Lesson Learned: First Time for Everything and Not in a Good Way

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4.1K followers

Yesterday, I used the Wayback Machine at web.archive.org to look at my old website for classified ad sites I recommended in 2017. One of the sites I recommended was Backpage.

Curious to see if Backpage was still in business, I clicked the link to the Backpage home page.

The following image is the first I have seen online in 40 years.

website seized by law enforcement

The Backpage founders have been sentenced to prison. Michael Lacey, 76, received a 5-year sentence for money laundering in August 2024. He still faces 30 prostitution facilitation charges.

Lesson learned: Being risk-averse, I have started paying more attention to my website's legal pages, including a Disclaimer page.


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Recent Comments

7

😲 Wow, I can thank WA for providing affiliate disclaimers. I also have a block in every post I make. It may be overkill, but I work in a prison and certainly don't want to be in one (lol, sorry, a little prison humor:-)

It's a great reminder for newbies and even people with some experience of how important they are. I have never heard anything about this, so thanks for the info.

1

Yes, risk management in any business should always be at the front of our minds!

2

Yes it closed ages ago. I got a lawyer to look write my legal.pages

1

That was closed down a long time ago.... via Craigslist.
They were up to no good.
Abie

1

Yes, it was a long time ago—about a year after I shut down my website. Sentencing was done in August 2024, with more to come.

2

You are welcome, Abie.

My perception of the general population has improved over the last several years.

There are many, many, many helpful people out and about. I just never realized it until I became a senior with a mobility issue. I have Parkinson's and Meniere's diseases, which are incurable. Each alone can cause balance issues. I have difficulty walking. I have made some spectacular falls in public. One fall was in a national chain of grocery stores. I lost my balance and fell into a low chill case of muffins, landing with my upper torso, shoulder, right arm, and head in the muffins. If I had fallen three feet more to the right, I would have landed in the eggs display.

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