LikeTheDew.com

Four years ago, I was writing every day. Then we launched LikeTheDew.com. Seemed a good idea. My friend Keith was looking for a place to write. So were some of his newly former journalist pals.

We didn’t need a business plan. The last thing we wanted was for the Dew to become a job. It was organic. It would just evolve. No real guidelines. We just wanted well written and relevant stories. No fiction or poetry. And it had to be progressive.

LikeTheDew.com is looking for a few smart and resourceful people to work in a convivial virtual environment helping to deliver enlightened perspectives on progressive Southern culture and content. Positions part time, for no pay, but include the benefit of knowing you are trying to make a difference.

• Community Engagement Manager: moderate comments, engage readers and poke around the site making sure everything is as it should be. Email: CEM@LikeTheDew.com.
• Author Relationship Director: reach out to new writers, contact writers who aren’t, set up and update author profiles, communicate with guest writers and manage creative commons relationships. Email: ARD@LikeTheDew.com.
• Social Marketing Guru: plan, manage, post and engage the Dew’s followers all over the web. Email: SMG@LikeTheDew.com.
• Dew Business Manager: plan and run our non-commercial, almost no revenue except from the donation of our readers, business. Email: DBM@LikeTheDew.com.
• Editorial Comrades: read, prep, art direct and post stories. We really need some help. Email: EC@LikeTheDew.com.

Right now, the Dew is just three volunteers who work 24/7/365. We have reached the limit of what we can dew and really need help. We have to get better organized and none of us are any good at that. If you have some time, we would really love to hear from you.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve made a few changes on our home page and on the site. Here’s an update:

• DewTube Slider
• Our Brick Wall
• Fewer Photos on our Home Page
• Guest Columns
• Our Future Plans
• A Note to our Writers
• A Note to our Readers

Recently, the Dew has come under an attack from presumed terrorists. The Patriot Act was useless to help keep us safe. These people are smart, motivated, well-financed and uncaring.

This was a malicious attack. We don’t have any private information or accounts to steal, so none was at risk. It was just a mean spirited bastardly thing to do. We join a long, and some distinguished, list of sites that have been attacked and hacked.

For weeks, these criminals have been bombarding the dew with site registrations – often as many as 20,000 in a single day hoping to find a weakness to exploit. We have continued to ratchet up security settings, adding layers of security and tests – sometimes hourly – hoping they would just give up. Apparently, it just made them mad. (I apologize, will you stop now? Please?)

During the past couple of weeks, LikeTheDew.com has come under increasing attacks from spammers registering on our site and attempting to post malicious code. While the site is secure, the bombardment, over 20,000 attempts yesterday, is quite a nuisance (we get an email each time there is a registration).

You may notice some additional levels of security on the site. We regret they are necessary, but attacks are part of being successful enough to be noticed by cyber vandals (tempted to write something nasty, but don’t wish to provoke them further). You will also notice that, at least temporarily, registration via social media sites (facebook, twitter, google, etc.) is no longer allowed.

All to say, new registration may be suspended for time to time as we do battle. If you wish register and have difficulty or find that registration is not available, please email: registration@likethedew.com and we will set up your account. Note on new registrations: if you wish to register and submit a story, please let us know so we can properly set up your account.

Today, we did something that feels terribly wrong, but for good reason: we suspended the comment privileges of someone on the Dew for violating our published rules of civility.

Free speech and the right to disagree are held sacred here. So are honesty, transparency and civility. The commenter was warned numerous times, and for whatever reasons, refused to comply or even respond to our requests for dialog. In almost two years, we have never banned anyone else. You may have known him as “Bob Tetley,” “Francois Lipton,” or the most recent incarnation of  “Brenden.”