April 24, 2014

Where's my iSteve blog blocked?

Recently, a reader reported that this iSteve.blogspot.com site is blocked in an Embassy Suites business center. Anybody else have any anecdotes of where I'm blocked?
  

79 comments:

Anonymous said...

I emailed you on 11/05/2008 the following:

"I think you should know, though, that the Westin Hotel Corporation apparently includes your website on its list of flagged "hate" or "racist" sites. The friend who introduced me to your blog works for Westin (a food/Bev manager), and was recently reprimanded by the Westin's HR department after reading your site at work (and downloading The Half Blood Prince to his thumb-drive).
For your information, this occured at the Westin Moana Surfrider in Waikiki (Honolulu)."

Brett Stevens said...

I would be very surprised if you were not blocked in many places.

The filtering firms, like most other things in a democracy, operate on complaints.

They also like to take links lists from known "bad" sites and put all those links into the blocked filter.

It's all about doing minimal work to make maximum money. Answering emails and churning links are both inexpensive activities.

Paul said...

You were blocked at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Pearl River, NY circa 2008, but they've been acquired by Pfizer and I don't work there anymore. Probably just means they ticked the right wing hatesite box when they contracted with a filtering service. TMobile makes you change your settings to access VDare and Taki's over its cellular network.

Anonymous said...

You're blocked at the free proxy site Hide My Ass. Along with Mangan's blog. But curiously they don't block Vdare.

Anonymous said...

I never dared access your blog from work, but I know secularright.org was listed as a hate site at Bank of America.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't work at Howard Johnson's either.

691 said...

You're blocked on Megabus.

Anonymous said...

Will there ever come a day when hate speech is banned?

Anonymous said...

I never dared access your blog from work, but I know secularright.org was listed as a hate site at Bank of America.

secularright.org was probably blocked because they thought it was a porn site since there's so much pussy there. Beta male pussies that is.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Sailer can cut a deal with Netanhayu so that American Jews won't use their muscle on him.

Anonymous said...

At the (independently owned) coffee shop I regularly frequent, nothing is blocked. However, at the Starbucks across the street both VDare and ISteve are blocked.

Anonymous said...

In 2009, before I became an iSteve lurker, I attempted to access Naked Capitalism at an Embassy Suites business center but was blocked, I assume because of the "naked" part.

Anonymous said...

With the ubiquity of smartphones, you have to be pretty dumb to use your work computer to read anything vaguely thought-criminal.

Anonymous said...

Back in March, I could not access you from a Holiday Inn Express. And it wasn't a network problem. It was clearly a firewall blocking issue. I was able to access Huffpo and DailyKOS BTW.

Bob Loblaw said...

You're blocked by Websense as "adult content". I think a lot of big companies use Websense.

Bob Loblaw said...

In 2009, before I became an iSteve lurker, I attempted to access Naked Capitalism at an Embassy Suites business center but was blocked, I assume because of the "naked" part.

Seems like if you care about your traffic at all you want to keep "naked" and "porn" out of your URLs.

Anonymous said...

The bank that I worked at last year had your website blocked. Had I known you would have been interested in knowing that, I would have posted a comment to that effect or something. In any case, since I couldn't visit your site, I spent my time surfing different porn sites instead. Curiously, there wasn't any block on this.

The Anti-Gnostic said...

Doesn't work at Howard Johnson's either.

People still stay at HoJo's?

Darfur Miller said...

I regularly exercise at Doubletree Inn and my badge lets me use the computers there. You are blocked but half the time it comes on anyway. VDARE and takis are fine.

Son of Brock Landers said...

My corp blocks you for "political/social advocacy".

Anonymous said...

You're blocked at the free proxy site Hide My Ass.

It appears they block blogspot in general.

DCThrowback said...

Without revealing too much, let's just say FEDGOV generally has no issue w/ ISteve.

Also, Anon 3:11 PM had the comment of the year. F**k that was funny.

Anonymous said...

Use a VPN app, just like they do in China and other authoritarian states that censor Internet traffic.

What? You thought the United States was still a free country? You're so young and innocent. It's adorable.

seamus said...

You're blocked on DOD computers in Afghanistan/CENTCOM. May have something to do with servers being located in Germany.

Anonymous said...

I've always thought of isteve as kind of pg-13 and bland(no offense Steve). I just don't see much controversy in the truth.

If the topics Steve writes about, warrant his entire domain to be blocked, then we truly live in weird times.

P.S. Blocking can be seen as both a form or moral crusading and also preventing people from finding out facts or falsehoods.

Either way, its kind of telling of the type of controlling mentality the people who implement blocking possess. Its a sickness and a signal of the further decline of the west.

Peter Frost said...

I tried to access iSteve when I was at a Comfort Inn (in Burlington, Vermont). I got a warning telling me that I was trying to view inappropriate content. When I ignored the warning, the screen froze and I had to reboot.

