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AOL Blocks Links from LiveJournal

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the clue-not-found dept.

Evan Martin writes "LiveJournal.com is an open-source weblog site with over a million users, some of whom use AOL. Last week, AOL began blocking all HTTP requests with "www.livejournal.com" Referer headers. This is a common practice by image hosting sites to prevent off-site linking of their images and 'bandwidth theft'. However, in AOL's case, they're blocking everything, not just images, effectively breaking all links to any AOL member's site--but only from LiveJournal. To be clear: nobody on LiveJournal can even make a link to any AOL member site without getting a '404 Not Found' error. We've also heard reports of the same thing happening on AOL properties (Netscape, Compuserve). This concerns us because we have to deal with the support requests: it worked in the past for our users, and it continues to work for other sites, so our users think it's our fault."

Martin continues: "We've tried to contact AOL three different ways, all without success. We've also told our users to contact their tech support. At one point, an AOL staffer pointed out that FTP access still worked (which is probably because FTP has no "Referrer" concept), and so, as an interim fix, we're rewriting all HTTP URLs to use FTP on the AOL properties where that works instead. This means that users can again host their images on the AOL webspace they're paying for, but more importantly, it means they can simply link to their webpage.

We wouldn't be so upset if they were simply blocking images. Bandwidth use is a valid concern, after all, and we even provide step-by-step instructions for people to configure their webservers to prevent image "theft". However, because they're blocking all access, including regular links, this looks like it's either a mistake, or something more insidious (the conspiracy theorists have pointed out that AOL has just launched their own competing weblog product, also based on "journals").

Although CI Host sued AOL recently for being blocked, we really don't want to do that. We still suspect that this was all just a mistake, and hopefully, by making this public, we'll manage to get their attention, since all our previous attempts have failed."

16 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. fp? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    fp

    1. Re:fp? by D'Sphitz · · Score: -1, Troll

      sp

  2. GOOD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Livejournal needs a little abuse, and if it comes from AOL I say all the better. I'm sick of all these little whiney kids and their "LJ's" or neurotic bimbos and their tities, or crazy ladies and their cats, we should all block Livejournal.com!!

    1. Re:GOOD! by iamwill · · Score: 0, Troll

      I'll second that. visit my livejournal at...

    2. Re:GOOD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      I fully, completely, wholeheartedly agree with you. I have not seen a single LiveJournal page where the author did not have some severe problems.

  3. About time "blogs" got banned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I fucking hate that word.
    And the whole concept.
    I dont give a fuck how much shit you ate this morning. Or how you are "feeling".
    Dont just block livejournal, block all the fucking blogs. They infest my search results with useless shit.

  4. geocities does same thing by linuxislandsucks · · Score: 0, Troll

    several free sites do this incluing geocities crap..

    just another sign AOL is going down for the count

    --
    Don't Tread on OpenSource
  5. Re:Wait a minute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hi I'm new to Slash Dot. Let me introduce myself by stating some of my opinions:

    Microsoft is the greatest company in America.
    I approve of John Ashcroft's job performance.
    The RIAA is only doing its job to protect musicians from the threat of piracy.
    I recommend buying SCO stock and holding it for the long term.
    SCO is a good upstanding corporate citizen.
    My favorite band is Metallica.
    Bullying should be allowed in schools because it's a normal part of growing up.
    At 3 hours, Lord of the Rings is too long and it's boring.

  6. Re:Killing referers kills EVERYTHING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Use 403, you fucking rfc ignorant idiot.

  7. Thank you Mr. AC by Bruha · · Score: 1, Troll

    From the bottom of my non trolling heart!

  8. Re:Wait a minute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    For example, the attacks on September 11th were a good technical solution to killing lots of people one considers to be "infidels" but also a very bad, evil, horrible act.
    GWB considers the people he killed infidels? I had no idea.
  9. Mod parent up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The 404 error code means "object not found." If the object is found, but the server doesn't want to send it, THAT IS A FUCKING 403 FORBIDDEN. Fuck.

  10. Re:F12 by NanoGator · · Score: -1, Troll

    "Gotta love Opera :) "

    If you had said Mozilla, you'd be at +5 instead of +3. ;)

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  11. Re:Wait a minute by kaltkalt · · Score: 0, Troll

    Only the non-born-again-evangelical christian ones.

    --

    Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
  12. aol? by pc+maclinuxbliss · · Score: -1, Troll

    who in the open source community is using aol??? for everyone that raised their hands...get out...please...i beg you...really...i'm serious...go away...aol is the modern day albatross...you know like windows millenium...or any other micro-shaft product for that matter!!!!

  13. Re:They block slashdot too. by Snaller · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah, after all they have to find new and bigger bloatware installers to use.

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating