error corrected. Also, the comments thread is probably not-so-safe-for-work either.

Upon reviewing the 1400+ emails that arrived while I was away, I regret to announce that I received two of a negative nature. The first was from one Roger M Roeder. Mr. Roeder had engaged in a debate with another reader and was so offended with his own comments thread that he’s publicly threatening to delink SDA because of it.
The second offered this critique; ” …when it comes to the substitutes you picked, I think you did a really poor job. Had they been politically otherwise oriented I could have lived with it [..] I really hope I don’t come as close as I did as this time to deleting your bookmark.”
Well, then.
Let it not be said that I am too stubborn to consider suggestions as to how I might improve or tweak the blog to fulfill the personal needs of each reader. I acknowledge it is no longer sufficient to entertain others for free in this day and age. Indeed, I’ve been inconsiderate in overlooking something that every blogger who writes for the pure enjoyment of doing so should offer their readers – a complaints department.
To that end, this afternoon I revised the previous complaints mechanism. The new and improved version is now outlined in the SDA Compaints Manual (3rd edition, approved June14, 2005). In order to have your complaint considered by the SDA Standing Committee for Complaints the following protocols must be adhered to. Not adhering to these protocols may result in a dismissal of your complaint without a hearing. The relevant portions are exerpted below;

a. In a business sized envelope, include a $50 deposit (which will be refunded if your complaint is upheld), your return address and phone number where you can be reached. Mail to the address provided.
b. Write the details of your complaint on plain white paper.
c. Fold the paper neatly in half, and then in half again.
d. With your left hand, press said paper against your forehead.
e. Using a hammer and four (4) 2″ galvanized nails, secure it firmly at each corner.

When you have submitted notarized documentation that establishes that the above procedures have been met, the SDA Standing Committee for Complaints may consider your concerns.
But not too f*cking likely.

A huge thankyou to my guest bloggers – Sean of Pol:Spy; James Joyner, OTB; Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom; Angry in the Great White North, aka “Danger Guy”; and my good friend and sysadmin “R”.
I’ve not had time to catch up on all their contributions here, but I see by the long comments threads that the boys kept things hopping, and that there were a few of you who were dismayed that they weren’t testosterone enhanced versions of me.
Well, that was the point of the exercise. There are a few others – I owe a great deal to James and Jeff for sending readers this way during the early days of SDA. They represent diametrically opposed approaches to blogging, and have influenced my “style” here a great deal, as has “R”, from the good old days on Usenet. (I wish he had had time to post more often – he had instructions to scare the bejesus out of you.) Sean is one of my favourite, smartest Canadian bloggers and went above and beyond in keeping the site refreshed. I was reminded of my invitation to guest at Wizbang in the earliest days of SDA, and decided I should include someone fairly new (and very promising) – so Angry got the call.
All in all, a very successful experiment – traffic actually rose a little. The sitemeter doesn’t lie.
I have a lot of deadline work coming up this week, and things will be slow here for a few days, so I encourage you to help me “thank” them by adding them to your regular reading.

Here’s something I’d like to contribute to The Lexicon:

electorate n. 1. a contrivance used by politicians to justify advancing questionable agendas and social engineering policies; 2. a device where the whole is always less than the sum of its parts.

I am anxiously awaiting the day when Alan, the Supreme Carbuncle himself, releases the entire Carbuncle’s Lexicon in book form. That’s some quality CanCon that I’d ante up for in a heartbeat.

It’s just a shame that he hasn’t rounded them all up into a single post for easy viewing. (hint! hint!)

Mea-culpa update

Commenter P-Air, who has much better reading comprehension skills than yours truly, pointed out the The Lexicon is already available in its own spot. Man, do I ever feel silly now.

As you may have noticed with the chainsaw border crossing post, James Joyner of Outside The Beltway is coming on board for a few days to keep the motor running here while I’m away to a few dog shows in the US. (Leaving in the morning)
I’ve also invited Protein Wisdom’s Jeff Goldstein, just to confuse the hell out of the newbies.
CanCon will be provided by Angry and Sean (Pol:Spy)
And, to round things out, the world’s most intimidating sysadmin from Templeofhate.com may stop by to contribute. Robin and I go back many years, to the late great days of Usenet and the Nancyboys driveby flamewars group. (Some of his poetry)
Behave yourselves, and I’ll be back early next week.

We interrupt this blogcast for a station announcement: SDA has officially evolved into a Mortal Human (#28) on the TTLB Ecosystem.

I’m working out of the house again much of today so posting will be light. In the meanwhile, I’ll send you to the Cotillion – a collection of posts by the girls of the blogosphere.

I’ve decided to add my own worthless bit of advice as a followup to yesterday’s Carnival of the Newbies.
For all the comparisons to the MSM, at its core, blogging isn’t journalism and it’s not about writing your own private opinion column. While both elements can be a part of the whole, they don’t define the medium. (Why try to duplicate something that already exists? )
So, my advice is pretty simple and it applies no matter what your niche or area of interest is:
Push the envelope.
Don’t be afraid of writing something that sounds stupid in the morning. Stop worrying about being wrong. It’s not about accuracy, it’s not about always being right. That’s what updates and corrections and commentors are for. Blogging is a conversation. Sometimes, in conversations, you blurt out things that offend someone or miss the mark. That’s normal.
If once in awhile, you aren’t saying to yourself.. “Oh boy… maybe I shouldn’t do this” …. you’re being too careful.
Take a deep breath and hit “save”.