I’ve gotten word that some company that blocks web sites for businesses, Websense, has blocked IMAO. The reason? “Racism and Hate” and “Sex”.
Harvey!
And according to a reader they don’t even block the hate and vulgarity smörgåsbord Daily Kos. Come on! The hate in one of their Recommended Diaries surpasses the entire history of IMAO plus the next five closest blogs.
Anyway, I hear Websense helps the Chinese government hunt down and kill political dissidents who try to access information about democracy on the net, so maybe their morality compass is a little off.
I wonder how many readers this affects? And any idea on how to fight it? I’m leaning towards “ignore it” because that sounds easiest. The other option would be for you, the readers, to come up with examples of how you’ve used IMAO for work purposes to prove this site shouldn’t be blocked.
UPDATE:
I’ve gotten reports that IMAO may no longer be blocked. If that’s true, then Websense is a great company and the comment about China was out of line. I’m sure they just block child porn for them or something.
Sex? I haven’t noticed any on IMAO. I would sue- put that Communist Websense out of business.
I find this very hard to believe. As far as I can tell, IMAO has no redeeming social value. Blocking it would only raise the ire of Fred Thompson.
As for hate, you do sell Fred T-shirts. While I recognize the kindness and generosity in such statements as “punch the Hippies” and “kill the terrorists” some people might misconstrue these statements as hateful. As far as the sex thing goes, some of your Edwards Fabulous facts are a little racy!
My company uses Websense, and yes, IMAO and some other conservative blogs are blocked, while KOS and DU are not. Go figure.
Send them an email. Threaten them with things like lawsuits and such, even if you don’t mean it. It would make a good IMAO post.
Shoot them in the face with a 12 gauge and say “Good… Bad… I’m the guy with the gun”. That should fix things right up.
(Bonus thumbs up to anyone who knows what movie that is from!)
[If you don’t know what movie that’s from, you should punch yourself in the face. -Ed.]
They used to block IMAO at my school with websense. It was more evil than Karl Rove. It’s only blocked from Midnight to 1 AM now, which is when the internet cuts off until 6.
Message Boards and Clubs or something like that.
So – you are the sh*t-list maintained collaborators to a murderous communist regime – no surprise there.
But Kos is not similarly disliked by these Quisling scum – again, no surprise.
You are hated by all the right people. Congratulations!
Heh, I don’t know which blocking software they use but where I work does block DailyKos, but IMAO is accessable. 🙂
Many liberal websites actually block themselves because they’re afraid being seen by Fred Thompson.
“Racism and Hate” and “Sex”…
Its interesting that they blocked IMAO for the very reasons I visit here…
#11 – Posted by: Matt P on December 18, 2007 04:02 PM
Nah, if you want Racism, Hate and Sex, Ace of Spades all the way.
IMAO gives me something to read while the deputies execute the summons’ I obtain. After they are done stuffing their faces at a greasy spoon.
they block you in korea, too. i was there for three months and this was the only site i couldn’t open.
You know, I use IMAO to teach middle school social studies. It beats the heck out of the Communist Party approved text I’m supposed to use. It’s less filling, and tastes great!
But, in case they really need a reason to block you:
Sex, sex sex, violence, violence, violence, hate, hate, hate, race, race, race, free enterprise, free speech, free donuts (oops, made that one up), freedom…
Hmm, yeah, we have Websense at work and it blocks IMAO along with 95% of the other blogs I want to look at, thank God for RSS readers.
I have been able to access and enjoy IMAO at work until websense blocked it for the first time this morning. I sent a note to Sarahk since I could not get to you from work. (you’d think her site would be blocked for all that gratuitous sex).And yes,I still can go to Daily Kos, although I threw up a little in the back of my throat when I typed in the url. For what it is worth; the National Rifle Association site is blocked as well but I can still get to gun control sites.
I understand you as the site owner can prove to websense that their filter is wrong and the ban can be lifted. PLEASE PLEASE. I had a habit of reading the Fred Thopmson facts out loud to my work group. Now we have an extra 15 minutes a day to ilde away.
We had a question on a history test once that went “what is Communism?” I thought back to a post I had read on IMAO and answered “stupid”. While the teacher said I was wrong, I know I was right.
Those bastards blocked it just this morning. I was outraged. OUTRAGED! How will I survive the painful boredom and contempt that comes from corprate BS now? If they want hate, I’ll show ’em hate.
#18 – Posted by: Pantera on December 18, 2007 07:02 PM
I did that once in High school, well, except I didn’t just put “stupid”… and I got it right.
I’m tempted to try it on a college exam, but, uh, I can’t risk any points, I’m barely keeping up with my Asian and Indian friends as it is.
Now I can’t show lolteritz to my co-workers! I’ll go back to being the most unpopular girl in the office! I think I’m going to start sending hate mail to websense. Well, I do that anyway for the silly stuff they already block, but now I’m going to send more.
Depending on how locked down your local installation of WebNazi is, you maybe able to proxy around it. Set up an account with MegaProxy (https://www.megaproxy.com) or the like if you can get to it from work. I am not plugging anyone in particular, just that I know MP off the top of my head and am far too lazy to provide a list. Besides, if they are blocking one, they are blocking them all.
#22 – Posted by: Nadine on December 18, 2007 09:55 PM
Well, you could just start throwing money randomly, that’ll make you popular.
No more looking at IMAO for me while at work. Sorry Frank.
Class Action Suit
Cave Troll is most displeased. If Cave Troll not able to read IMAO at work again tomorrow, Cave Troll crush everyone at WebSense with big rock!
That is the advantage of using my own laptop: I can view IMAO without any blocking programs. And whenever I can leach wireless off of my neighbors!
Yes, I work at Boeing. And have been reading IMAO diligently every day for the last year, since I found it. Except today it was blocked; hate and racism, given as the reason. I am pissed.
Damn!The company I am currently supporting uses Websense and it’s list of blocked sites is definately politically and ideologocally based.
This is often a problem for me at work. There are work arounds. If you are blocked, check your companies IT page for any lists of old proxy settings and try changing the proxy on your machine. This has worked for us on a number of occasions. I was able to access the AKForum.net after chaning my proxy settings.
Apparently the pictures of the “I Survived Roe v. Wade” t-shirt babe were hurting workplace productivity.
My company uses websense and I can get here from work.
More likely, your company’s websense database has gotten corrupted. Hopefully it will get rebuilt in the next day or two. That happened to us a few weeks ago and I couldn’t get to instapundit for a couple of days.
I couldn’t come here yesterday either but today it’s okay.
Stupid Communists.
I complained to websense and they’re changing the categorization:
The site you submitted has been reviewed and categorized accordingly:
…continued from previous post:
http://www.imao.us/ – Entertainment