Over the years we have lost quite a few of our own. Two of the men who are directly responsible for our community, many authors, site owners, and friends. Unfortunately, today we are saddened as have lost another. 

Known to many as "A True Fan", "True Fan", or simply as "Lenny", he has left an indullable mark on this community as well as many others. We will do everything we can to make sure that all that he created will remain as it is today. We all offer our condolences to his family and to all the true fans of A True Fan.

Rest In Peace Lenny, we'll watch over your fandom for you.

Unfortunately, not click bait...

Hi Everyone!

As some of you may have noticed, we have been experiencing intermittent outages with a small handful of our story siites as recently as earlier today. These outages are a result of a service that we utilize being hacked, which is affecting some functionality of the sites and triggering malware scanners within our service. It is being addressed but as with any attack of this nature, we can't offer a timeframe of when we are "in the clear" as we are simply reacting when trouble pops up as software needs to be developed to address this new issue moving forward.

For now, be sure you keep copies of everything that is newly posted on your site as an attack could force a site to restore from a recent backup, which 'could' reverse the addition of new material. Site owners, you will be contacted if this action is performed on your site. Get in touch with one of us if you have any questions or concerns.

Together we built The Fort Family and together we defend it!
- Jeff

Hi DSS Hosting Clients / Fort Family Site Owners / Community Members,

Be on the lookout for emails claiming that your email address, domain name, or even your hosting service have been compromised, are in need of being renewed, or are in the process of being discontinued unless you respond. These are phishing attempts designed to trick you into responding to their request and in the process doing one of two things. One: tricking you into exposing personal information that can be exploited and Two: verifying that you are a live contact that can possibly be further exploited in the future.

These attempts have become more persistent in the last couple of years and from what I am reading, people are falling for it and clicking on those enclosed links or providing credentials when trying to log in to these fake sites, handing these people the ability to hijack your site or email. It happens far too often.

Be sure to flag these emails as spam, if we are providing your hosting let us know when you receive them so we can follow up, and if they claim to represent a real organization like Google, Yahoo, or even DSS Hosting, be sure to let that organization know what happened and be sure to forward a copy of the email in question.

If you ever believe your credentials could have been compromised, log in to your site/cPanel and change your password as soon as humanly possible. The sooner you act, the more likely you are to be able to prevent losing all your hard work or even more personal information. If you need assistance in securing your website, our clients can go to https://dsshosting.net/request-support/ and fill out a request form. This will notify our staff and get you the quickest possible response. Other service providers have similar steps to gain assistance so be sure to check their main website for information.

Spread the word!
- Jeff

This sample is an actual email received by one of our clients. Blue text shows where I replaced information with a generic representation. Red indicates information that should raise red flags! All clickable links have been stripped for your protection:

Subject: dsshosting.net [1] has initiated Removal of Your
webmaster@dsshosting.net
Date: 2022-10-02 22:11
From: dsshosting.net [1] Notification <noreply@xm7.zxne.live>
To: webmaster@yourdomainname.com
Hi webmaster, (Simply using your email "name". We know your name and would use it.)
webmaster@dsshosting.net removal from dsshosting.net [1]
server has
been approved and initiated,
Due to ignorance of last verification warning. (We don't talk to our clients like this, EVER!  Big red flag!)
Removal will occur in exactly 48 hours (10/3/2022 4:11:04 a.m.
We recommend that you do any of the below and protect your mailbox
CONTINUE REMOVAL [1]
CANCEL REMOVAL [1]
-------------------------
(c) 2022 dsshosting.net [1]
_>>>>>>>>>> Please do not reply to this message. <<<<<<<<<< _
Links:
------
[1]
https://vasf.net/wp-content/themes/payam/dettt.php?email=webmaster@dsshosting.net
Links:
------
[1] http://dsshosting.net (even starts with "http://" which won't be the case if you are hosted with DSS Hosting. Your domain will start with https://)

Attention All CSU Readers:

As Archivist of the Clan Short Universe, I hereby declare and confirm that the author known as SamIam has successfully completed the necessary requirements to be awarded the title Clan Short Universe Author and confer upon him all the rights and responsibilities which are consistent with the title.

On this day, September Fourteenth, in the year Two Thousand and Twenty-Two, let it be known that the story Oh Can You See has been reviewed and accepted as a Clan Short Universe Core Timeline story, and is considered a canonical part of the main storyline.

TSL Clan Short Archivist

Welcome to the CSU SamIam, as usual, all of CSU Stories will be co-hosted on the CSUhub as well. This is the only place for all the CSU Stories, Images, and Resources.

This post has been approved by The Clan Short Archivist.

Portions of the post have been contributed by ACFan Creator of The Clan Short Universe.

(PS: Temporal Tranquilizers are in the third drawer on the left!)