Update - 4/1 -Taking aim at filters

[Art Wolinsky <awolinsky@OII.ORG>]

Hi Folks,

Well, it's April 1 and only a few more blockages have been posted, because
it's a weekend and people are on spring break.  Never-the-less some
interesting things are surfacing.

Bookbear reported blockages by WebSense, of the American Cancer Society and
the American Kennel Club.  BB's comments noted that the Cancer Society was
probably blocked because of "breast" cancer.  That may or may not be the
case.  I didn't investigate the reason.

However, her/his only comment about the AKC was, "why why WHY??????"

I did a little digging and I think I figured out the reason.  You'll LOVE
this!!!!

At first I wondered whether they used the proper name for a female dog
somewhere on the page, but they didn't.  I even checked the keyword and
meta tags in the source code for the page.

Not finding anything objectionable on the web page, I decided to take a
closer look at the source code.  That's when it hit me...

The main theme of the page is "For the LOVE of the Purebred DOG".  That in
itself isn't significant.  However, if you move your mouse over the links
on the page you will see that much of the content of the site is contained
in the subdirectory named "love".  No go to the Vew menu of your browser
and view Page Source.  You will see that because so much content resides in
the love directory, the code for the page uses the word "love" more than
two dozen times.  Here's a small part of that page's source code.

<A class="green" HREF="/love/museum/index.cfm">AKC Museum of the Dog</A><BR>
<A class="green" HREF="/love/dah/mrmurf/askmrmurf.cfm">Ask Mr. Murf</A><BR>
<A class="green" HREF="/love/links.cfm">Links</A><BR>
<A class="green" HREF="/love/faq.cfm">FAQ</A>

I guess you can say that all of the love at the American Kennel Club has
rendered WebSense, Senseless.

Remember if you get blocked a site that shouldn't be blocked, blow the
whistle!!!  The very short form for reporting is at
http://oii.org/overblocking.html

Stay tuned.  In tomorrow's update, I'll tell you a really funny incident
that took place back in 1995, before filters were around.  It's about how
some college students used XXX to get funding for a high-level plasma
physics project.

Art

***************************************************************
Art Wolinsky                                awolinsky@oii.org
OII Technology Director         http://oii.org/
East Coast Facilitator           http://web-and-flow.com/
National Action Committee    http://www.wiredkids.org
(609) 597-9481 ext 337          (609) 698-8223

***************************************************************
I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes.
I will surely learn a great deal today.
***************************************************************

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