Saturday, August 20, 2005

You too can

Become Republican.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:43 PM

    You've been flagged for objectionable content. BTW the owners of Blogger are Republican


    "Why We Created "Flag As Objectionable"
    It is our strong belief that blogs help make the Web an important medium of self-expression; Blogger has given a voice to millions of people. Our users gossip, joke, rant, publish, share, and on occasion might post potentially objectionable stuff. We generally do not review the content posted through our service but our responsibility extends beyond Blogger users to casual readers of Blog*Spot.

    The "Flag?" button is a means by which readers of Blog*Spot can help inform us about potentially questionable content, so we can prevent others from encountering such material by setting particular blogs as "unlisted." This means the blog won't be promoted on Blogger.com but will still be available on the web — we prefer to keep in mind that one person's vulgarity is another's poetry. Or something like that.

    For more serious cases, such as spam blogs or sites engaging in illegal activity, we will continue to enforce our existing policies (removing content and deleting accounts when necessary).

    Here's How It Works
    When a person visiting a blog clicks the "Flag?" button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. This feature allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content they deem objectionable. Have you read The Wisdom of Crowds? It's sort of like that.

    Special Case for Hate Speech
    When the community has voted and hate speech is identified on Blog*Spot, Google may exercise its right to place a Content Warning page in front of the blog and set it to "unlisted."

    ReplyDelete
  2. What? Huh? Is this for real? I'm SO amused, and proud! I'm just a boring little middle aged knitter! Imagine, little ole ME, flagged as objectionable! I don't even have an acceptance speech ready! They hate me, they really hate me!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. I'm impressed. Little ol' you, all by yourself, are objectionable because of a few humorous/political links.

    What do you bet our friend Sue was behind this?

    Considering what's out there--stuff that's much more inflammatory than anything you've posted--if it's true, it's pretty frickin' hilarious.

    However, I'm inclined to think it's bullshit. Contact Blogger to check, but I REALLY think they would have contacted you directly if there were a problem, rather than leaving an anonymous comment.

    Nice try, f***ers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm treating it as a joke, because it is. I went to Blogger and read the "objectionable flag" section and the excerpts shared above were edited for maximum "Oooh, you were bad" slant. And am I supposed to be skeered that the "Owners of Blogger are Republican?" Um, isn't it owned by Google and publicly traded? And since I have the Navbar set to OFF on my blog, I'm really curious as to how I could have been flagged. What-everrr.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think it was a joke so much as it was a prank.

    Some little Republican out there followed your link and got their panties in a wad. They figured they'd scare you. Since whoever it was isn't terribly bright, it didn't have that effect.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous2:33 PM

    Blogger is partially owned by Google. It isn't meant as a joke,it falls under hate speech and is now being used via the court system in this manner,

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another anoymous posting with a vaguely worded threat that makes little sense. Isn't mean as a joke by whom? Used by what court system where and with whom?

    If you don't like what's here, go away. I'm sure there are other forums that would be happy to have you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I didn't mean "It's a joke" in the sense that I thought Anonymous has a sense of humor. I meant it's a joke if this induhvidual hasn't figured out that Blogger is teeming with way more politically oriented content that is wildly popular and gets WAAAAY more hits than I do, or actually thinks that I am dumb enough to be intimidated by such lame silliness, and hadn't noticed that I don't have an active NavBar, all you can do is laugh.

    What-everrrr!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, Geogrrl, logic and facts are irrelevant to this "discussion!"

    The entire concept of flagging slays me, because I'm sure it's the best hit-booster a blog can have! I am a regular reader of many really funny, often very profane, very politically oriented blogs on Blogger - it's not an issue for Blogger. The "hate speech" nonsense is just that, nonsense. Political speech has the highest value of protected speech, and is protected, period. Every time Anonymous posts the absurdity grows.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ya know what? I found a similar post in the "Comments" section of the latest installment for "You Knit What?" Considering it's a site that makes fun of ugly/silly knitted garments and doesn't discuss politics at all, that's just plain weird.

    But you're right. Logic and sense have nothing to do with it. Silly me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, and yes, flagging IS the best thing that could happen to some blogs. Kind of like when John Stewart was talking to John Grisham about the fact that Stewart's book had been banned in some places for "nudity"... on the paper dolls.

    Grisham reminded him that getting banned was the best thing that could happen for sales.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, school will start soon and Anonymous will be too busy flunking 8th grade social studies to comment much....

    ReplyDelete