20 Years of Techrights
Celebrating 2 decades of abuses of power being watched (and looking back at key changes)
Tonight we are 20. Yes, we've made it that far and we've actually hit record traffic levels, we're definitely not slowing down.
One way to celebrate this occasion is to remind long-timers of important coverage, themes of coverage, and technical changes over the past 20 years.
2006: A humble blog hosted in the US using WordPress kicks off with the aim or message to "Boycott Novell". It is updated almost every day, focusing on Novell, Microsoft, patents, and miscellaneous issues of the day (e.g. OLPC).
2007: The blog diversifies somewhat and covers various Free software issues on a more regular basis as the audience grows and there are many comments.
2008: We join Freenode, we focus a lot on OpenDocument Format (ODF), and we're subjected to DDoS attacks that cause problems with (or for) the webhost.
2009: A community member steps in to take care of the hosting, we experience a record level of attacks on our community (including serious threats), we need to get the police involved, and there's more mainstream recognition.
2010: The community rebrands as techrights.org as Novell ceases to exist (in a proper form), publication pace goes up significantly. A new audiocast, TechBytes, is born. There's also a new wiki that's meant to help organise topics and themes.
2011: TechBytes becomes a regular feature, the community enjoys relative stability (calm), and there's plenty of coverage regarding patents.
2012: Experimenting with new formats, including some new topics. Expanding scope, including mass surveillance and back doors.
2013: We add a Drupal component to the site to better appeal to or inform new visitors.
2014: The wiki goes read-only for all except admins (due to spam). We increase focus on the European Patent Office (EPO).
2015: The most potent SLAPP against us (to date) received from the European Patent Office (EPO), using several law firms in London. They back down because it backfires. Thank you, David Allen Green.
2016: EPO becomes a focal point at Techrights, due in part to the SLAPP above.
2017: We get more community collaboration and contributions. We improve various aspects, including IRC logs, handling of whistleblowers (with easy-to-use encryption if necessarily).
2018: Change of hosting from one community member in the US to another community member in the US, as the former shuts down his hosting business.
2019: Gradual restructuring of the site under Alpine Linux (migrating away from CentOS).
2020: Simple front page is introduced, we join Geminispace and IPFS, there are text-only bulletins.
2021: Freenode fallout means we create our own IRC network and move everything to it.
2022: Further automation and workflow-related improvements to help authors and editors focus on what matters most.
2023: The site goes static, criminal behavior happens in IRC, many abuses are reported to the police by Techrights folks, whereupon the IRC abuse comes to a halt. We move from Alpine Linux and CentOS to Debian (Gemini capsules and also IRC get re-hosted on Debian, not Alpine Linux).
2024: Microsoft-connected actors engage in lawfare several times. We mind our own business and have a productive year.
2025: New search introduced in the site, a local search facility.
2026: Record activity in the site, attempts to undermine the site revolve around rhetoric, distortions, death threats etc. █
Image source: Hawk