Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com

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!"

That is ridiculous

On Slashdot, I can mention [abusive language filtered] or even [abusive language filtered], why can't I do it on [abusive language filtered]?

Total [abusive language filtered], I say.

Re:That is ridiculous

Years ago I recall a tracking system at a place I worked where the text field was parced as code. It saw the word "in" apearing in the sentence in text as an INSERT and the word preceeding it as a variable in which it would insert the word following, then truncate everything else.
    Thus the phrase

  THERE IS A FIRE IN THE BUILDING! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES
  would show as

THERE IS A THE.

Later this was repaired and the designer went on to work developing web design at
Facebook....

Re:That is ridiculous

Well at least he's only doing web design. Glad to hear he's not programming anymore.

Yes you can

This is pretty ridiculous, as I can't even send my friends a message mentioning bugmenot.com!

Of course you can, you just can't use Facebook. Which is probably for the best anyway.

Good point, parent

Allowing a single corporate entity to control your communication is a bad idea. I suggest this new thing called "email", which is offered by a large number of different providers, and not censored by most.

Re:Good point, parent

Or, if you want more immediate communication, there's XMPP, a similarly open standard for instant messaging. I run my own server, but quite a few people on my contacts list use Google's one.

Re:Yes you can

Indeed. I'm trying very hard to get incensed here, but I just can't work up a reason to care. Oh noes! I must say "Bug Me Not website" when talking about BugMeNot! Horror of horrors! Shocker of Shockers! Quick, make a comparison to Nazi totalitarism! Facebook is like... Hitler, that's it!

Conspicuously absent is any mention of negative actions taken by Facebook. They didn't close his account, they didn't sue him, they didn't kick his dog. They didn't do anything other than remove a link to a site. Whoop de do. Try typing a URL into Youtube comments sometime and see how far you get.

Re:Yes you can

Why does a dog always have to be kicked? Why can't it be a cat or a rabbit?

Now, I understand why it wouldn't be a snake or a lizard. One a snake would a)slither away or b)bite the bejesus out of you and a lizard would probably just flick its tongue and scamper off.

But can we just leave the dogs out of it? This message is not brought by PETA.

Re:Yes you can

Quick, make a comparison to Nazi totalitarism! Facebook is like... Hitler, that's it!

Oh sure you joke about it, but if you read anything written in Germany while the Nazis were in charge you'll find that bugmenot.com is missing from all those writings as well.

Re:Yes you can

Uhhhh, the 1st only applies to what the US Government can't do, not to what a private company can do with it's free service.

With that, I hope you were being sarcastic.

WARNING hidden IFrame in the bugmenot link

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 [ttuttle.net], though it's obviously slashdotted by now so I have no idea what it's supposed to do or if that address is unique.

Works on "old" Facebook, but not "new"

As of now, Facebook offers users the ability to switch between the new layout (new.facebook.com) and the previous layout. I can switch my status to "Matt likes bugmenot.com" on the old layout but trying to do so on the new layout pops up a box stating "Warning: This Message Contains Blocked Content".

Re:That's impossible

30 seconds is the different between (Score:5, Funny) and (Score:-1, Redundant).

I think moderation should switch to (Score:Gold Medal) and (Score:Silver Medal) so late punsters don't feel so bad.

Re:That's impossible

Yeah, but do we take away the (Score: Gold Medal) from the Chinese posters who lied about their karma bonus?

Re:That's impossible

I think moderation should switch to (Score:Gold Medal) and (Score:Silver Medal) so late punsters don't feel so bad.

The trouble is if your karma's not the best; "funny" will neither increase nor decrease your karma, while iinm "redundant" is bad for your karma. So if you're going to joke, it's best to make sure you have damned good karma. Not only is there the "redundant" danger, you can (and I often do) get modded "troll" or "flamebait" by the humor-impaired (or maybe because the joke's just not funny).

If you just got done metamoderating you can post anything you damned well please ;)

I don't understand the term "karma whore", whouldn't a karma whore be someone selling karma by modding people up for money? If you're trying to gain karma wouldn't that make you a karma john? According to some arsewaddles in town called PORA who are trying to stamp out prostitution, the poor little whores are victims. So please, stop victimising karma whores by modding them up!

Oops... I'm offtopic. Damned prostitution union will kick me out!

Do we have any karma pimps?

Re:honestly

Of course they *can* do it. The issue is whether they *should* do it.

Re:honestly

I, personally, agree 100% with circletimessquare when he says:

there is no reason why they cannot do this. it is their website, their policy.

But some would beg to differ. For a counterpoint from a simpler era, let's turn to a user named "circletimessquare", back in early September, 2008, who wrote [slashdot.org]:

shun chrome. i don't care if its the best thing since sliced bread. the problem is what it represents in terms of power and dominance in the hands of one company. that's bad for everyone

Clearly, the debate over corporate dominance has bitterly divided friends, families, and even individuals.

Re:FBmenot.com

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.

Re:I have the workaround!

It's quite simple actually. Go to wikipedia's article on spaces [wikipedia.org] and copypaste U+2060 ('word joiner') into the middle of the domain. Then carefully remove the brackets around it (you will be able to tell it's there because you will have to use left/right arrow keys twice to get past it). Now the resulting text won't trip facebook's filter.

What Bug Me Not is

Just for reference for those who may also be blocked or otherwise can't get to it...

You know all those sites where you have to register for a free account in order to access the content, sites where there's no real logical reason why you should have to register for an account except for the purpose of them harvesting your e-mail and personal information?

What Bug Me Not does is provide usernames and passwords for registrations that people have created and uploaded to their site that you can use to access content without giving up your personal information.

Perhaps a simple example would make it more clear. Let's say you go to some news site, and they insist that in order to access the site, you register for a free account. Of course, they want your name, address, and e-mail address. Even after you fill out your information, they drop you a registration e-mail that you have to validate. Then, and only then, you can access the site.

If you don't want to go through these hoops or give up your information to them, what you can do instead is go to Bug Me Not. Punch in the site name, and voila, you get a username and password you can use to access the site that someone else has already registered. If one doesn't exist and you're motivated enough, you can register one (probably using a service like Mailinator) and provide the username and password so that the next schmoe that comes along that needs one will have it.

There's also a nice Bug Me Not Firefox extension [mozilla.org] that will automagically fill in the information for you so that you don't even have to bother going to the web site.

The only problem, as someone else mentioned, is that if you're behind a content filter, some companies tag Bug Me Not as a "hacking" site. (As is Mailinator, usually.) Obviously, some people have trouble with the concept of people who don't like giving out their personal e-mail addresses or other personal information just to read a frickin' article.

Re:Slashdotted?

Thanks for the update. I was really concerned there for a moment.

Re:Freedom is an illusion...

At the risk of getting the hook set in my mouth, I am going to dive in and take the big risk that you know that "Freedom of Speech" only refers to the law that Congress can't abridge it. [usconstitution.net]

I'm sure you realize that it doesn't at all stop private people or entities from abridging "freedom of speech" (sometimes called 'freedom of speach') all they want?

Re:another "Do more evil" clone?

Since when has Facebook been about anything but data mining and user tracking?

Re:another "Do more evil" clone?

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.

Re:works for me

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