Room Eight, as regular readers have noticed, has gotten very buggy in recent months, and it needs a serious upgrade from the outmoded Drupal platform it’s running on. The site is not, you’ll be shocked to learn, generating the several thousand dollars we need for an overhaul, so we’re writing to update our community of readers and writers on the state of the site, and invite technical and financial suggestions (modest four-figure checks also welcome) for how to keep Room Eight open, healthy, and vibrant.

Gothamist offers a scorecard

Simple Justice says the DA simply broke the law

The St. Louis Dispatch calls the DA's tactics "downright scary"

Buffalo Pundit: the DA completely overreached

Bond Papers welcomes Johnson to "The Hurt Locker"

And more: here, here, here, here, here and here

Daily Gotham's Bouldin takes a long, thoughtful ride on the abuse of power train:

"In short, this looks entirely too much like an abuse of power and of judicial process in the furtherance of strictly political goals. Of course, there may be perfectly reasonable justifications for the subpoena, reasons that outweigh the chilling effect.

We could learn about those reasons by means of an independent investigation. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has oversight of the District Attorneys, would be the right man to talk to about that."

The Albany's Project's Phillip Anderson calls the Bronx DA's tactics "absolutely outrageous" and echoes Bouldin's call for action.

Liz, too, is not buying Johnson's Bronx tale, questions the DA's abuse of power (and taxpayer funds)

Azi tags the DA's efforts as simply "bizarre"

Nationally, the Wall Street Journal and Volokh Conspiracy are questioning the actual power of Johnson's subpoena

Meanwhile, Gawker expresses their concern: that we're turning into the UK (go figure)

We’re relieved finally to be able to share with the Room Eight community the details of our battle to preserve the anonymity of a blogger and commenters in the face of a subpoena from a politician the blogger had criticized.

This January, we received a subpoena (.pdf) from the Bronx District Attorney, Robert Johnson, demanding identifying details of a Room Eight blogger who wrote under the name “Republican Dissident,” as well as the authors of a dozen comments on his posts. Equally chilling, the subpoena contained a legend (above) implicitly threatening us with prosecution if we disclosed its existence.

Last week, we won our legal battle to preserve the blogger’s and commenters’ anonymity, but the story is a cautionary tale in how – whether deliberately or not -- a local prosecutor appears to have been able to intimidate an anonymous, small-scale local critic into silence.

The New York Times reports this evening that a spokesman for the District Attorney – over whose name the original subpoena, dated last October, went out – says Johnson was “not aware that a subpoena was sent nor was he aware of the content of the comments, until after the subpoena was sent. The district attorney reviewed the matter, determined that a subpoena was not necessary at this time, and directed that it be withdrawn.”

Comment section is all yours. Lots to digest.

Clearly, our servers are sucking today. We, too, wish it weren't so. Sorry!

Update: Site's working; comments are working for some, but not all. Boo!

Update II: All systems are a go! Our apologies, again, for the inconvenience.

Happy Friday!

So, if by chance you're experiencing difficulties logging in, please delete your cookies and hit refresh.  We just migrated to new servers - and this is but one of the many lovely issues that come with...

That said, you can always email us for assistance as well at editors (at) r8ny (dot) com.  Operators are standing by.

Quick note to Room Eight commenters: if you have recently posted a comment on the site and can no longer find it - we apologize. Nothing personal!

It's not that our zapper isn't working, it's just that our system thinks you're made of spam.

That said, email us at editors (at) r8ny (dot) com, and we'll do our best to resuscitate your works.

Want to turn up the amperage on your broadcast journalism career? If not, know someone who does?

Room Eight seeks a more straightlaced - albeit, still edgy - Adam Green-type to deliver a daily dose of nightly news on the site. It's a committment.

So, show us what you've got. Send us a link to your 3-5 minute video newscast on New York politics (via YouTube, Google Video, etc.) to editors (at) r8ny (dot) com.

As for the pay ... virtually nonexistent, for starters! But the exposure ... tremendous! Or, at least a whole hell of a lot more than what you're getting now.

Just a quick note to all Room Eight bloggers:

We are busily upgrading the site's backend - and are well aware that we are causing all sorts of collateral damage in the process - albeit unintentionally.

That said, if you are having problems posting, commenting or just have other issues of which you'd like to dispose, email us at editors (at) r8ny (dot) com. If nothing else, we promise a quick turnaround.

Thank you for your continued patience.

The blog is all yours ...

We're looking for a few good sponsors who want nothing more than to reach the steadily growing LunchBox set - a hip, well educated, politically minded group of folk who find it easy to spend their disposable incomes.

We're offering two advertising opportunities:

1.  A 10-15 second video preview before each show; and/or,
2.  A "sponsored by" mention with logo [embedded both within the blog post text as well as the video credits].

Please email your best offer for either or both of these packages to editors (at) r8ny (dot) com.

We're not really sure what this NYU Law/DL21C survey will eventually say; but do know that we - Room Eight - have been included therein.

So,  you know, take it - and ... ummm ... say some nice things, or not.  Really, it's all about you.

Click here to take it. 

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the downed site earlier this afternoon.

That little experience ... ummm ... sucked!

In case you missed it, we thought it worth noting that prolific Room Eight contributor, Jerry Skurnik, makes an appearance in today's New York Observer Wise Guys column.

The Observer folk were apparently quite taken by Jerry's earlier analysis on the extent campaigns go to crack The New York Times endorsement code - a piece that appeared on Room Eight this past weekend.

Jerry elaborates further on this point today...