#shadowchats

Sincerely, a Grayaro Aceflux individual who's tired of people thinking that wanting to be single = automatically aspec.

(Image ID: An edited image featuring three pikachus holding either strop signs or rainbow flags and floating text. Part of this meme has been edited out in black with white text added. The text reads "it's "june" which mean it's Time for a reminder that the original version of this meme is incredibly aphobic and ignores the existence of trans and nonbinary people too. Straight aspecs, straight trans folks, straight intersex folks, straight nonbinary folks and heteroromantic gays/lesbians/mspecs exist as well and are still queer. Queer =/= nonstraight. Happy Pride Month yall!". There is also an arrow and black text which reads "And vice versa!". End ID)

There. I said it.

Okay I wasn't going to make a post on this but since Archive of Our Own (Ao3) is pretty well liked by queer individuals and neurodivergent folks, I'll bite. I've been reading through the Ao3 DDoS attack, and with the information I've gathered, mostly from @ao3org themselves, here's what I've got: "What's going on?" As stated earlier, Ao3 is dealing with a DDoS attack. "Should I change my password?" No. Data is usually not affected by a DDoS attack, so unless there's a breach involved your passwords should be fine. "Will I lose my works?" Probably not unless the site goes down permanently. "Who's behind the attack?" I've seen too many mixed reports on this. I've seen some say that it's some homophobes, others say that it's from guys who are politically motivated, others say that it's either Sudanese or Russian dudes, etc. However, nothing has been confirmed yet, so any information about the culprits should be taken with a grain of salt until then. "Will this be permanent?" Hopefully not. Though depending on how severe it is, it might be down for a while. I've already seen an article say that it could be down for weeks. Again, there's a lot of mixed info right now, so it's advised that you just get updates from Ao3 for now. Edit: Another one to add. Apparently the so-called "hackers" behind the attack are asking for ransom. Again, we don't know who the hackers are, so everything said about any info about a potential culprit or motive should be taken with a grain of salt. That said, however, if there is ransom involved, do not pay it. Edit 2: Anything about a DNS attack is also false as far as I know. I haven't seen Ao3 announce anything like that on their Twitter or Tumblr. Last edit I promise: The DDoS attack also caused the donation page to go down it seems (Not sure if it's the same attack or a different round). There is also an impersonation account going around asking for donations, please do not engage with the impersonating account.