Domain hijacked

[deeiche]

I've had to fight one of these before.  Hire a good intellectual property attorney to represent you in front of ICANN arbitration, it worked for me.  My donation should help in hiring said attorney.

[minxiejinxielynxie]

It's obvious that this site is really important to a lot of people and I want to help out! I don't know how much it would help, but I can go for the Gold Subscription!
I really hope this all gets sorted out! D:

[Sally29]

Susan, please excuse me posting this on the open forums, I would have sent you a Private message about it but am unable to do so (probably due to lack of forum permissions seeing as this is my first post?)

I figured that $50,000 would fund the operation of this site for a year.

That's not me getting $50,000 to spend however I like.  I won't be taking vacations on it. It goes cover the site expenses and would cover some of my expenses. Not one dime of profit.  I am not living high off the hog here I am sitting in a very tiny house I rent. The equipment for Susan's occupies two rooms including half of my kitchen, so it gets most of the space. My desk is in my living room which has just enough room for a loveseat, not even a full couch. I can walk from one end of the house to the other in under 15 steps

I'm really sorry to hear about the problems you are presently experiencing, however I feel you should seriously reconsider the way you host the site. I must question why you need so much equipment to run this forum and associated wiki, chat room etc. A single server with automated offsite backups, a switch/router and UPS etc is all you need. Also, you don't actually need to have any equipment at all. As for the site costs, well again I have to question your outlay. A 16 core managed VPS with 20Gb memory, 1TB of disk space and 7Tb of bandwidth with remote daily backups can be had for less than $10,000 a year at a reputable host ($7,200 for unmanaged seeing as you presently manage your own servers). That's overkill IMO seeing as the figures you gave for 2013 (13,022,777 page views) would account for around 7.5Tb of bandwidth using a very generous 580kb bandwidth per page (I've yet to find a Susans page which uses more than half that bandwidth). A 4Tb bandwidth fully managed VPS would cost under $4,000 a year (or $2,400 for unmanaged with 4.5Tb bandwidth)

Please don't take this as a criticism, you and your team do a fantastic job which is very much appreciated by many many people. However, your problems may present an ideal opportunity for you to rethink your equipment and hosting requirements.

Sally.

[Cindi Lane]

I would like to help you Susan.  Thank you for acting on your passion to help all of us in the community.

    Since I don't post often, I went for $5.00 per post and rounded it up. (Thanks  -lyn for the inspiration).

      I hope to be able to help some more in the future.
      My wife is  opening her new electrolysis practice in Feb.  (...so money is a bit tight right now).
           If I'm a good girl, she just might give me a special rate to solve my facial hair problem. 


  -Cindi

[deeiche]

I too do not want to tell you how to run your IT infrastructure, but since the topic has been broached I'll comment.

I'm one of those 35 year IT veterans, who has seen the migration from centralized computing to PC based decentralized computing and now back to centralized computing AKA Cloud.  I work for a large enterprise and we have almost completely migrated to virtual systems.  The savings in hardware, power and space are considerable.  Reputable data centers spend a lot of effort to provide a 24/7 reliable environment.

When things settle down with your domain issue please consider updating your environment to take advantage of current VPS technology.  It will give you space to move around in your domicile, less noise, no hardware issues to deal with and should decrease costs.

Good fortune in combating the hijacker.

[akegia]

I too do not want to tell you how to run your IT infrastructure, but since the topic has been broached I'll comment.

I'm one of those 35 year IT veterans, who has seen the migration from centralized computing to PC based decentralized computing and now back to centralized computing AKA Cloud.  I work for a large enterprise and we have almost completely migrated to virtual systems.  The savings in hardware, power and space are considerable.  Reputable data centers spend a lot of effort to provide a 24/7 reliable environment.

When things settle down with your domain issue please consider updating your environment to take advantage of current VPS technology.  If anything it will give you space to move around in your domicile.

I too don't want to tell anyone how to do business, nor do I have the amount of time deeiche has. I'm just on 5 years now. But a scale-able VPS would provide a lot of flexibility. The company I work for is basically going to offering only Cloud VPS based hosting over traditional hosting/servers.

[Mariah]

I have donated what I can for this month. So sorry Susan that they are putting you through this. It's wrong on so many levels and I would have donated earlier this month if this thread had caught my attention. I have been so busy getting other things straitened out. In the meantime I hope and pray your job situation improves. Hugs
Mariah

[Joelene9]

Donated! All  have to give at this time.

