Reading

Code deploy happening shortly

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

The Philosopher sent us a final picture of Aquinas getting some scootering in before getting back in the car and returning to the city. We hung around this morning just in case someone might need something and return, however briefly. Once we knew they were on the road, we went back to bed for another nap. It has been a lazy day around here. We're compensating for a week of frenzied activity. Lord knows we don't need to cook . . . . We sat out in the yard enjoying a really lovely afternoon. One must take advantage of the perfect weather while it lasts. It's always most perfect when it's on the cusp of vanishing. If you detect an ominous metaphor there, you'd be correct. We flailed around feebly, trying to find some act of defiance or reckless self-indulgence to commit, to assuage our sadness, but apparently what we're doing is watching "Independence Day." Who could believe that Jeff Goldblum was ever so young. Apparently we're in the timeline where Jeff Goldblum survived, against all odds, so it can't be all bad.

Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

MountainDaisy of Flourish

14,000 steps today, what with going to the zoo with Aquinas and then chasing after him as he scootered to a nearby park and rambled merrily around it. I probably got nearly as many yesterday, when we went to a different park, but yesterday I forgot to wear my fitness device part of the day, so it only recorded half as many. After the park, the Philosopher and Lovely Friend wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and take Aquinas back to the hotel for a nap. I recommended a very nice cafe that was only six minutes away. They had always been pleasant and efficient in the past. Well, wouldn't you know this was the day they took an hour to make our drinks and sandwiches. Thomas badly needed to go to the hotel before any food was ready, so his parents said they'd take him there and we could stay and await our order, and then one of them would come back and pick it up. But by the time we finally got our stuff, it occurred to us that we might just as well take it to them. After that, the Sparrowhawk made one more heroic stop to get some ham from Whole Foods, which Aquinas had been plaintively asking for, as in "Ham! I want haaaaaammmm . . . ." And then Grandpa simply had to take a nap as well. I did not take a nap, because I was cooking some things. Which I shall not enumerate because they ended up being superfluous. We got takeout instead, and everyone was pleased and Aquinas ate a phenomenal amount of chicken fried rice with mushrooms, as well as three or four clementines.

Our refrigerator is so stuffed that it is crazy, mostly with things we thought might be necessary but turned out not to be what people wanted. We will be happy to consume these things ourselves, but it may take awhile because the Sparrowhawk is off his feed. At the zoo, he made a valiant effort, but had to stop and park himself on a shaded bench outside the gift shop while we ascended the hill to see the tigers. Since then, he hasn't been feeling well. He is just tired out and needs some rest. I confess to being tired too, but it was worth it to see them and to get to know Aquinas better. Naturally, as his grandmother, I find him to be a remarkable child. It's very sweet to see how he seems drawn to his Granpa. Who would not love the Sparrowhawk! And he calls me Granmommy and has given me a couple of hugs of his own free will.

We don't expect to see them tomorrow, because they will probably need to leave without further adieu. Ah well, a short visit but a merry one!

Spiderweb of Flourish

Holy smokes, I am tired. I got 10,500 steps, mostly in the house, except for the ones expended going to the grocery store. Oh, and the doctor's office, where the PA thought my blood pressure was just fine. The Philosopher and family arrived in good shape, though a little later than expected. This was great for me, because it gave me more time to finish cooking and do a little cleanup. The Sparrowhawk has performed wonders with vacuuming etc. When I got home from the grocery store, he said he was "perishing" and had to go take a nap. I don't think he got much sleep, but enough to get him through the evening.

Aquinas has become amazingly big and vocal, and what he likes best is going up and down stairs, opening and closing doors, and turning appliances on and off. I cooked brisket, potato/sweet potato/carrot mix roasted with a little bacon fat, chickpeas with linguini instead of egg noodles because Aquinas is allergic to eggs, and a salad thing from the NYT cooking page, with tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, lime, bacon bits, and sweet corn scraped off the cob. We've run the dishwasher twice, and only a few things are still soaking in the sink.

