Thanks all. Looks like the Imgur file has disappeared, which is just as well! 

I had to implement a cookie consent popup to comply with EU law. I ignored the ruling for a while because the site is hosted in the US, but Google sent me an email to say I had to add one in order to remain in their advertising program. Google is bigger than the EU, of course.

It’s a line at the top of the screen which can be dismissed. Please let me know if you have any problems.

I’ve also tarted up the Privacy Policy page a little. I’m sure you all check it on a weekly basis, but I thought I’d bring it to your attention anyway.

Thanks. I thought about mentioning it here but didn’t want to draw attention to it.

That message has been running for about 36 hours and so far 66 people have whitelisted this site. Thanks to all.

About 15% of visitors here run adblockers. I understand why they’d want to, I really do, but as an indie publisher I see it from the other side. I’d actually like to run fewer ads here, but I’d also one day like to earn enough money to work on this site full-time. It’s a tricky balancing act and I wish there was universally-satisfactory way.

I’ve added https security to this site. If all is working correctly, you should see https and a padlock symbol in your browser bar, which means all connections are fully encrypted.

For day-to-day browsing and posting it shouldn’t make any practical difference, but please leave a note here if you encounter any issues. There might still be some insecure elements which I haven’t yet fixed, particularly with some third-party services (though this shouldn’t be any cause for alarm).

There’s some information on the importance of secure browsing on Google’s dev site: https://developers.google.com/…../why-https

HTTPS helps prevent intruders from tampering with the communications between your websites and your users’ browsers. Intruders include intentionally malicious attackers, and legitimate but intrusive companies, such as ISPs or hotels that inject ads into pages.

Intruders exploit unprotected communications to trick your users into giving up sensitive information or installing malware, or to insert their own advertisements into your resources. For example, some third-parties inject advertisements into websites that potentially break user experiences and create security vulnerabilities.

Intruders exploit every unprotected resource that travels between your websites and your users. Images, cookies, scripts, HTML… they’re all exploitable. Intrusions can occur at any point in the network, including a user’s machine, a Wi-Fi hotspot, or a compromised ISP, just to name a few.

HTTPS prevents intruders from being able to passively listen in on the communications between your websites and your users.

One common misconception about HTTPS is the belief that the only websites that need HTTPS are those that handle sensitive communications. Every unprotected HTTP request can potentially reveal information about the behaviors and identities of your users. Although a single visit to one of your unprotected websites may seem benign, some intruders look at the aggregate browsing activities of your users to make inferences about their behaviors and intentions, and to de-anonymize their identities. For example, employees might inadvertently disclose sensitive health conditions to their employers just by reading unprotected medical articles.

FYI, all passwords on this site are – and always have been – fully encrypted. There’s never been any cause for concern, this is just a belt-and-braces measure.

EDIT: There seems to be an issue with some avatars and images still being served over http. I’ll look into that.