Joelene

[Devlyn]

I would like to help you Susan.  Thank you for acting on your passion to help all of us in the community.

    Since I don't post often, I went for $5.00 per post and rounded it up. (Thanks  -lyn for the inspiration).

      I hope to be able to help some more in the future.
      My wife is  opening her new electrolysis practice in Feb.  (...so money is a bit tight right now).
           If I'm a good girl, she just might give me a special rate to solve my facial hair problem. 


  -Cindi

I'm loving this alternate spelling of  -yn that Jill started!

Hugs,  -yn

[chaseinspace]

I will donate what I can by the end of the week! I had no idea any of this was going on until I checked my email. I really should check the forums more frequently...hang in there! 

[Susan]

Susan, please excuse me posting this on the open forums, I would have sent you a Private message about it but am unable to do so (probably due to lack of forum permissions seeing as this is my first post?)

I figured that $50,000 would fund the operation of this site for a year.

That's not me getting $50,000 to spend however I like.  I won't be taking vacations on it. It goes cover the site expenses and would cover some of my expenses. Not one dime of profit.  I am not living high off the hog here I am sitting in a very tiny house I rent. The equipment for Susan's occupies two rooms including half of my kitchen, so it gets most of the space. My desk is in my living room which has just enough room for a loveseat, not even a full couch. I can walk from one end of the house to the other in under 15 steps

I'm really sorry to hear about the problems you are presently experiencing, however I feel you should seriously reconsider the way you host the site. I must question why you need so much equipment to run this forum and associated wiki, chat room etc. A single server with automated offsite backups, a switch/router and UPS etc is all you need. Also, you don't actually need to have any equipment at all. As for the site costs, well again I have to question your outlay. A 16 core managed VPS with 20Gb memory, 1TB of disk space and 7Tb of bandwidth with remote daily backups can be had for less than $10,000 a year at a reputable host ($7,200 for unmanaged seeing as you presently manage your own servers). That's overkill IMO seeing as the figures you gave for 2013 (13,022,777 page views) would account for around 7.5Tb of bandwidth using a very generous 580kb bandwidth per page (I've yet to find a Susans page which uses more than half that bandwidth). A 4Tb bandwidth fully managed VPS would cost under $4,000 a year (or $2,400 for unmanaged with 4.5Tb bandwidth)

Please don't take this as a criticism, you and your team do a fantastic job which is very much appreciated by many many people. However, your problems may present an ideal opportunity for you to rethink your equipment and hosting requirements.

Sally.

Sally this site would not run on a VPS. Most VPS limit you to a max of 1 gb of database. The Susan's forum posts is well over 1gb by it's self. Then you have the performance issues that shared servers bring.  I have been a professional IT person for 19 years. If what you describe was an option I would have done it without blinking. This is about ensuring that this site is better than 99.99% uptime. It has to be.

I have 2 servers. The primary web server which handes primary name server, mail server, database server. I have a secondary web server which handles secondary name server, backup mail server, and database server. It also serves as a remote backup point.  My old business partner is demanding one of those servers.

I have bandwidth expenses, electric, rent, and water.

I have software expenses that are required to do the site.

I have the time I dedicate and will be increasing dedicating to the site now that it's my primary concern.  Lastly I need to be able to eat. None of this can happen if I starve to death in the mean time. Finding a job in this economy when I am 44 years old will not be a quick endeavor.

I have the pending fight to get the Susan's domain back which will not be cheap, right now it's looking like I may end up having to lawyer up and take the ownership of the domain to court.

Want to see what the people stepping up to support the site are making possible?

I just looked up and saw Family under my name.  Wow!  Don't know how the posts added up to that many.  I'm kind of shocked.  But the word feels good.  And it occurred to me that I've never thanked you for the work you do here.  I'm long overdue in that.  Your work had truly changed my life.  So, I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciate you and your work here on Susan's.  I can't imagine having gotten through this time in my life without you.

Not sure what you said or did. Perhaps it's just a coincedence, but I noticed today that niceness has returned to the forum. With the exception of a personal run, which is well in hand, it seems that the forum once again reflects you. Thanks either way.

Susan:

I just wanted to let you know that my transition was aided in a large part to the wonderful and complete information you have on this site.

When I approached HR on my transition, I also gave them many pages from your wiki and they were extremely helpful to HR in understanding me and the FTM, <name removed>, that is coming out at the same time.

They also used many of the wiki and links as part of the creation of handouts that will be given to my team mates tomorrow when they announce me and <name removed>.

I know this is a group effort.  But it's your site, Susan, and without it consolidating so much information in one place I don't know that I would have been as successful in making my transition request to my company.

So thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!!!!

BTW: This is my last day as a guy.  After I leave work today, I'm all <name filtered> all the time.  I'm scared and happy and just about everything else you can feel all at once.  Naturally my productivity today is in the bucket!

Susan,
I wanted to say "Thank you!" for having this board.  There's no telling how many lives you've saved and how many people you've helped by having this here.

I know that I would have been in a "looney bin" a long time ago without the ability to communicate on-line with those who deal with this "condition" daily.

I just want to give credit where credit is due - to a woman who took the time to provide a place of sharing.

Thanks again.

I just wanted to thank you for setting up this site and maintaining it. It can feel very lonely out here for a lot of us and finding a community of people who have gone/are going through the same thing...well, I don't have words to express my gratitude. I'm just starting to do something about my lifelong struggle and I'm thankful that I have a place like yours to find my way. Thank you again, <name filtered>

Thank you for this fantastic forum!  I was waiting to tell you I have resolved everything in my head but I have not.

I also wanted to tell you all my questions have been answered.  However each question I ask at this forum generates multiple different answers.  This in turn generates more questions.  I have learned a little more about myself which has been good.

People at this forum have also been kind enough to help me make the right decisions.  I have talked to my wife, started exercising, and am improving my eating habits.

I hope along the way I may have returned the favor to someone.

Many thanks to a fine group of sensitive people!

I just wanted to thank you for two things.

1. Making this site which I think I already thanked you for. But it has been such a saveing grace to meet you desreve two thanks.

2.Thanks to your lil essay on hormones you saved em from making a BIG mistake and taking hormones with out cheking with a doc first. God I hope I am ok and able to take them. I'm just tired of feeling hollow .

But I PM you for a sob fest I wanted to thank you this place is very helpful and has made me strong and proud of who I am. It even did more then that It help me to know who I am. Which is 10times more then most of the people who cut me down can honestly saybout them selves.

I once saw an episode of the "Twiligt Zone" where an English military  pilot from WW 1 had gotten lost and landed in an air strip in 1961, or so. This is how I feel. I was socialized as a little girl from the age of about 5 up to about the age of 16. I eventually developed a poor, paper thin male identity. GID affects everyone differently, and no one is more TS than anyone else. It's about gender, how can anyone be more of a woman than anyone else? Everyone has the absolute right to express their gender awareness and gender identity as the experience it, and in my opinion, it's all good!.

My GID was so strong, and from such an early age, that it destroyed my life. I'm 58 years old. I tried desparately to find help in 1970, but was unsuccessful. I experience my gender as being a genetic woman with a female body that appears to be male.  This leads to a lifetime of self hatred, coupled with 40 years of hard drug or alcohol abuse and several very well planned out and executed suicide attempts that should have succeeded, but unfortunately didn't.

I have finally found help, and have SRS planned for next year. Living full time is on one hand pleasant and easier than living as a male, but on the other, I feel like a freak, a woman with a horribly deformed body that appears to be male. I'm tired of the conflict, and if I live to have the procedure or die through other means makes little difference to me. I just wish for the conflict to end.

My postings have given me a forum to voice my thoughts. Unfortunately, I'm in a very different place, similar to the aforementioned pilot. Response to my thoughts have been less than inspiring. I think that you host an excellent website. It just isn't one where I belong.

Thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinions. I appreciate it.

I wanted to thank you so much for operating this wonderful website. If it weren't for me finding this group I wouldn't be where I am right now, and on my way to embracing womanhood. I cannot find the words for how grateful I am, and by meeting members here and discussing issues, I have found myself in the process, and accepted who I am.

My life is beginning to improve in more ways than I could imagine now that I am on HRT, and my relationships with friends are improving and becoming better now . I had this post early when I was down, but it was probably an emotional bump, cause now I am really happy .

Thank you again! I wouldn't have done this nearly as soon if it wasn't for this support group

Even though I haven't used even half of the resources available, your site has already been a godsend for me. It's only been six months since I registered here I've become a lot more comfortable about who I am and that's one of the greatest gifts I could ever ask for.

Thanks for this website; If it wasn't for you and the great members of this forum who have helped me for the past month and so with being Transgendered---I don't know where I would release my aura.

