What does not kill me, makes me stronger. — Friedrich Nietzsche

The internet is always an unpredictable neighborhood and sometimes a rough one. The Arts Fuse website crashed (but did not burn) yesterday; after a long day and a half, we’re back up and running smoothly—better and more resilient.

The cause of the crash remains elusive—forensics in the system logs suggest potential culprits ranging from the benign (a Yahoo search engine robot hitting the site too hard) to the moronic (an idiot in a Bulgarian hotel trying to connect to a live web sex chat) to the nefarious (a denial-of-service attack or, worse, a murky intruder who left no fingerprints). As a consequence, the safest course was to rebuild the site (and its underlying server software) and restore the content.

Every silver cloud contains lemonade, and we’ve taken this opportunity to not only strengthen and restore the site but to begin putting in place some new features that we’ll be rolling out in the coming months. The most obvious thing you’ll notice are the new areas set aside for highlighting content of interest and, in the future, messages from organizations that have made the enlightened decision to support The Arts Fuse and its discerning readers. For those readers, we’ve introduced new categories of membership that will bring you a little closer to The Arts Fuse and the people who make it happen.

Looking ahead, you’ll see a new, custom format for our judicial reviews, as well as new ways to stay in touch with our contributors and follow their actitivities both on and away from The Arts Fuse. If you believe in what we’re doing, please consider becoming an individual member, an underwriter (email underwriting@artsfuse.org), or a sponsor (email advertising@artsfuse.org); keep in mind that your tax-deductible financial support contributes not only to the content you enjoy on The Arts Fuse but also to the infrastructure that brings that content to you.

If you do encounter a technical problem with the site, please drop an email to webmaster@artsfuse.org; if you have a question or comment about The Arts Fuse, we’ll always be happy hear from you at info@artsfuse.org.

We live in interesting times, and your webmaster and the rest of The Arts Fuse team will be working hard to make sure this is a thought-provoking experience and not a Chinese curse.