I did not intend to issue a ‘Maiden Voyages’ this month due to the slowdown in publishing, but there are a few items of note that need to be shared. I always tend to slow down in September because that is when things get busy for me. Because Pigtails is a creative endeavor, I don’t want to push myself when I am not feeling creative. I have also reached a kind of equilibrium where I managed to get a few big projects out of the way and I it feels like a natural point to take a rest before forging ahead. I have three projects that require some follow-up research and I think I will try to put out a few short posts this month to clear up some of the backlog.
First of all, I’d like to thank those guest authors who contributed posts in the last month. So far, they have all expressed an interest in contributing on an ongoing basis. There are two or three others promising articles, so perhaps we will see them in the coming month.
The biggest news is that as of August 22, 2014, Pigtails in Paint has been blocked in Russia. This is upsetting since Russia (and other members of the Federation) represent a large proportion of internet users. Supporters of the site are strategizing ways of overcoming this obstacle. I do not want this site to be relegated to the underground because of the obnoxious efforts of moral bigots. I also want to point out that because writers of this blog take particular political positions, this site is especially vulnerable as detractors can use the nudity to justify blocking the site even thought their real objection may be to our political position. Another point I should make for those who want to ensure continued access to this site: learn to use proxy servers. Even if your country blocks this site, it does not mean the site is shut down. Proxy servers are designed specifically for the purpose of reaching “invisible” sites and offering anonymity for those who visit them. And though it is true that a large number of these sites engage in illegal weapons sales, pornography, activities regarded as terrorism etc., some have been the unfortunate victims of heavy-handed politics and every effort must be made to keep Pigtails from falling into that category. The most recommended proxy of this type is Tor but, in time, this may change.
There is some closure in the matter of the Záhořová post. One of our readers attempted to order prints and finally received a response from the museum offering to sell them. You can read the details at the end of the post here.
Also, due to the request of several readers, a few additional images have been added to the Wyatt Neumann post.
I think that your page has been blocked because someone put your site into The Hidden Wiki (I won’t provide the address, although it’s trivial to find, also multiple mirrors of it exists). It’s index of .onion (Tor Hidden Services) sites: Bitcoin mixers, blogs, forums, drug stores, cryptography, imageboards, stolen credit cards and (not all editions of THW fortunately) child pornography sites (so called “Hard Candy”), which contains also a few clearnet sites about “childlove”. In general your site is among such sick sites as:
“Pedobeer – New imageboard
How to practice child love
New Cumers Chat
…”
Removing your site that bad company is difficult – edition is locked, my site hopefully is not there.
I wonder how sophisticated the blockade in Russia is…
@Ron: maybe it would be good to go into “underground”: I mean to make mirror of your site in any darknet (anonymous network). It wouldn’t provide you anonymity since everyone now (your hosting and mail provider) know who you are. The purpose of this would be to show that I2P/Tor/Freenet are not only used for criminal (and morally bad) activities, is it a good idea, or not?
It is a frustrating situation. You try to do something important and people try to pigeonhole you. I do not know what I am going to do with your suggestions yet, but I am posting your comment because it has some useful and interesting information for readers. Naturally, I will share what solution we come up with. -Ron
I have the opposite opinion. Our topic potentially interests one man in five (several studies suggest that proportion), we just have to awaken in masses of people that little light buried under heavy loads of prejudice. We should thus aim at reaching the largest number of net users, especially ordinary ones who use the web in the most candid way. For instance I found PIP through Google. I never used TOR. Thus we should remain in the clearnet/surface web as long as our freedom to do so exists. One idea is to have copies of articles posted on other legal blogs.
I don’t believe in Internet anonymity. Not only the NSA and other secret services spy on everyone, but commercial companies and social networks like FB do “data mining” on your tastes and activities, so that they can adapt their adverts to you. Once FB proposed me a former G/F of years ago as friend.
However we should protect ourselves from hateful hackers who would like to destroy what we do here.
The hell freezes over, Facebook is available as Tor hidden service:
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/facebook-hidden-services-and-https-certs
Maybe PIP should be next? Maybe not as Tor Hidden Service, but rather in I2P network – it’s more technologically advanced, but will less users and about half of I2P users are from Russia!
An UK site defending Internet freedom in Russia: http://agora.rightsinrussia.info/
Thank you. I will look into it. -Ron
Hello,
I’m concerned to hear about your blog being blocked in Russia, no idea what you could do about it but have you come across this organisation, the American Civil Liberties Union and their Internet Free Speech page?
Hope it’s of some use,
https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/internet-free-speech
Regards,
Thomas
Thank you for your comment. ACLU is an American organization and has no influence in Russia. If there is something comparable in Russia, I would love to know. I am going to try to communicate with these people and I can let some people know who may be interested in offering some kind of effective protest. -Ron