On 16/08/05, Ryan Delaney ryan.delaney@gmail.com wrote:>
This (Wikipedia endorsing a DDoS) will never happen, so its pointless to argue about, but I just wanted to go on the record saying I am totally against it. This isn't the wild west. Block their IP range if absolutely necessary, but DDoSing them is insane.
And couldn't happen. Remember - the BBC was serving 10Gb a *second* on the morning of July 7. Slashdot's influence is so small it doesn't even produce a noticeable blip in our requests per second.
Jimbo pretty much hits the nail on the head - for a small PR firm, the hullabaloo would be great for them, and far more effective than if their "viral" campaign had gone unnoticed.
However if you want to start entertaining the idea of range-blocking the BBC or other big company - which would make the news wires, I'd imagine - you need a very high level of proof, or you're going to look stupid in front the world. Not good for image (but would sure drive WP a lot of traffic :-) ).
I believe the Jamie Kane article was started by a username. It may be possible to get the devs to find out the IP address assoicated with that name (I believe the last-used IP for that address is recorded, but nothing more). If that IP resolves to the BBC... well, that's something. But the BBC has some 20,000+ employees and it could still all be a co-incidence, albeit a suspicious one.
Dan