Slashdot Mirror
When N2H2 Mistakenly Calls Your Website 'Porn'?
Scott Auge asks: "Should one be able to sue a filtering company for libel? After seeing an article top) about filtering software for sites, I decided to take a look at how mine is listed. Upon punching my site in at this N2H2 form, I see it listed as pornography. One look at my site, and you will know it is far from pornography. doesn't seem quite right to me. Opinions?"
I'm the owner of www.pdrap.org and I'm offended that I am not listed in your database. I suggest that you put me in the category of "subversive liberal" but if you don't have a match for that, then pornography or foul language will do. Thanks.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
You can only sue for wreckless disregard for the truth, and this doesn't look wreckless, nor does it look like you're being caused any harm.
I sent them a note with their revision thing explaining that your site wasn't porn. Maybe if you bug them enough they'll look at it again. How long have you had this address? Maybe the database is old.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Not porn?
In the words of some bender-like entity: "Look at the schematics of that revised algebaric evaluator. Hubba, hubba!"
Is it libel? You decide. Read the whole bit.
Also see defamation.
This is the best you can get from Slashdot. As usual, for a real answer, you're going to need to consult a lawyer. I especially note that slander/libel is done on the state level according to findlaw, so since you don't give your state of residence, and because few if any posters are likely to understand the details of interstate legal interactions for things like this (including me!), it's probably impossible for even a lawyer who happens to be cruising Slashdot giving out free advice (also known as "casting pearls before swine") to give you a solid answer.
Right next to where it classiffied your site there is a button saying "Review Site". Clcik on that and there is an option to tell them why the site should be unblocked, or noto labled as Porn. Doesn't seem to hard to me...
they were making a suggestion as to what to add to get more traffic.
see what happens ;)
I would like for you to link to my web site so I can get some more hits. I found a flimsy excuse that I might be listed in some blacklist somewhere, so I'm sure that will make me more popular. Thank you.
... mine's labled as "sports". WTF...
Since something like 80% of the net traffic is porn related, maybe you'll actually get more traffic with it listed this way.
I suggest you change your page title to "scat titty licker teen pussy horse hardcore" to amplify this effect.
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
Is your site virtual hosted? If so, then you may be sharing a server with a porn site.
So, if IP address s.y.z.a serves both your site and www.pervertsinculverts.com, then you will be besmirched by them, since you share the same server.
It sucks, but then, all content filtering like this sucks.
www.eFax.com are spammers
How many people would need to review http://www.riaa.org as porn before they'd rate it as such? Thereafter, one could start asking them to block home pages for legislators who voted for DMCA, Microsoft, whoever we don't like. If there were enough traffic, perhaps the slashdot effect be a powerful lobby for a nice little blacklist.
Touche! Well done. I dig your style, man.
Here's what I gave them as comments for my "block" rating:
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
and I've pictures of boobies on it!
Yeah!
Google indexes 3 billion pages. Most censorware companies claim to review every banned page manually. Guess what? There's no way to make the numbers work. They rely on crudes rules of thump. Which by definition sometimes fail.
Check out my introduction to censorware. Most slashdotters will already be familiar with all of this except maybe some of the arguments.
P.S. Yes, I wrote "thump". Intentionally.
and put up some naked chicks. You know you were thinking about it anyway.
:(
Go on! Get to it, I'm not going to wait all day.
Oh, who am I kidding... I will too wait all day.
No relation to Happy Monkey
might have gone they day they scanned your page. I quit using webrings completely, because people complained about the places they might be directed to (from my page).
they are idiots anyways. i made a movie in college called "ned the ninja" and we thought it would be funny to put the site at www.ninjaporn.com
ITS BLOCKED! there is no porn at the site whatsoever, and ive recieved a grand total of maybe 300 hits to the site ever. how the hell do they find theese?
The problem is a matter of categorization. It seems that they do not have a "Sucks so hard it blows!!!" category and they decided to just put you under the catch-all "Porn".
In any case, after seeing your site, I'd have to say that they were doing a service for the community, in this case anyway.
...or rather, how do they do the rating anyway?
Just for the thrill, I ran one of my own websites* thru the system, and this is what I got:
The Site: won-tolla.future.easyspace.com is categorized by N2H2 as: Web Page Hosting/Free Pages
The site you submitted resides on a Web page hosting server that provides Web page hosting for their users such as homepages that share a common domain. These sites include those provided by ISPs, University/education servers, free Web page hosts, etc. Although many of these Web page providers post rules and regulations for content, they do not always adequately monitor this content. Users often abuse Web page services by posting offensive content under multiple pseudonyms.