Yes, I complained. Don't know whether it did any good.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the tough guy spouting off about Ghenghis Khan. Face it double tree alphaed you, your tears are delightful to them.

Anonymous said...

OT: Boehner mocks colleagues on Congress over immigration reform:

House Speaker John Boehner theatrically mocked his fellow Republican Congressmen for being afraid to reform immigration policy when he spoke Thursday before the Middletown Rotary Club in his home district.

"Here's the attitude. Ohhhh. Don't make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard," Boehner whined before a luncheon crowd at Brown's Run County Club in Madison Township.


HT: Drudge Report

-meh

Anonymous said...

In Brazil and everything is fine, internet freedom STRONK!

Matra said...

You're blocked on DOD computers in Afghanistan/CENTCOM. May have something to do with servers being located in Germany.

I think Germany was one of the countries in which I accessed this website last month without any difficulty.

Anonymous said...

Around Tim Wise's house, the only thing I can access is NPR. I'm his white gardener.

Anonymous said...

"You're blocked by Websense as "adult content"."

Websense has a point...

Charles Camel said...

I don't think I've ever found your blog blocked anywhere, and I access it regularly in various places (around Britain, and sometimes Europe). Guess I've been lucky. I never read it at work, though I don't feel I'd have trouble defending doing so if I were challenged on the matter.

Anonymous said...

has anyone ever attempted to "appeal" the blocking of his site? Most of these organizations are teaming with people whose job is to make unimportant decisions. The decision to unblock iSteve could represent many hours of job-justification and bullets on PowerPoint presentation slides. A win-win for the cubicle inhabitants.

I've always felt that the world is better explained by human inertia, than by conspiracy. Conspiracy requires a lot of mental effort.

Anonymous said...

"I never dared access your blog from work, but I know secularright.org was listed as a hate site at Bank of America."

Vdare.com still works at BOA, but I just LOVE how BOA works overtime making sure to block any gun related website. They will take money from Weatherby but prevent employees from going to their website. It must be all the ALPHA MALE BANKERS making sure all the BETA IT people can't read about the latest assault weapon for sale in the USA!

Gilbert Ratchet said...

iSteve is blocked on the computers of White Elementary School, City of White, Georgia. I suspect that this holds in all the Bartow County Schools.

Anonymous said...

On the actual bus?

Anonymous said...

It's the content filtering software to which these providers subscribe, such as Websense. They frequently block independent-thinking sites. I'd approach the leading vendors in the game and ask them if you're on their taboo list.

Anonymous said...

I know you were blocked at the federal schwarz building in San Diego for a time. But I moved to a different location and can't remember if that changed before I moved.

Noumenon said...

At the Applebee's in Wisconsin Dells, WI you are blocked as a "hate site" or something similar. Now that I see how relatively uncommon that is, perhaps I will complain.

Anonymous said...

You were blocked once at a grocery store in the USA that was using OpenDNS (opendns users can set policies to filter on various categories, it didn't tell me why you were blocked.) I got around it by setting my own DNS server after I got past their captive portal.

Cogswell said...

There's something a little off-putting about hotels that make money selling ppv porn telling me I can't visit a politically-oriented website in the privacy of my own hotel room. I've never, to my knowledge, stayed in such a hotel, but if I did I would march right down to the front desk and demand either they remove the block or refund my money. Then I'd write a letter to the CEO.

At work I limit all my personal browsing to my smartphone, but I never had any problem accessing iSteve from my work computer before smartphones. Perhaps they've added blocking software since then, but I haven't heard.

Cogswell said...

Hate: a 60s Era Southern senator vigorously defending discrimination in favor of the white man.

Not hate: Sonia Sotomayor's speech on Wednesday vigorously defending programs
discriminating in favor of her people AND blocking the democratic right of the people to stop it

If Sonia Sotomayor and Strom Thurmond both had sites, Thurmond's would be blocked as hate by the finest hotels in the land. Sotomayor's would be routinely, lovingly referenced by all the mainstream press.

Anonymous said...

I work at Goldman Sachs, and I can read you there. Kind of surprised actually, because they do block a lot of sites.

Interestingly though, one of their main concerns seems to be blocking forums. They are adamant that nobody is allowed to post any sort of comment to any online forum (e.g., nytimes.com), because the IP address of the poster might get traced back to Goldman. So I can read iSteve on blogspot.com, but the comment pages at blogger.com are blocked. (The Times isn't blocked, but I suspect that someone at Goldman is probably paid to notice comments at unblocked sites).

Anonymous said...

In 2006, before your comments were opened, I sent you this email: "Thought you'd be interested in knowing that the internet service at the Denver airport has screened your website - isteve.com. The company name on the computer screen is Shibby. Vdare.com was not screened."

Anonymous said...

I work at chick fil a and you're blocked as a hate site by our Norton web filter

Bob Loblaw said...

My corp blocks you for "political/social advocacy".

Well, that's hard to argue against. The question is do they also block sites like Kos and TNR?

Anonymous said...

