Operation Supply Drop is a charity effort to help support military. The idea is that money is raised to then be used to buy games for the forces to then use and play on, helping to allievate stress and provide much needed distraction from the other things that war is generally known for. It helps to combat the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and a whole host of other mental issues that soldiers are prone to. A noble cause.
However, they are currently as of writing running their annual 24-hour stream called the 8-Bit Salute to raise some of this money, featuring prominently guys from the Rooster Teeth group among others. It began at 2pm BST. An hour later at 3pm the group's website had already been DDoS'd by hackers. In fact, as I am writing this the website is still down thanks to what the group is calling a sustained, organised DDoS attack, although the stream is thankfully still going strong.
The #8BitSalute site has been attacked, please continue to support via PayPal to donations@operationsupplydrop.org while we fix
— OperationSupplyDrop (@OpSupplyDrop) 17 May, 2014
DDoS update: we're still down. Report is that this is a targeted and continuous attack. Donate via PayPal donations@operationsupplydrop.org
— OperationSupplyDrop (@OpSupplyDrop) 17 May, 2014
It's not all bad news though. As mentioned the stream is still going and the replies to the group's messages informing the Internet of why their website is down suggest that the majority of the gaming community are outraged that some people want to spoil it for the rest of us. In fact, the attack might even have gotten the stream attention quicker than it would have otherwise. And despite the website being down, it is still possible to donate to the charity through Paypal or by buying a limited edition poster of the Achievement Hunter group via Rooster Teeth's store (already got mine) for $10/£6.
But yes, long story short: despite the efforts of a few, maybe we can still have nice things. Or work together to get nice things to people who could use them.
OSD Website is here.
Stream is here.
Paypal donations can be made here.