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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.
Fic: Sparkling Stars XVIII: Naked Hero (5/?)
8/26/25 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters (this chapter):
Fandom: McHale's Navy
Genres: Angst, AU, Drama, Historical, Slavefic
Rating (this chapter): G
Warnings: (this chapter): None
Spoilers: None
General Summary: McHale's Island is invaded.
Chapter Summary: Virgil comes up with a plan.
Original DW/LJ Date Of Completion: August 24, 2025
Original DW/LJ Date Of Posting: August 26, 2025
Disclaimer; I don't own 'em, Universal does, more's the pity.
Original DW/LJ Word Count: 962
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
All chapters can be found here.
( McHale was uneasy about this march to the jungle. )
This story can also be read on AO3.
random shit and a plea to vote for my story
8/22/25 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Brilliant Minds season 2 starts in a month, and I'm so fucking excited. I will undoubtedly annoy everyone by talking about it even more than I already do. Sorry!
The writer's block continues, but over the last couple of days, I have forced myself to write a bit of Brilliant Minds fic. Oddly, the story is thematically much like the Trek fic I forced myself to write the last time I had writer's block. 😂
What I'm Doing Wednesday: birthday edition
8/20/25 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Sunday was my birthday & I had a nice time visiting the family.
( books: Abulafia, Tierney, Painter x 3, Abulafia )
media
sloooowly, I'm catching up on Murderbot. I know, it's been weeks, and yet the reading kick is (still) defeating my viewing obligations. Also on the watch list: the new season of Strange New Worlds, all of Lower Decks S5, um. Something else I've forgotten. But the Tumblr set shots of S3 Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat are feeding my soul. <333
dirt
for my birthday, I got a Buddha's head planter, which I intend to put spider plants in to give him green and white spiky hair. Very fun!
#resist
Monday, 9/01: Workers over Billionaires (#5051)
In Texas, there are lots of local protests, esp in Austin, re the gerrymandering thing. Freaking GOP. :(
I hope all of y'all are doing well! <333
Fic: Sparkling Stars XVIII: Naked Hero (4/?)
8/21/25 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters (this chapter): Christy/Virgil,Willy Moss, Fuji Kobiaji, Minato Mitsune, Chuck Parker, Quinton McHale
Fandom: Naked City
Genres: Angst, Drama, Historical
Rating (this chapter): G
Warnings: (this chapter): None
Spoilers: None
General Summary: McHale's Island is invaded.
Chapter Summary: Trying to save the day can be rough.
Original DW/LJ Date Of Completion: August 20, 2025
Original DW/LJ Date Of Posting: August 21, 2025
Disclaimer; I don't own 'em, Universal does, more's the pity.
Original DW/LJ Word Count: 1080
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
All chapters can be found here.
( Carefully Virgil forged through the jungle growth. )
This story can also be read on AO3.
the rest of the tarot deck
8/16/25 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
( Pentacles and the major arcana )
Fic: Sparkling Stars XVIII: Naked Hero (3/?)
8/17/25 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters (this chapter): Quinton McHale, Christy/Virgil (Virgil does not appear in this chapter), Minato Mitsune, Lester Gruber, Joseph 'Happy' Haines
Fandom: McHale's Navy
Genres: Angst, AU, Drama, Historical, Slavefic
Rating (this chapter): PG-13
Warnings: (this chapter): Implied Rape.
Spoilers: None
General Summary: McHale's Island is invaded.
Chapter Summary: McHale and his crew try to figure a way out of their predicament.
Original DW/LJ Date Of Completion: August 15, 2025
Original DW/LJ Date Of Posting: August 17, 2025
Disclaimer; I don't own 'em, Universal does, more's the pity.
Original DW/LJ Word Count: 754
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
All chapters can be found here.
( The soldiers began lining up outside the slave hut. )
This story can also be read on AO3.
Cross-posted: https://bradygirl-12.livejournal.com/1593181
What I'm Doing Wednesday
8/13/25 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yarning
I went to yarn group Sunday and learned one of our members is moving away next week. That is sad. I finished sewing together a bunny and started a new one, and my shoulder didn't protest too much, so that was a nice surprise. I finished the eyes and faces of 2 bunnies yesterday and need to take photos and list them. It felt good to be crocheting again.
healthcrap
I'm so worried about my parents and various other things that it's affecting my sleep. I always have trouble getting into Deep sleep, and lately the fitbit is registering single digit minutes in deep, and I've been having stupid insomnia. I need probably to start doing yoga nidra again, but I'm blocked about it for some reason. Like I'm blocked about Yoga and Pilates. Except that is at least partly due to it being so damned hot. There is little I can do about the things I'm stressing over, and yet. It's so frustrating. ( cut for discussion of weight loss )
house
I've done a fair bit of cleaning/chores today to counteract the worry. And hopefully the insomnia.
astrology
Mercury stationed direct in the wee hours of Monday, so communication and travel snafus are diminishing over the course of the week.
#resist
Monday, 9/01: Workers over Billionaires (#5051)
I hope you're all doing well! <333
multifandom icons.
8/13/25 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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rest HERE @
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Nonfiction and Wednesday
8/13/25 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Gretchen Heefner, The Missile Next Door: The Minuteman in the American Heartland: In South Dakota, people largely welcomed missiles but landowners often didn’t like giving up their land for them (NIMBYism for weapons of mass destruction). Heefner also tracks the persistence of antinuclear protest once it got started, and she makes the point that one reason the lack of success didn’t stop the hardcore protestors was religious faith—protest was an act of sacrifice and witness even if it didn’t have worldly effects.
Nathan Bomey, Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back: Newsy-ish account of Detroit’s bankruptcy. Bomey really doesn’t like unions; he’s more neutral about the interests of lender-creditors.
Grant Faulkner, The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story: Paean to the affordances of flash fiction, including drabbles and six-word stories, with exercises. Interesting read.
Tiya Miles, Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Bondage and Freedom in the City of the Straits: Another attempt to reconstruct a history of people who were mostly spoken about in the records we have. I didn’t think the speculation about what they felt and thought was very helpful, but it was a useful reminder that there was an active slave trade in Indians in the area for a long time, as well as African/African-American slavery. Michigan was supposedly free territory after the Northwest Ordinance, but that didn’t mean that slavery disappeared (despite opportunities that many took to cross borders to change status).
Andy Horowitz, Katrina: A History, 1915-2015: The premise here is that the disaster didn’t start in 2005. Most of the book is pre-hurricane explanations of why the city was so vulnerable. Greed and racism play their roles.
Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution: Schama focuses on loyalist African-Americans who were forced out to Canada and then to Sierra Leone. While most whites were indifferent to their fate and willing to violate the promises that the Crown had made during the Revolutionary War, a few took their duties seriously, which is how the transitions were made. The first elected black government, and the first women voting for that government, was in Sierra Leone (though a subsequent white guy sent to replace the good one removed women’s ability to vote). It’s beautifully written as well as interesting.