September 3, 2023

Hi, this is Andrew G. Watters, aka "Andy" on JD Underground. I was a frequent poster on the original JD Underground website from the 2009 to 2014 time frame. For a history of JD Underground, please refer to this Blogger entry by "Esq. Never." I decided to resurrect JD Underground because there are no other free forums for lawyers to discuss legal issues and current events anonymously or pseudo-anonymously. The multiple failed attempts by others at creating a subreddit on Reddit are proof that someone will always screw this up, so I'm doing it properly: a self-coded barebones system just like the original, optimized for the same audience as before. This is running on my Slash web application server for reasons of economy, since I have no marginal cost beyond what I've already spent. Taking questions...discuss.

Update 9/4/2023: This is an opportunity to do a discussion board without relying on a SQL database...I initially thought that was impossible, but then I remembered a project I did 20 years ago while developing my law school's website. It was a database accelerator that created HTML page components from the database at regular intervals and had the server reassemble those components to create the final pages delivered to the user. My system increased the performance of the U.C. Hastings website by 1,000% and was a breakthrough in the area of alternatives to Memcached-type database acceleration systems. I finally have a chance to use it.

Update 9/4/2023: I've got posts and search working...need to add registration and login. I will probably do a simple .htaccess and .htpasswd file, which is the easiest solution that still preserves a reasonable level of security. Login will be required in order to have a username and to edit posts, but I still intend to allow anonymous posts (IP addresses will be displayed for anonymous users, and stored for compliance purposes).

Update 9/4/2023: I have login and registration working. User registrations will be manually reviewed for now, but eventually will be fully automated. Meanwhile, anonymous posting works. As long as people don't abuse it, I will leave it functional.