Word to you guys doing personal web surfing at work: do it on your phone. Blocked or not, all your activity on company internet access is logged.

Example. Neurosurgeon colleague screwed up clinically and was investigated by the medical board. The charges included that he looked at porn sites on hospital computers. Nothing came of it, but it will be on his record forever.


Anonymous said...

What am I missing here? If you work at Goldman, or Chick-AFil, why are you trying to access iSteve at work anyways? Shouldn't you be making a deal or frying chicken?

Anonymous said...

You weren't blocked at UCSD.

Anonymous said...

People should know there are ways around this, e.g. proxies, RSS readers, or even Google's cached copy.

eah said...

Never seen your site blocked.

Anonymous said...

Or not

Anonymous said...

Websense is big in DOD so prob blocked throughout it. Palo Alto is fine with you though as is Blucoat.

Anonymous said...

This site is fine, but Vdare is blocked in Dubai, UAE.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't dare read you at Citi. I think the forum thing is due to market collusion rigging FX rates etc. No forums at Citi.

Tank said...

iSteve - one of the advantages of working for yourself, the boss doesn't give a s*** what you look at online.

Anonymous said...

I call BS on iSteve being blocked at Starbucks. I'm posting this from the counter at my local Starbucks, and in the People's Commonwealth of Massachusetts at that!

Anonymous said...

" 691 said...
You're blocked on Megabus.
"

I can confirm this.

The Megabus Wi-Fi redirects this blog to a page with this icon and the following text: "Requested site blocked -- The site you requested (isteve.blogspot.com) has been blocked".

White White White said...

"iSteve is blocked on the computers of White Elementary School, City of White, Georgia"

Haha. This sounds like a joke.

Dahinda said...

VDare was blocked at my last employer, a cancer center, but not at my present employer, a medical healthcare company right next door. iSteve was never blocked.

Anonymous said...

Blocked at a B&B in Innsbruck, Austria, last week.

Dutch reader said...

You were blocked in my hotel in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia in 2013.

creepy dude said...

You're blocked on Taco Bell's wifi, but don't take it personally as they block all blogs it seems.

Peter Akuleyev said...

This site is, not surprisingly, blocked in China.

Bob said...

Siemens is good with you, but not so much with V-dare when I forget I left the VPN on.

Tasman said...

You were blocked at Chatswood Public Library,Sydney,Australia until I complained and you were unblocked almost immediately.

Unknown said...

I tried to access isteve in Ft. Belvoir VA last year and it was blocked a couple times as a 'hate site' or something similar. I don't think it's currently blocked though.

I occasionally find it blocked other places, desultorily.

Unknown said...

Oh yeah, I used to work at a government building in Canberra, Australia. isteve was blocked there as a hate site the one time I tried to look it up, but that was a few years ago.

Steve Richter said...

In windows explorer, IE 11, when you click "new tab" you get a page with 10 of your most frequent sites. Very useful. I could swear I have never seen the iSteve blogger site on my frequent sites. Even though I will be at your site very frequently.

JohnSmith said...

The fact that you could even make a joke like this smacks of white privilege....kidding! Just a little fun at Tim Weiss's expense.

Anonymous said...

Cogswell- Re: Hate; Not Hate.

America the Piñata. Whack for treats!

And speaking of Hate, a new movie is being released which appears to be about the N word.
Yes, a Nazi flick.
It's an annual thing.

Perspective said...

Aside from the Daily Mail, I never try to access any website at work that could be deemed politically incorrect.

Anonymous said...

you were blocked at PUCV university in Valparaiso, Chile in 2010

Concerned in Tunbridge Wells said...

Steve,

(or anybody else with no personal stake but choosing to get worked up anyway)

Keep in mind that your domain is blogspot.com -- registered to Google with a dynamic address -- and the same sites listed in comments above aren't blocking iSteve.com (or takimag.com or Americanconservative.com, etc.), ergo traditional IP- or DNS-based blocking isn't the culprit. Blogger is a free service which tends to attract riff raff and malware merchants, not to mention music/movie pirates. I'm unclear as to why you've never mirrored your posts to another domain, e.g. the iSteve domain you're paying for anyway (or if you really can't do without Blogger, just transfer the DNS to Google). Trying here merely to point out that the technical angle is at least partially within your control as a user of the software.

tip said...

You're blocked via my home ISP-- InterFreemasonry Cybercom -- so am having to send this comment from the old BlackBerry (which also for using it gets me a coupon worth a free small coffee at Tim Hortons).

Anonymous said...

Steve,

You were once blocked where I work (a hospital when we had websense). You are not now. I'm afraid to bookmark you so I do a google or bing search for your site. Whenever I type Steve Sailer, the google text predict always lists "racist" as the first hit. Very nice!

Or course I would have to be insane to read amren.com at work so I have to wait till I get home...

Anonymous said...

You are blocked in China.

Anonymous said...

Your site is blocked at Uline Shipping Supplies in Waukegan, IL. Oddly the reason given was "sex."