Plea for Help

{ Dodger - Our good friend DH has a problem that he brought up in the previous post comments and which I thought deserved a post of its own. This is a problem that mainly affects those who run their blogs on their own domains, but that is an increasing number of us. Anyone that knows of something that can help, please let us know. DH has promised to also share the solutions he has found. Thanks. }

This is more of a plea for help and a Rant from an upset, abused person! I'm probably one week away from shutting down my blog and moving it somewhere else. Another server and domain perhaps? Why you ask and why Am I discussing it here. Well it is a form of censorship. Bots...

Name Hits Bandwidth Date
Inktomi Slurp 1315 47.10 MB 23 Oct 2006 - 20:24
MSNBot 815 30.45 MB 27 Oct 2006 - 09:24
WISENutbot 438 16.67 MB 27 Oct 2006 - 09:50
Unknown robot (identified by 'spider') 364 2.97 MB 24 Oct 2006 - 23:04
Unknown robot (identified by 'crawl') 345 13.27 MB 26 Oct 2006 - 18:50
LinkWalker 209 2.78 MB 02 Oct 2006 - 03:57
AskJeeves 147 5.02 MB 27 Oct 2006 - 07:01

Trying to get a handle on this through server control files like .htaccess or Robot.txt and at what level they should reside and how long they take to listen is like performing magic.

While I'm mastering this, users are often kept out, I lose posts, and basically when something is not working right, because of speed or comments, people just go away. In my mind it is a form of censorship as it is to other users. Sure I'm flattered to have references to my blog sought out by the different engines.
A. I never asked for it
B. for some people it a Bandwidth problem.
C. It slows the system to a crawl.
D. It deters users from re-visiting.

Just to name a few.
So can we get all the brainiacs together and put up a formula for people who spend the $125 U.S. + to have access to their own server, register a domain. What is the proper syntax, which files should be modified, where should they reside. Are there other tricks out there that deter the bots, can you turn them all off or just some? Can you let them crawl in certain places and not others?

Why don't they schedule them by time zone and hit at 3.am when there maybe less traffic?

This may be indirectly related to your cause, and solutions I'm sure could help many out there. Hope we get something going on this.

The Watch List (Thoughts Needed)

I am asking for your opinion on a topic that needs discussed. This blog can function as a forum, as a group discussion, or a place to warn others about something, and as a cry for help. Those are all valuable, and I feel, much needed in this community. But, and this is the big butt, this blog can also take a more active role in making life difficult for those who would attack us. This is the part that I am having trouble defining and I am asking your help with it. I'll get to the point.

When I re-started SIC, one of the things I wanted to create was a WATCH LIST in the sidebar. It isn't there now, because I wanted to wait and see what you thought of the idea. This Watch List would publicly list those blogs and/or bloggers that bear watching. See what I mean? Controversial, no? Right now I personally have such a list, the bloggers on my list advocate rape and forced violence against women, they talk and attack other bloggers specifically, they have a history of outting other bloggers, or they have stolen other bloggers content and posted it as their own. And other things. What do I do with my list? Not much actually, I visit their blogs occasionally, to check up on them and see if they are behaving themselves. But that's about all you can do, unless they actually break the law.

Is this censorship? In protecting the rights of a blogger to post about rape fantasies, do we empower that blogger, or do we shame ourselves? I do not pretend to have the answers to these questions, and that is why I am asking you for your opinions. I am not even sure that I could advocate the keeping of such a list on a public site. The potential for abuse seems high to me. And what address would a listed blogger have? Or should they have?

I suspect, like many things, that discussing such an issue is one of the purposes of this blog. And that is why I have brought it up. See? I am an instigator.

Blogger Troubles

A good round-up of recent blogger issues has been posted over on Sex Blogger Community for those of you that might be interested.

My friends at Google confirm these issues and have assured me that they continue to try and get the overwhelmed system upgraded.

Welcome to SIC!

Today is the official re-launch of SIC - Stop Internet Censorship. From the moment I first became involved with SIC way back in January, I fully believed in the idea and concept behind this site. With the support of O and Demon Queen I am happy to finally have been able to get the site straightened out and ready to begin again. Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me.

You will notice some sidebar drop-down menus that contain links to a wide variety of resources on the internet, in a wide variety of subjects. These will be added to and expanded in the coming months, and any feedback on topics or links is greatly appreciated.

In addition, we are currently looking for those bloggers that are interested in becoming active contributors to SIC. If you are interested, please email myself, O or Demon Queen. The more bloggers we have the more powerful we become, strength in unity!

We also have some new buttons available for you to use on your own site to direct bloggers to this resource. Even if you don't plan on being a contributor, it would be nice of you to host one of our buttons. And we thank you in advance for doing so.

SIC can be a tremendous resource for all of us, but it is only going to be as good as the people we have involved, so please consider joining us and helping to protect all our rights.

Thanks.