An Army of 1 in 10

You might be wondering now that Serving in Unsilence has been launched, what’s in store for An Army of 1 in 10? I mean, it obviously wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for me to launch a blog host and then continue to run my own personal blog on a separate installation, would it?

Well, I do intend to move this blog over to SIU, and it’s going to happen this weekend. If you visit SIU, you’ll notice that I already have a blog there, and practically all of my posts have been imported. The move won’t break any links to this blog though, because I will set it up so that the domain points to the new blog. It will mean that my armyof1in10.net email address will no longer work, however. The new email address will be anonymous [at] unsilence [dot] com, so please update your address books.

Before I flip the switch on the DNS, I need to make sure that all of the users who have registered here are imported into my new blog so that no one has to re-register (I hope!). So it’ll be a day or two before it actually happens.

Nathan over at Homocon wrote a post concerning yesterday’s launch of Serving in Unsilence, but I couldn’t find any way of replying there, so I’ve decided to do so here. Since his post raises a valid point, I think that’s also the best way of doing so since I can clarify something in the press release this way.

Anonymous Soldier, the site’s founder, states that “Serving in Unsilence has one of the strongest privacy policies on the internet, and strongly urges its members who are currently in the military not to divulge any personal information on their blogs.”

Which then begs the question — if you don’t divulge any personal information on your blog, is it really a blog? And how do you write about your life in the military while skirting any information and/or series of events than can be used to identify you?

By “personal information,” I meant things such as one’s name, unit, or any specific identifying details (e.g. a tattoo, injury, scar, etc). I think that I’ve done a pretty good job of posting about my life in the military without making any specific mentions that could be used to identify me.

I may not have gone into great detail, but I don’t believe it to be necessary to do so to write about life in the military. It’s really not that different from posting about being deployed — maintaining one’s personal OPSEC (”PERSEC”) is no different from maintaining regular OPSEC. One just has to be cognizant of what is being posted to the internet and the possible consequences that may come with it.

Nathan maintains a great site, and I highly recommend it. Thanks for the mention, Nathan!

Nathan’s site: Homocon

At 0100 CET, Project: Unsilence will officially launch with the posting of a press release on this site.

This new site has been under development for a month, with me devoting every spare minute I have to working on it. I’m quite pleased with how it’s turned out, and I expect that it’ll become quite significant. As I’ve already stated, this will be a community website for LGBT Service Members where they can voice their opinions on an infinite number of subjects. How exactly it will accomplish this will remain undisclosed until the press release is posted.

A few lucky people have already seen the site, so I ask them not to say anything about it yet. Once the site is launched, I ask that if you maintain a blog or a website, to please link to the press release and the new website. Spread the word! If you have access to AKO, NKO, or the Air Force Portal and you’re not subject to DADT, then please post the link the new site in the forums on those services so that LGBT Service Members will know about it.

Help me make this a major site and contribute to repealing 10 USC 654.

I’m seriously annoyed. I created a favicon for Project: Unsilence this evening, and uploaded it to the website. I then ensured that the HTML of the site was using the correct one. Then I tested it in several browsers and platforms:

• Internet Explorer 7.0, Windows XP Home
• Firefox 2.0, Windows XP Home
• Firefox 2.0, Mac OS 10.4.8
• Safari 2.0.4, Mac OS 10.4.8
• Firefox 2.0, Linux
• Konqueror 3.5.6, Linux

I had no problems with the above combinations, except for two: in both Safari and Konqueror — no matter what I did — I could not convince these two browsers to update the favicon. Closing the browsers, forcing a refresh, clearing the cache… nothing would make them use the correct favicon. To make sure that they weren’t pulling it from some strange place that find . -iname ‘favicon.ico’ would not locate, I checked Safari on my iBook. It pulled the correct favicon, but I’m attributing that to the fact that I had never visited the website on Safari on that particular computer.

Both Safari and Konqueror use the same rendering engine: KHTML (yes, I know people will scream at me that Safari uses WebKit, but WebKit is built on KHTML, so they’re the same engine in my eyes). KHTML was created by the folks over at KDE, so my annoyance is directed more at them than Apple. It’s a minor issue, especially since 99.99% of people who visit the site won’t ever have a problem, but I will. I’m the one who has to see the ugly default favicon sitting in the address bar in these two browsers. It’s going to be like that quiet buzz in your ear that never goes away.

Does anyone know how to make Safari and/or Konqueror update the favicon when they refuse to do so?

In twelve days, Project:  Unsilence will be launched after weeks of development.  I’m quite excited about this new site and what it offers.

Some more information about the new site:  it’s going to be a user-driven community, and its target market is the LGBT Service Member.  Anyone who serves, or has served, in the U.S. Armed Forces and identifies as LGBT is eligible for membership.  The majority of the site is going to be free, but it will offer some additional features that will require a small fee to help me recoup the cost of running it.  Of course, the site will be perfectly usable and not crippled in any manner for those who are happy with the free features.

Unlike this blog, Project:  Unsilence will have a Terms of Service (to protect me), and a strong Privacy Policy (to protect the members).  I am now opening it up for beta-testing, so if you’re interested in being a beta-tester, let me know.  You must meet these qualifications for membership in order to become a beta-tester:

• be a current Service Member (either in the active or reserve components — this includes DEP); or
• be a former Service Member (ETS, chaptered out, or retired); and
• identify as LGBT

If you become a beta-tester, then I would ask you not to advertise the site until the launch date.  If you meet the qualifications and are willing to keep Project:  Unsilence under the radar until 15 February 2007, then drop me a line at my email address (anonymous [at] armyof1in10 [dot] net) and I’ll be happy to get you set up.