I've never talked to you personally on here or anything; Besides when you edited the "Beautiful" link by Christina Aguilera to the MTV one...Which I also thank you for!

So I would just like to say, thanks for helping me tide the arcane waves that swish and flow through my sometimes jaded heart.

Hi Susan, I just found your site a few hours ago. I posted under <name removed> about <topic removed>. I am so glad your site is available to me. As a normal male (whatever that is) I have no idea what my girlfriend has or is going through with her transition. I want to help but how do I go about it? I need info and understanding myself just to keep from doing something stupid. Thanks for this forum and information. God bless, Peace & Love, <name removed>

Thanks for this site. I have found it to be very helpful and safe the way you run it.

To Emelye and Susan Larson...

First of all, I want to personally thank you and your team, for providing us with the
timely notification of the threat and for all of the support we received from your group.  I had
a person from your IT group, calling me offering up technical assistance to help us identify the
author of the comments, Emelye was GREAT at getting us some valuable URL information, and the
overall responses from your group were wonderful!!

With your team's assistance, we were able to identify the young lady in our middle school.
She admitted to making the comment in the chat room and we also learned that she has been
bullied since 5th grade.  She is in 8th grade now.  She did not pose any immediate threats to
the school or her classmates today, IE, no weapons, etc..  Her parents were notified and the school
staff is working on eliminating the bullying, mainly coming from one girl in her class, which
has been going on in this young lady's life for years.
We are very happy here, that we were able to intervene before it was too late.

Thank you again, for all of your help.
It was a team effort, and it all started with your team....~  :-)
If you ever need anything else from the East Lansing, MI Police Department,
please do not hesitate to contact us.

Warmest Regards,

<name and rank removed>
East Lansing Police Department

Today, I realised that it has been 1 year since I joined Susan's. I want to say a big thank you to everybody that has helped me along the way. A lot has changed in this past year and I couldn't of done it without Susan's and all of you. Thank you all, your support means everything. I've had a lot of ups and downs but you have all been here to share them with. Thanks again everybody, I love you all.

This is my main source of support and my main source of good information.  That is worth something to me.  It should be worth something to everyone.

Thank You Susan!!

I just wanted to say thank you for the site.

It changed everything for me.  Exposed DES, found support and friends, defined who I am, changed everything.

I cannot possibly state how many lives you have helped.

You deserve a medal.  You are famous.  You are a star, and a humble one at that, a rare gem in this world.

God Bless You.

After A long journey I have finally made it, only to find this is where the Journey starts.  Either way I am almost desperately glad that I was able to find the courage I needed to move on with my life and deal with my Identity Disorder.  This website has helped me more than I can ever express and to anyone who stumbles on this and is looking for answers, or needing to ask questions you have found a place where you can be whoever you want or need to be and find that!  My take on all this is don't hold back your need to explore who and what identity you truly are, I lost the last ten years ignoring most of the advice I received on this website almost a decade ago and watching the friends I had made here move on and become beautiful people while I sat in Gender ANGER!

Many, many of you put up with me and helped me through some very hard and trying times, I know that nothing gets easier from here but I can safely say I don't feel confused or angry anymore over this aspect of who I am, I really just am happy to be on the path to an actual life that I want to Live. None of this would be even remotely possible without Susans.org, or the wonderful people who actually took a moment of their lives to help me and care about me..

With that I am off to live my life but I will be back to return the love!

Your Friend Forever,

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving.


Today I am thankful for this online community that has helped me tremendously over the last several months.  I don't know how anyone can transition without support, this web site has been crucial to help me maintain balance and keep my 'head above water'.

I've talked with many here PM and some on Facebook, I can't thank you all enough how you are helping me get through this time of my life.  People say it gets better, HRT has helped, but it doesn't help with life's situations, we must push through these walls of fire to achieve our goals.

And that's where I bow...er....genuflect to you all for helping me start to become the woman I have buried inside of me for 4 decades.  I can't thank you enough.  I thank God I'm alive and for His provisions.  I thank you all for being there for me to talk thru all the details and trials of changing gender.  Very few understand how difficult this is, but I'm glad you all have been there for me.

I hope I can be there for you.

I just want to say -

Thank you all staff and techs for a beautifully maintained and perfectly set-out meeting place.

Thank you *everyone* for a kind and genuine environment.

I'm glad I came!

