Since there is been a new blog about, and a recent chapter from My Summer in Pantyhose by jeremy_chandler in 2023, I thought I would do a Google search to see if there has been other recent posts about the story.
The search pointed to a link to Crystal's story site, or a spoof of it, since the story had been cross posted there. When I went to the link to the story, I was sent a valid looking pop-up asking me to confirm "I was a human". I answered yes to the pop-up, and then got another pop-up asking for permission to send notifications to my computer, which I declined. I then got new window claiming I had a virus, and, blah blah blah, presumably trying to get me to allow some organization to access my computer to "clean it". I closed the link since this is a scam, but I wanted to inform people about the site.
Comments
Are you going to https://www
Are you going to https://www.storysite.org/homepage.html ?
Site looks clean (firefox doesn't complain, adblocker shows that content is only from that domain, etc).
No I think it was a spoof site
Looking back at the history, the URL was similar, but had a "2" in it somewhere. I tried to copy the link out of my history but it failed to copy and now I don't even see the URL in the history. I ran Malwarebytes to make sure I wasn't infected and it didn't come up with anything, but why I can't find it in my history now I don't know.
Might have been real
...at one time. I vaguely remember there was a problem with Storysite back when and we were redirected to www.storysite2.com instead, which might at that time have been read-only.
As I said, that was a while ago. Maybe the domain got squatted?
www2-dot-storysite
I recall that for some time -- the Search function here shows blogs or forum entries about it from 2012 -- the site was operating at www2 (dot) storysite (dot) org. Apparently Piper was the tech who put the regular www.storysite.org site back together after that.
I'm pretty sure some worrisome things happened subsequently at the www2 site (which is why I didn't link to it here), though when I tried my most recent link to it just now using Firefox just now, all I got was a line atop a white screen saying "Nginx is functioning normally".
Eric
I remember
Mailing with someone from storysite all those years ago, with a question about the site. Shorten..mm There were two mirror sites, hence the two in the address, to help spread traffic and improve speeds. It also allowed them to remain in service if they had to shut one down for updates or service.
Critical Instant of Self Preservation
Wendy, it was an excellent move on your part and took some thinking and maybe a bad experience to know "they" wanted your computer data. The ones hard to back away from are the "sticky sites" won't let us back out. Part of the hook is in the address. Once the link is opened it has control of our computer. One of the many reasons I use wifi instead of direct cable connection to the net. Even that won't let me disconnect if my computer is so busy having it's brains sucked out keyboard commands don't work. I reach up, hit the power button on my line feed. Computer and wifi goes dark. Been fortunate as the link is gone when my computer reboots. The spammers and crooks are good, they have yet to figure out how to stop a manual power blackout.
Hugs Wendy
Barb
I realized I knew nothing when I finally learned everything.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Yes read about this scam for years
And came across a few sites that tried to do things similarly. When I have encountered the sticky sites that you describe when you try to close out of them, sometimes I've had success by opening history and clicking on a previous safe site, and sometimes I had to shut my computer down too. Thanks Barbie
Only one address
storysite.org Any other address is ether passe or incorrect.
Love, Andrea Lena
This address
https://www.storysite.org/storyindex.html is the correct address.
Sephrena
Storysite2
Storysite2 was a mirror put up by a Storysite fan. Links to Storysite and associated pages have deteriorated because Crystal is no longer maintaining them and some of the servers are no longer properly connected.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Crystal Moved
Seems like a hundred years ago Crystal moved from Texas to NY. She regretted her move. I offered to go pick her up. It was the last I heard from her. I know her avatar wasn't exactly her but it was what she dreamed of. I respect everyone's desire to present anyway they wish. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't.
I don't think she touched her web site after her move. Someone has to be paying for the domain name for it to still be open on a server. None of those things are free.
Which reminds me why BCTS needs some of that fifty cents and hour I made chopping cotton.
Hugs Erin, Piper, and all the ladies who have gave so many a chance to live their lives if only in their stories.
Love you Sugar
Barb
Life is a gift meant to be lived not worn until it's worn out.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
There was an extended period of time with site down yrs ago
At the time, the secondary site was functional, allowing people to post new material for close to 6 or even 9 months before the actual site came back online. At the time, I had a software pack that let me copy an entire site, which I did and grabbed the backup site regularly.
When the main site came up, many of the additions made during the break were either never added or came in much later.
The problem with site copy software was always a requirement for a ton of storage because it had to copy lots of links multiple times before resolving the copies later on.
i was always worried about the loss of data should the site disappear. Many of the stories there didn't exist elsewhere.
I worry about that with Fictionmania and sites like Bigcloset. The wayback machine always seems to miss a lot of content on sites. Other sites try to block the backup of stories.
I lament the loss of the stories that were available in print for decades before the internet blossomed. Libraries have no interest in preserving such written product.
How many people ever visited Lee's Mardi Gras in New York? There was another store in New York (trying to remember the name. I think it had Eric in the name). A person could indulge themself at Lee's for hours. They also sold an extensive collection of clothing, wigs, et al. They had stories from publishers and some printed under their own labels. Thousands of stories many people have never had a chance to enjoy. There were books were from the fifties, sixties or even earlier along with Empathy Press, Sandy Thomas and others. Some are still available while many are hard to find.
I found some site that had printed my books available as PDFs for free a few weeks ago. On the same site, I found a PDF of almost every Sandy Thomas book ever published. It was insane.
I liked Crystals but it was poorly organized and searching was a pain in the A. If you knew what you were looking for, it was easy to find it, but general searching was sub-optimal.
I think my mind is wandering.
DD
Missing Material on StorySite
The temporary StorySite (storysitetwo.org) was where I found the 15th installment of Karen E, Lea's Educating Danielle all those years ago. (My forum entry in Hangin' Around is dated 9/4/2009.) It never made it to the restored StorySite. (It's on the Wayback, or was the last time I checked: https://web.archive.org/web/20100404020117/http://www.storys... .)
From the plot description, it looks as though Book Two on Amazon includes newer material, but the four-chapter sample doesn't go past Chapter 56 in Storysite's Part 13.
Anyway, the www2.storysite I referenced in my other comment apparently was something different. Not sure where storysite2 (as opposed to storysitetwo) fits into this. It's seem that none of those three addresses still have stories.
Eric
Crystal had a fallback website duplicate
For failure situations, Crystal had a fallback server.
At one point both servers went down and Storysitetwo came up as a stopgap. It kept people coming and allowed for some updates. It was not as fully functional as the main site and had no backup.
DD
Storysite 2 Could be a Scam
If the domain went dormant, someone could have picked it up. Scammers? Still run it as Storysite2. Different owners aren't going to change a name of a domain if it is picking up traffic. I almost lost BarbieLee.com to some scammers as they tried to steal it. I was fortunate my domain registry was locked down. For a transfer they had to get my permission.
It's a big bad world not only in real life but also in the cyber world.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl