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So today the Georgia Tech Sports Blog comes back online after about 3 days of dead air. Nada. Nothing. One day we're there. The next day we're not. Three days later we're back again. Nothing from Google before during or after. Just a big black hole of mystery and intrigue.
So what happened? I had some conspiracy theories, like the good people at Georgia Tech decided I have somehow infringed on some GT symbol and got the IS department to hack me. Then I thought - nah - this is a pro-GT site, so the last thing they want to do is shut us down. Then I thought on a bigger scale. Seeing as I'm working my way through season 4 of the show "24", I have Jack Bauer syndrome, so the conspiracy theories started running wild. Maybe my recent post on two government contractors killed overseas who both happened to be named "Paul Johnson" put me on some kind of watch list, and the folks at the DOD shut me down. Maybe they thought the site was some type of silent trigger signal for an attack on the nation's nuclear reactors. Who knows.
Barring any conspriracy theories, I'm just left with the explanation falling into some type of techno-glitch over the "big G" (Google, which owns Blogger). I never got a response from Google before, during or after the process, so I don't really know what happened and why it's back now. We could be back because they did receive my many pleas and decided to review the situation. They may have responded because I put my Blog on a Google site review list for sites mistakenly blacklisted as "spam sites". The old "false positive".
Or maybe it was just the power of networking. I noticed the following comment below the AJC story on Trey Dunmon today at about 1:00:
By GoodWord on the street
April 29, 2008 10:48 PM
HELP! Does anyone know how to get on scott’s gtsportsblog? I can no longer find it on the web and it is my favorite source to ga tech sports. Concerning Dunmon, I wish him all the luck. If it isn’t the system he wishes to play in then let him go be successful and happy. I think he is a high character guy and gt will miss that. Can’t blame him one bit, it is his life and his decisions. Good luck as southern Trey! Upset UGA the first game of the season!
That was the very first comment on the Dunmon story. Then further down there was this today:
By Tekgeezer
April 30, 2008 1:17 PM
I just contacted the Engineering Director at Google re: GT Sports Blog. He says he has just “loosed the hounds”
It was a few hours later that the site was back up and running. The "hounds" found their mark I guess. Tekgeezer, if you were the reason why, then hats off to you chap. Thanks!
I want to thank the entire Georgia Tech community for your patience and generosity. I got numerous offers of help, lots of interesting ideas and I even had someone offer free server space at their professional server farm and help with a custom domain if I wanted to ditch Google. The GT community is a great one, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
Thanks for all the support all of you have given the Blog over the years. We will be 5 years old this fall. That's like 50 in internet years.
Thanks again,
Scott
GT Sports Blog
I'll leave you with this. For a few minutes, an Elton John song seemed appropriate. First it was going to be "Don't let the sun go down on me"..................................... then I thought maybe it should be "I'm still standing"............... I almost settled on "The Bitch is back"
In the end, I decided Elton John just wasn't the "aura" I wanted to send, so I went a little Houston of Pain hip-hop on you (some bad language). After all, I have to represent:
I think this verse sums it up:
Look at all these rumors
Spreadin like tumors, gossip and lies
Exaggerated reports of my demise
And if you believe them well then you got gassed
The media deceived them just like in the past
.. Cause I'm....... back from the dead
Now, a question. Have I just completely ripped to shreds some unwritten social contract I have with my readers as an "approaching 40-year old white guy"?