As a current regular I want to express my appreciation for you and the efforts you have made for this community. Your place has been an essential part of my personal journey and transition. I have met and made friends on line and IRL with introductions here. With such a resource I might have transitioned 20 years ago. Thank you for another chance to find support and community.

READ AND RE-READ YOUR  LIFE STORY POST /INFORMATION. THANK YOU FOR THE GRIT AND DETERMINATION DURING THE PERIODS OF LIFE YOU  HAD CONTROL OF  AND YOUR  SELF EXAMINATION FOR  FINDING  YOUR PLACE. I AM INSPIRED. TO BE YOUR DAILY  PERSONAL FRIEND  WOULD BE TRULY HELPFUL TO ANY STILL SEARCHING  FOR THE PEACE YOU HAVE PAID FOR AND FOUND.   I KNOW MANY MUST FEEL AS I DO IF THEY , LIKE ME , ARE STRUGGLING WITH DEVILS, BOTH REAL AND IMAGINED. THANK YOU SUSAN . MY FIRST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS THIS MEMO TO YOU.

Thank You Susan for this site... Life isn't easy and aspects of it cane really cruel. Through this (your) site I have been able to breathe, to realize that we are not alone. Thank You

I needed to write you a note to tell you the immense impact you have had on my life.   I am not joking when I say you may have saved my life.

I came to your site because all the non-perscription drugs I am taking have not transformed my body.  For whatever reason I happened to get into a discussion regarding one product that was advertised as the product of choice for MTF according to the manufacturer.  I learned from the forum that all my pains from taking these pills were not a MTF transformation but simply pain from the drugs harming my body.  Prior to coming to the site I figured if I could tolerate the pain that eventually my body would transform.

It gets worse... I read on the internet that the prisons were considering giving certain drugs to prisoners to chemically castrate them.  I was seriously considering obtaining these drugs.  If the people at Susan's Place had not been caring enough to respond to a note I wrote then I might have done serious damage to my own body.

I also read the spousal input tonight on dealing with a MTF spouse.  It was very enlightening.

I have tremendous guilt feelings to want to change from a MTF.  These are the feelings I have had since a young child.  Then I read how difficult it is to transition for several older individuals.  I was not alone in the world and a transition is not easy.

My plans were to transition from a MTF and just leave everyone because no one would accept me.  Then I read a comment by Susan in feeling guilty by not saying goodbye to someone that died.  It made me cry.

I really feel the people at Susan's Place understand what I have and currently am experiencing.

I thank you for saving my life!

And those are just a few, very few, of the many comments I have received over the years.

That's what your support goes to make possible. It's not just me, it's not just the staff, it's everyone here making this kind of thing possible.

[ChrissyChips]

I'm so sorry I can't help financially, no job, no money and been eating toast for three days, lol.  But I wish you all the best in this situation Susan.  A hug won't help much but I'm sending you one anyway

[nickikim]

I'm so sorry I can't help financially, no job, no money and been eating toast for three days, lol.  But I wish you all the best in this situation Susan.  A hug won't help much but I'm sending you one anyway

Pay day tommorrow, I will see what I can do. I had an unpaid week off over Christmass, and have been nursing Saturday's take out chicken all week.
Part of me wants the hijackers IRL info, so I can give him some face time with sweet lady brick.
Probably violated TOS with that, but worth it for the Simpsons fans.

[DragonBeer]

I'll see what I can donate this weekend, might not be much but every bit helps. 

[Valerie]

Susan, I hate that you're going through this.  Payday's this Friday...it's a tight wallet, but I'll give what I can.  Love ya', hon.  Hang in there.  ~V.

[Jason C]

I'll donate some money when I next get paid ah, I'm so sorry this has happened :\ is it legal to do what they've done? I mean, it sounds like they're blackmailing you or something, how can that be OK?

[Susan]

As always if you can afford to donate I will welcome it. However if you can't that's ok too, and no one will think any less of you. I most certainly won't! Any money donated will be kept in the account and kept until required. Again I will not be taking any vacations on your money.

[Eva Marie]

Again I will not be taking any vacations on your money.

I don't think any of us would mind if you went and got yourself a decent meal Susan. That .39 cent stuff is not good for you.

Payday is this Thursday and I'll be kicking in a little more.

[LordKAT]

I wanted to donate, but I got a rude surprise. My paycheck was missing about 40 hours of pay.

[Maleth]

I haven't been on lately (due to RL) but I hope everything is okay. I've been working a minor job on the side lately so I'll see what I can do. You've got my support!