Did Tumblr and 4chan Crash Each Other Again?
Just like last November, the blogging platform Tumblr and the anarchic message board 4chan seem to have taken one another offline this afternoon. Both sites look like they've suffered from some sort of server meltdowns, possibly as a result of a DDos attacks, which bring down websites by sending unnatural amounts of traffic. The fight started in the fall when 4chan got fed up with Tumblr users (the softer bunch, of the two) stealing their jokes in the form of photos, videos and links, known in those spheres as "memes." In response, Tumblr users planned a "raid" of their own. Rumor has it the same thing happened today. We'll update if we get any more info; if you know anything, feel free to get in touch (send screenshots!). [h/t @antderosa]
As of 4:35 p.m. ET, Tumblr is looking like this:
4chan, meanwhile, appears screwy, too, with excess white space up top and a buggy homepage:
Via Twitter, Tumblr reports, "Two hardware failures in the same database cluster have dramatically lowered performance for those blogs. Recovery is moving quickly." There's no mention of an attack, but the state of 4chan, coincidentally or not, makes the situation curious. 
As of 4:58 p.m. ET, 4chan looks right again to our eyes, though clicking on some of the boards (Technology, for instance) brings up a "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable" message.
5:03 p.m.: Reddit, via Betabeat, has photographic "evidence" that 4chan is behind the Tumblr downtime, in typically crass 4chan fashion:
It would not be unlike 4chan to claim responsibility for routine malfunctions, which Tumblr has its share of, so take all of this nerding out with shakers full of salt.
At 5:12 p.m., we can see the Tumblr dashboard again, but now that 4chan has the idea -- and whether or not it was them in the first place -- expect some more bumps throughout the evening hours, and for Tumblr's tech side to be playing defense. Tumblr users are already mulling revenge, if they haven't taken it already.
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