Now, this site contains stuff that can be labeled, among other things, pornographic. It also contains a lot of other stuff, but thats beside my point right now.
My point is; they seem to rate domains on what you're most likely to find there - not the induvidual sites.
*)The same that is showing up there, just under my nick.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
yeah, i just figured that out; google cache gets around the filtering, thus it has been blocked as a loop hole.
internet way-back machine (archive.org) is not listed at all.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
They used to have slashdot listed as "profanity" and "message boards". I guess enough people sent in review requests that they changed it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Baught my domain, threw togeather a quick site and went "live" got to school the next day, "Hey guys come lookee here"
"Im sorry this site has been blocked for offensive content " 01 Lingere". EH???
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
That's a really good question, but you'll have to ask a lawyer.
Make sure to report back when you do!
Taral
WARN_(accel)("msg null; should hang here to be win compatible\n");
-- WINE source code
Are you seriously suggesting that someone use a free, quick, common-sense solution when instead they could spend five figures and five years on a lawsuit?
Attitudes like yours are the reason we have so many skeletal lawyers collapsing from hunger in the street.
I don't know how they do things in *your* country, but *here* we drive our SUVs straight to the attorney no matter what happens.
(It's a joke, son)
Porn? Are there people out there who get turned on by goatse? o_O
Maybe the trouble is a spider who fetches your page, looks at the links, and notices more than 80% of the href point to the same file. GET parameters are different, but maybe their regex don't check that.
Have you ever noticed that pattern in porn sites?
80%+ of the links go to http://domain.porn/register
Maybe it's just that.
Also, snippets like "Demo", "Contact", "!!! WANTED !!!", "gearing up", "is coming", "files and attach" (all from your site) can be potentially offensive!
(much fine print later)
Click here to have this reviewed.
Hello,
At my school, we use an N2H2 proxy, and a proxy known as Bess. The N2H2 one is the more modern one, and is used on all the computers.
On the N2H2 proxy, I have noticed that they often mistakenly block sites for porn. In my opinion, I think there is some bug in their system.
Their policy remains clear that there is a several step reviewing process before declaring any site unacceptable. But, still, many sites get blocked. If you notice a site that is not porn that is blocked, just send them a message and they usually fix the problem in less than a week.
One incident, in which they blocked our local industrial association http://www.via.org for being porn, which it definitely wasn't.
There may be a problem with them trying to block entire servers, not knowing that there were non-pornographic sites on the same server. If it is not this, I really have no idea why it happens.
But, if you can get a few customers of the proxy to e-mail them and bug them as well, they will feel a slight bit more motivated to fix the problem.
Well, hope this helps ease your pain
-- Jeff
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Orppf urp mf y.ppcxn. yflcbi otcnnov C am yflcbi yr n.apb Ekrpatv (Dvorak -> Qwerty)
You do realize that they only rate sites that are blocked by them.
If there is no reason to block a site, why would it be in the database.
I think that you are lacking logic. If it is not there, then there is nothing there to block the site for.
Just a few weeks ago, they blocked slashdot for being message boards and profanity. I sent them a message, and it was fixed the next day (that was cool). Now, if they haven't "unintentionally" blocked it again, it should have no description.
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Orppf urp mf y.ppcxn. yflcbi otcnnov C am yflcbi yr n.apb Ekrpatv (Dvorak -> Qwerty)
N2H2 looks like it offers opinions of sites with regards to their content. In their opinion, your site contains/is pornography (which includes content in addition to naked people), and there's a means of asking them to reconsider. People trust N2H2's opinion and choose to not go to sites rated badly.
ORBS, RBL (or whatever the modern anti-spam analogues are) offer opinions about hosts on the Internet with regards to their mail output. In their opinions, certain open relays spread spam, and there's a means of asking them to reconsider. People trust ORBS et al.'s opinion and choose not to receive mail from sites rated badly.
Contemplate: Are the opinions of N2H2, ORBS, etc actionable? Do the opinions of these organizations cause the people they review to lose business, do those opinions constitute libel? Do these organizations make mistakes in their opinions?
See also: Consumer Reports.
There are 1.1... kinds of people.
Excuse me for my ignorance on this particular filter... Could it be parsing the URL in some way that it appears to contain an acronym for some sexual reference? If other sites with extremely low hit counts are filtered as porn, and their URL just happened to have a semi-sexual reference I would be surprised if it didn't.
Fuck, they blocked /. for profanity!?! Well fuck me. That really sucks fucking ass.
www.over16ok.com :D
16th birthday present from dad
not on their list phew....
I think that you are lacking humor. Teh funny kind. Get a grip, lighten up.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
I'm acessing this site at school, and I can't see it! What are you talking about?