abovepolitics is blocked as 'sex'

I have already U2Ud SO, but in case anyone else is experiencing the same problem, I thought I'd post it so the issue will able to be found through the search function.

Now I'm on Kwajalein, the Marshall Islands, working for the Army. Actually, I work for a private company, but on an Army base. The Army provides the internet here (FREE DIAL-UP!!)

Since it is free in the barracks, it is ruled by Army filters. No hate sites, porn, ie. I can access ATS fine, imagine my surprise when I tried to access abovepolitics:

"ERROR
Access Denied by SmartFilter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following error was encountered:

Access Denied by SmartFilter: Forbidden, this page is categorized as Sex.
Request: GET / HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Referer: www.abovetopsecret.com... Accept-Language: en-us UA-CPU: x86 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; Maxthon; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive Host: www.abovepolitics.com

Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact the cache administrator if you feel this is incorrect.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generated Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:24:58 GMT by ns3.kwajalein.com (Squid/2.4.STABLE6) "

BTS, ALTNEWS, etc. is fine. Everything comes through ok, but not abovepolitics.

If anyone else gets this glitch, I'm sure it's being worked on. SO has been pretty busy lately with general maintenance.


Maybe it's that hot imvu avatar ad!

[edit on 25-3-2007 by curme]

Sex Sells

I knew I shouldn't have posted those nude pics of George Bush!

AbovePolitics.com is governed by the same terms & conditions as ATS, and unless I've truly become jaded in my old age, I really can't imagine how anyone could rationally categorize AP as a "sex site".

If you know how to contact the cache administrator, I'm sure he would be willing to correct the error.

Contact the cache administrator? Have you ever been to a US DMV? Imagine that run by the Army!

I hope that the error is somewhere that can be solved by SO's expertise. If I have to rely upon the civilian contractors that make up the IT Help Desk here, I won't see abovepolitics for at least a couple of years!

Your tax dollars, not at work!

EDIT: Could the US govt purposely be blocking abovepolitics?

[edit on 25-3-2007 by curme]

We've had more than on similar report of AbovePolitics.com being blocked as a sex site from schools and libraries... but without indication as to which security software product is doing the blocking.

I sent a support request on Friday morning to the firm in question... but no response as yet.

Originally posted by curme
I have already U2Ud SO, but in case anyone else is experiencing the same problem, I thought I'd post it so the issue will able to be found through the search function.

Now I'm on Kwajalein, the Marshall Islands, working for the Army. Actually, I work for a private company, but on an Army base. The Army provides the internet here (FREE DIAL-UP!!)

I hope you're not there checking those leaking nerve gas stockpiles. I declined an offer to do just that in the Marshall Islands. Oops that used to
be classified. Probably only the Conus sites are now.

Have you tried using a another proxy to get to Above Politics? I think the army should leave the internet unfiltered. Being merely a computer hobbyist, not a pro, I would have a blast trying to get around their net filter.










[edit on 3/25/2007 by TheAvenger]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
We've had more than on similar report of AbovePolitics.com being blocked as a sex site from schools and libraries... but without indication as to which security software product is doing the blocking.

I sent a support request on Friday morning to the firm in question... but no response as yet.

Could be Smartfilter. They are notorious for things like this.

Sitefilter is another possible culprit.

I may get smacked hard for this, but it could be possible that some of the more sexual type discussions, especially ones involving pedophilia, which are both controversial and offensive depending on your views are allowed to go on in at least one AP forum. These are somewhat explicit discussions of human sexuality, and perhaps could be the reason for some of these site or IP filter blocks?

Just a few examples found by skimming through the AP Social Issues forum:

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

www.abovepolitics.com...

There have been some far worse, closed or trashed, and while there may be some merit to these discussions, the ultimate question should be: With the current demographics of ATS and AP users, is this an appropriate place to discuss such things?



[edit on 25-3-2007 by UM_Gazz]

More likely it is the hatred of Bush and all things Republican that blocks
the site.

You are likely correct, UM_Gazz

[edit on 3/25/2007 by TheAvenger]

I just wanted everyone to know the resolution: Abovepolitics works now, thanks SO!

Now if you could fix any of the other "SEX" sites I have in mind!

I'm glad you got this fixed, the last thing AbovePolitics needs is the stigma of sex....


Hey, wait a minute, perhaps sex could bring more people here...



[edit on 3/29/2007 by djohnsto77]

Well, if we're going to do it, let's do it all the way!
Now, let's make with the sexy talk!


Personally, a beautiful woman holding (and swinging around) a sword....mmmmmmmmm....can't get much sexier than that....um...unless two women are swinging around swords...

its blocked at college now
apprently its some sort of group which is deamed inaaprpriate

I can only access it from my home computer. The Air Force has a "smart filter" which blocks access to a ton of sites including above polotics. There have been some sites I went to that said they were blocked reason: Education/For Kids. Above Polotics is blocked for me at work because somehow it thinks it is a pornography site. I'm just glad I have a home computer!

Originally posted by curme
Now I'm on Kwajalein, the Marshall Islands,

Damn, talk about the middle of nowhere!! What do you do for fun there besides ATS..........count coconuts????

Peace

Talkin' 'Bout Sex, Baby

Originally posted by UM_Gazz
I may get smacked hard for this, but it could be possible that some of the more sexual type discussions, especially ones involving pedophilia, which are both controversial and offensive depending on your views are allowed to go on in at least one AP forum.

*Smack!*

Actually, I had the same thought. After all, there's a lot of sex in politics, both overt and covert.

The thing is, AP is governed by the exact same terms & conditions as ATS, and I know I've seen plenty of similar discussions on ATS.

If a thread violates the T&C, then we deal with it the same way on AP as we do on ATS. Both sites even share the same software, staff and databases.

So I think it's unlikely that AP's current content is the problem. :shk:

Rather, even though the domain was available free and clear when we got it, I suspect this may be a case of AbovePolitics.com being "parked" for a while in the past and, during that time, being a link farm for some domain camper, possibly with porn pictures/content on it.

If that's the case, then it may take a while to clear our good name.

But eventually we will.