Aquinas and family headed for their hotel via a CVS for some allergy meds, but returned hastily due to a massive diaper emergency that required extensive cleanup. I guess they didn't care to check in to their hotel in this state and preferred to return to Grandmom and Grandad's residence of all modern conveniences. We always happy when we can be useful.

TeaselBurr of Flourish

Madame Day! I took her to the bookstore cafe for the first time in awhile, and she did really well in terms of motivating to the car with her walker, getting in and out, and so forth. I put her shoes and socks on for her, something that I just find particularly heartbreaking for some reason. I was glad to see that her ankles are less swollen than they were last time. We spent a lot of time talking about her ongoing realization that her parents are dead. She keeps rediscovering this, and it's always a rude shock. This, too, is very sad. Then I told her six or eight times where she is living right now. Every time, she would ask me again after five minutes or so. And everything took a very long time, so I was late getting home. Even when things go well, it wears me out.

So then I was kind of useless for the rest of the afternoon. We're still eating the barbecued chicken thighs I made yesterday, so I didn't have to cook. When the Sparrowhawk took his little pre-gym nap, I consented to lie down too. I just wanted to sleep and sleep, but that's when the Philosopher got back to us with some suggestions for how to make things Aquinas-friendly, so he was texting a lot. And Mademoiselle also started texting me to hear how the day went with her mom. So I was awake, and probably just as well.

I continued trying to clean out the bathroom closet, making sure to move everything potentially harmful WAY out of reach, even though I doubt Aquinas will be able to climb up the stairs. These are things one gets careless about when it's just two old people. This will only take a jiffy, I thought. I'll throw out a few things we don't need, move the medications to a higher shelf, and it will all be fine. Yeah . . . that worked fine with the dental things and the soap. All very nice. Then I moved on to the next shelf and . . . omg. There was stuff up there that I swear I never saw in my life. There are more things in heaven and earth, and your bathroom closet, than are dreamt of in your philosophy!! I hauled everything out and then just stared at it, feeling completely overwhelmed. When the Sparrowhawk came back from the gym, I implored him to help me. He requested two garbage bags and made things vanish. He's my hero. Even though he might just possibly be the guy who put some of those things there in the first place . . . I don't care as long as he banished them again.

We told Tron that the Philosopher was coming, in case she might be able to come for the day. But she has too much on her plate, and not enough spoons for dishing it all out. It's the beginning of the semester already! Crickets sing beside the trail . . . . A crescent moon is golden in the western sky.

HermitShell of Flourish

Driving home on Saturday, we took small highways and back roads, and enjoyed some lovely scenery: first woods and sandy hills, near the coast, then rolling plains and green fields. All the way, the best part of the scenery was the glorious skies! We were following in the train of the Empire of Heaven in all its changing color and panoply. As Hopkins said:

"Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle ín long | lashes lace, lance, and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous | ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare
Of yestertempest's creases . . ."

I like that word "yestertempest." But even his tumble of words scarcely suffices to hint at the ever-moving grandeur that was spread before us in those skies, the glory of silver light.

It was a nice visit with Fritz and Peach too, when we stopped at their house and sat out on their patio, enjoying the breeze and the view across the fields. Stopping in the middle made the trip quite long--even with the refreshment of good Lutheran coffee--and it took me a couple of days to recover.

But I have no more time to reminisce, because we got a surprise text from the Philosopher to say that he and his family would like to come and see us THIS WEEKEND! I am thrilled, but slightly panicked. Details have yet to be worked out. It's a good thing I did all the laundry and put most of our trip gear away already.

Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

UpNorthDayLast

I have Fallen Silent because, after a promising start on Monday, the wifi mysteriously disappeared entirely and did not come back until today. Tuesday it rained a lot, just about all over the state, and we just hung out around our own area. When the rain stopped, we drove hopefully to a gas station that promised groceries. Not exactly true, but we got some chips, hot dog buns, and a container of ice cream that didn't melt before we got it home. Wednesday, the weather was nice and we were out a good deal of the time, but also spent a lot of time with GingerBeard and Baharat. They cooked us some steak, and we brought over our ice cream and strawberries. Thursday, we went to Rockport, where there's an old quarry, as well as another spectacular overlook of Lake Huron. We saw people going in with buckets and rock hammers to look for fossils. We just hiked through and enjoyed the views.

The quarry was eerie, hard to describe. You might picture a big, rectangular hole in the ground, but it was not that. It was acres of shattered shale and limestone, ending in a small cliff far off on the other side. Saplings of white cedar, birch, and juniper were beginning to pierce the cracks in the stone. The stone was once loaded into ships at the half-ruined jetty that can still be seen, and taken across the lake to building sites all over the upper midwest. One of the last projects that used this stone was the caissons for the Mackinac Bridge. It is silent, so silent that the tap of a hammer can be heard at a great distance. The sky was an astonishing shade of blue, and the northern light was so intense that it made every leaf and rock fragment seem to glow from within, an unearthly light. We walked for a long time along the edge of the quarry, and then turned off into the woods. It was only as we entered a beautiful cedar forest, paved with rusty-colored moss and bearberry, that it occurred to me that there might be BEARS. However, we didn't see any. We returned to the parking area just as the Sparrowhawk reached the limit of his window of possibility, sat on a bench overlooking the waves, and shared a sandwich and a big drink of water.

Yesterday, we considered other places to go, but we were honestly pretty tired after the long walk, and took some time to rest up. GingerBeard invited us over again, and we shared our hamburgers and various salads and had a long talk afterwards. Today, we stayed in the area again, walked around and had a long, delicious swim in Long Lake. There's a lot to be said for inland lakes, though they are a bit tame compared to the big ones. We found a pair of flip flops in the Lost and Found that fit the Sparrowhawk well enough to spare him the purgatory of ouching over the pebbled shore before he got to the sandy part. We had a lot of fun in the water, and watching all the kids play on the beach. We stopped by the GingerBeard residence as they were packing up to leave early, and shared a final chat. Then we ate our leftover--and still delicious--spaghetti sauce, and returned to the shore to sit in a rustic swing and enjoy the lapping of the water, the scent of many little wildflowers, the sky and the clouds, and the seabirds soaring past. We've done a little tidying of the premises, and will complete our packing up and leave tomorrow morning.

UpNorthDay2

Last night was the opposite of our first night! Instead of sweltering under a fan, we were chilled in the night breeze. I had gone swimming and probably had a touch of sun, and at night I felt very shivery. We had our wool blanket from home, but I felt a need to pile the blanket that came with the cabin on top of it, and then put my sweatshirt and pants back on for sleeping. It took me a long time to warm up. Then I woke up at 4 am and was too hot again, and had to peel all the layers back off. The Sparrowhawk slept cozily on, unbothered by my mutability.

The day continued rather chilly and overcast, again with a stiff breeze. I did not go swimming, alas, but we drove over to the big lake, in this case, Lake Huron. We found our way to a nature preserve and walked down a path through the woods to the shore. It was very beautiful and exhilarating. Yesterday's 6 foot waves had died down, but there were still long breakers roaring up to the shore. In this area, the Lake Huron beaches are not very swimmable, because they are strewn with all kinds of rocks, some of them very large. When the waves are strong, it would be hard to get out into the water without getting bashed up, and I did not attempt it. We walked along the beach for awhile, but the Sparrowhawk preferred not to continue on for miles on the trail, so we went back and returned to our shelter for coffee and cookies on the porch with GingerBeard.

At eight o'clock, we went to the office building, where you sign in and pick up your keys. There's also a table and chairs, the router, and a printer, so if you have business, you can do it there. No one else was in the room, so we were able to use the excellent wifi to Zoom into our scheduled book club discussion. Now we're headed for an early bedtime and hoping for a better sleep tonight--neither too hot nor too cold!