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Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the sorry-charlie dept.

ThinkingInBinary writes "The other day, I was trying to mention bugmenot.com in my Facebook status, and I discovered to my horror that Facebook blocks the phrase 'bugmenot.com' as "abusive" in status updates, messages, and presumably any other communications on the site. Facebook isn't even listed on BugMeNot, as they requested that logins for Facebook be blocked. This is pretty ridiculous, as I can't even send my friends a message mentioning bugmenot.com!"

19 of 448 comments (clear)

  1. I can't get to bugmenot.com at work either. by bigtallmofo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Everyone seems to have a problem with it. It's really bugged me that I've never been able to get to bugmenot from work:

    Access to this web page is restricted at this time.

    Reason:
    The Websense category "Hacking" is filtered.

    URL:
    http://www.bugmenot.com/

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:I can't get to bugmenot.com at work either. by HolyCrapSCOsux · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Websense where I work has all of sourceforge listed as malware...

      --
      0xB315AA8D852DCD3F3DCA578FD2E0BF88
  2. Not true? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just updated my current status to "bugmenot.com" and posted a note with the title and content of "bugmenot.com" and both got through fine.

    Maybe Facebook saw this post and did some fast damage control.

    1. Re:Not true? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wrote a long note about BugMeNot and facebook's censorship, and it posted just fine.

      An hour later (now), I checked facebook and my published note has vanished. Gone without a trace. No warning, no e-mails, nothing, it's just not there. I'm putting up another note about censorship (without using the BugMeNot phrase this time) to see what happens.

      Regardless of what happens, I will be cancelling my facebook account by the end of next week. This is absolutely ridiculous.

  3. Re:Yes you can by Vectronic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not the best filter anyways... as you are still (currently) allowed to use "bugmenot" without the .com so you can still say "bugmenot website" etc...

  4. Re:FBmenot.com by mustafap · · Score: 4, Interesting

    or write a letter.

    Try it, it's fun. I even bought a fountain pen. It feels nicer than a biro, or typing on the keyboard.

    --
    Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
  5. The also ban .. by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 2, Interesting

    bugmenot isnt the only site they refuse, they also have censored BME Zine .com

    im so glad facebook looks out for us.. i wonder if lemonparty is banned?

    --
    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
  6. Re:another "Do more evil" clone? by globaljustin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    another "Do more evil" clone?

    Yes. If you've looked at their redesign that will be implemented soon, you know what I mean. They basically split the functions of the site across 4 or 5 pages instead of just the one, so now you have to click more to see the same amount of content. The whole redesign is made to get more page views of their ads.

    I hate it, but I'm old. I remember when the internet and the WWW came to suburbia back in the mid 90s. Almost all internet sites were free, if you had the hardware to access them, just like facebook.com is right now. It's free.

    Somehow, someone who has no understanding of economics managed to convince themselves that facebook.com was worth hundreds of millions for investment. It's not. It never will be. It's a free website that has some cool widgets and lets you keep up with your friends. It's not like they have a patent on social networking.

    Here's what will happen. Facebook will have to continually make its interface more intrusive in order to please their investors and advertisers. As that happens, they will loose users. Eventually another site will pop up that has the same functionality as facebook.com only without all the BS. People will begin to use it, and the internet circle of life continues.

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  7. Bugmenot got useless... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...as soon as they allowed others to block sites from bugmenot.

    They killed the point of using them.
    Nowadays more and more sites are blocked on bugmenot.
    So much in fact that I uninstalled the Firefox* add-on.

    Does anyone know an alternative?
    Preferably one that's offshore and will not bow to any idiot sending them a complaint.

    * The Firefox spell checker does not know the word "Firefox"? WTF? ;)

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    1. Re:Bugmenot got useless... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "* The Firefox spell checker does not know the word "Firefox"? WTF? ;)"

      Hilarious. The iPhone will correct your capitalization for you so it's iPhone and iPod.

  8. Re:Yes you can by Grimbleton · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There are a lot of people I know in meatspace and have known for years (Such as a girl I lived next door to all my life until I moved away from home) who I have on MySpace and Facebook, and have no other way of contacting them because that's the most convenient way -for them- to communicate.

  9. WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link by onlysolution · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did anyone else notice the little iframe in the bugmenot page? That links back to the ttuttle.com site the original blog post is on? According to Chrome's nifty element inspector it's pointing back to http://www.ttuttle.net/396jdw.php, though it's obviously slashdotted by now so I have no idea what it's supposed to do or if that address is unique.

    1. Re:WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The URL of the story poster (http://www.ttuttle.net/) and BugMeNot.com are owned by the same people.

      What's going on is that the people that run BugMeNot "astro-turfed" Slashdot, who when they read "censorship", immediately wet their pants all over the non-story without checking it out. Note that a number of Facebook users have said that they had no issues at all with Facebook and BugMeNot?

      Very good effort on BugMeNot's astro-turf effort. A+ in fact.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link by kjones692 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I know the story poster in person - we're both at CMU. The story is actually an attempt to send unique IP addresses to a certain site for an academic assignment. The details of the assignment are here. (Warning, PDF.)

      --

      Love the Third Amendment?
  10. Re:Yes you can by Vectronic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Really? I tried "bugmenot.com" as my status just before typing that comment, refused...

    Warning: This Message Contains Blocked Content
    Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.

    However, that is for http://www.new.facebook.com/ but switching to the old one, does allow you to use it, but as anyone who has a Facebook profile should have noticed (if they are using the old one) it has a Notice at the top, saying that it will be manditorily switched to the new one "soon"

    New Facebook will soon be the only Facebook
    Soon, we'll be switching Facebook over to its new design. You can see it ahead of time.

  11. Re:Freedom is an illusion... by belmolis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    you know that "Freedom of Speech" only refers to the law that Congress can't abridge it.

    Not true at all. You're thinking of the First Amendment. The First Amendment is a particular feature of the US Constitution and doesn't have any legal force in other countries or apply to non-governmental entities in the United States. (By virtue of the 14th Amendment, it applies to the States as well as to the federal government.) "Freedom of Speech", on the other hand, is a value that exists independent of the US Constitution. Freedom of speech is guaranteed in the constitutions of many other countries and in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of which reads:

    Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

  12. Re:works for me by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps the best way to advertise is to submit to Slashdot that somebody has blocked you. Interesting.

  13. Re:Yes you can by amRadioHed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All of them really, since only the ones I really trust actually know where I live in the first place.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  14. Re:smartfilter by arth1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One well-known filter also blocked the Audubon society.
    I bet most of you can guess why.