It's worth remembering that this is NOT the first time...

• ... that @PuttItOut has gone MIA for weeks or months
• ... that Voat was left to float along with intermittent technical issues
• ... that the canary has gone without an update for ages

And, every time, there were always rumors of doom, and gloom, and things that glow in the dark. And yet, we're still here.

Because, every time, Putt just showed up again one day. And it turned out he was just busy, burnt out and/or needed a break.

And then, apparently, everyone forgot about it.

Keep in mind that the "Chill on threats" announcement is 6 months old. Three months later, he made these announcements:

• Now Hiring A Few Good Goats
• Where we find ourselves

In the latter, he explains why Voat is in lockdown:

This latest [DDoS] attack was responsive in that they were monitoring Voat. When I turned Voat off, they stopped sending traffic, but within minutes of enabling Voat, they continued their assault.

In response to this dynamic nature, the only thing I could do was to prevent the botnet from being able to function how it was. I accomplished this by requiring Authorized Only access as typical DDOS attacks on a smaller site like Voat don’t usually come with advanced planning (e.g. creating accounts). Based on their persistence and monitoring I had to disable registrations because that would be their next move to get around the first.

And why it must continue for now:

Now fast-forward to CloudFlare, which recently made news for doing something they promised they’d never do again, terminating customer service. They terminated 8chan and while that is horrible in and of itself, they did it in the most callous way possible by giving them mere hours’ notice. They terminated abruptly to inflict the most pain possible, which speaks volumes of the character of that organization.

Meanwhile the anti-truth, anti-freedom, anti-free speech advocates that dominate our internet media reveled in their victory, they were already looking for an additional trophy to add to their collection.

This is where I think the hand of God works in mysterious ways. They next came after Voat, but because of the recent attacks, Voat was inaccessible to those without accounts, thus giving them zero content in which to twist and distort in order to pressure a company like CloudFlare (now that they know it works).

And which ended on this note:

Voat has a lot of decisions to make now. Big decisions.

Writing custom software from scratch is already a daunting task, we now also have to contend with an environment that is growing increasingly hostile to basic rights of human communication. They won’t stop, and they can’t stop, because the Truth always wins in the end, and Truth isn’t on their side. It will be a fight each and every day going forward. Prepare.

To the weak: Leave. This isn't a fight for cowards or ladyboys.

I don’t know where this will all end but Voat will do the noble thing and continue standing for principles that are the right of every man and child: the freedom of expression, to be free in thought, to live as free men.

Does this sound like he's compromised and defeated?

Last we heard, he had big plans for the future. For all we know he's busy working on that.

Voat remains locked down because, the moment we open up, we will become target number 1 for leftist thought-crime censors.

8chan is still down, in spite of its admin's monumental efforts to bring it back online. Every time they get close, they get sabotaged again. While it remains down, Voat remains at risk of being deplatformed as well.

I don't think Putt will even consider opening Voat up again until at least one of the following occurs:

• 8chan comes back online, providing cover and deflecting attention
• Something drastic changes politically, removing the risk of deplatforming
• He finds a technical solution to keep Voat safe and operational

At least, that's how I would go about it.