Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com 448
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!"
I can't get to bugmenot.com at work either. (Score:4, Interesting)
Access to this web page is restricted at this time.
Reason:
The Websense category "Hacking" is filtered.
URL:
http://www.bugmenot.com/ [bugmenot.com]
Not true? (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.
Re:Yes you can (Score:3, 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...
Re:FBmenot.com (Score:5, 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.
The also ban .. (Score:3, Interesting)
bugmenot isnt the only site they refuse, they also have censored BME Zine .com [bmezine.com]
im so glad facebook looks out for us.. i wonder if lemonparty is banned?
Re:another "Do more evil" clone? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Bugmenot got useless... (Score:4, 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? ;)
Re:Yes you can (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.
WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yes you can (Score:3, 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/ [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.
Re:I can't get to bugmenot.com at work either. (Score:2, Interesting)
Websense where I work has all of sourceforge listed as malware...
Re:Freedom is an illusion... (Score:4, Interesting)
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 [un.org], Article 19 of which reads:
Re:works for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps the best way to advertise is to submit to Slashdot that somebody has blocked you. Interesting.
Re:Bugmenot got useless... (Score:4, 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.
Re:Yes you can (Score:3, Interesting)
All of them really, since only the ones I really trust actually know where I live in the first place.
Re:smartfilter (Score:3, Interesting)
One well-known filter also blocked the Audubon society.
I bet most of you can guess why [audubon.org].
Re:WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Not true? (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.
Re:WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link (Score:5, 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 [scienceoftheweb.org]. (Warning, PDF.)