A significant number of these fires appear to have been deliberately set.
Obviously, in drought conditions, where plenty of dry fuel abounds, anybody who thoughtlessly discards a cigarette butt can start a wildfire. Lightning, or spontaneous combustion from rotting debris, can do the same.
Nobody on the 1389 Blog team cares about being politically correct. We bring you all of the news that we can find, and we are not afraid to point out the obvious conclusions about what it means!
Fox News, just as Glenn Beck previously, picked up on an observation that the rest of the mainstream media largely ignored: brush left in place under environmental groups’ pressure fueled much of the fires in southern California.
If you have noticed that 1389 has not written any significant blog posts for quite a long while, it’s because I’ve been quite ill with bronchitis. And when I’m too sick to work a full schedule, I’m certainly in no condition to do justice to a blog article! All I can do is gulp water and antibiotics, cough, blow my nose, and try to stay on top of the deadlines for my other tasks. I’ve neglected everybody on Twitter, I haven’t read most of my feeds… I still haven’t been well enough to write any of the full-blown articles I’ve been planning on.
Fortunately, JennSierra has filled in admirably last week, so I could take a much-needed break.
I recently saw a little checklist, entitled When Not to Blog, which is actually quite funny. It makes some good points about being in the proper mental state. After all, if the pen is mightier than the sword, it behooves one to exercise a degree of prudence and caution.
It isn’t always easy to take a break. Dedicated bloggers often fear that their readership will dwindle if they take too long to get that next blog post out, or if they don’t work hard enough to promote their latest articles via email, social news sites, blog networking, word of mouth, and so forth.
Sometimes you can’t avoid doing some blogging while sick or while tired, but there comes a point of diminishing returns, and then a point where it becomes counterproductive. If you manage to get anything posted at all, it’s apt to be riddled with typos, layout errors, and dead links. Worse, you could end up trashing your own database and leaving yourself or your team a mess to clean up. So if you see you aren’t making progress, leave the blog alone, get some rest, and see the doctor if you need to!
More goodies on our Blog Censorship resource page
In view of the recent cutoff of web and cellphone communications out of Myanmar (see Think it Couldn’t Happen Here?), more people have been looking for information about censorware and other forms of Internet censorship, and how to get around them. Today, I finally managed to address that issue to some extent on our Blog Censorship resource page. Using proxy servers and the like to get around official censorship, especially in a dictatorship during time of war or revolution, is a very risky business, and I do not want to mislead anybody into being careless. If any of you have additions or corrections, please post a comment or click here to contact us via email.
Heard Foehammer’s podcasts yet?
I did manage to listen to some of the podcasts at Foehammer’s Anvil, and I highly recommend them. So if you’re looking for something worthwhile and informative, click here to see the entire list of podcasts. After you begin listening to one podcast, you’ll also see a widget in the sidebar that you can use to select what you want to hear next. So if you didn’t get to hear his recent webcast interview live, you can access the recorded version here.
If you have a blog, it’s bound to happen to you sooner or later…
The symptoms: Maybe your blog won’t come up in your own browser. Or maybe it looks fine in your browser, but not in someone else’s. You get a discreet (or not-so-discreet) message that there’s a problem. Somebody’s complaining about a 404, an hourglass, a browser crash, a blank window that says “Done,” a partial display, or a scrambled mess that they can scarcely describe.
You gotta fix it promptly! It could be a problem with your layout or content. It could be a problem with the hosting provider. Or it could be a hacker or spammer interfering with delivery of your blog. Whatever the problem, it’s up to you to do something about it. If you have a blog and you want to maintain your credibility, your readers expect your blog to come up promptly when they want to see it. They expect it to display attractively in all of the commonly-used Internet browsers. If your blog loads slowly and displays poorly, it reflects badly on your ability to maintain your blog. If your blog is down too frequently or for too long a time, your readership will disappear because visitors will think you’ve stopped blogging entirely!
Learn from other bloggers’ war stories!
Problems fall into certain general categories. Even though every blog troubleshooting scenario may look different at first glance, you can learn to spot the symptoms of common problems that are easy to fix. As a general rule, the more troubleshooting “war stories” from other bloggers you read about or listen to, the more problems you will be able to solve, and the more pitfalls you will be able to avoid on your own.
Here’s what I did:
In this case, 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech was displaying, but the format was scrambled. I found out about this problem when I got a direct message from a fellow Twitterer, ThomAllen, telling me that my blog wasn’t loading properly. I immediately checked it out in IE7 and the mobile web interface, but everything showed up just fine. My Feedburner output looked good also.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! I asked other people on Twitter, and on an open thread in another blog, to view this blog in their own browsers, and to let me know which browsers they had used and what errors they saw (if any). I got a considerable number of responses. Thanks, everyone!
Pinpoint the problem. After reviewing the responses, I could see that the blog worked fine in IE6, IE7, mobile Mozilla 4, and Safari. But in Firefox, the main content in the center column was pushed to the bottom of the blog, below the final element in the left sidebar. Some people also warned that it took a long time to load.
Reproduce the problem on your own computer, if you can. Other Twitterers urged me to go ahead and install Mozilla Firefox 2 on my machine and use it to view the blog. I did exactly that, and was able to duplicate the problem that I had been told about.
Look at docs, man pages, wikis, forums, and whatever else is available. Because this is a WordPress blog, I looked up the problem in the WordPress codex, the WP Designer forum, and other WordPress forums and docs. Turns out that some browsers are pickier than others about how they handle issues with padding and elements that don’t quite fit in the allotted space.
What has changed recently? I remembered that I had made some adjustments to the sidebar size and padding in my WordPress layout to accommodate some petition widget code that was just a bit too wide to fit into the left sidebar. Hmmm, I thought, this isn’t working the way I thought it would!
Back out recent changes to get to a version that works, and rebuild from there. I started by reloading the original theme files for Cutline 3-Column Split. I created a WordPress page for Petitions and moved the petition boxes into it. To cut back on the load time and reduce visual complexity, I also decided to move the IT and Computing Links and the Mobile Web Links into separate WordPress pages also. Links to all of the blog’s pages are prominently displayed under the Pages header in the sidebar (see Resources).
So what are the take-home lessons here?
If you notice that someone else’s blog isn’t displaying correctly, don’t automatically assume that the blog owner is already aware of the problem. Maybe not! You can help by sending an email or other message indicating what browser you are using, and describing exactly what happened (or failed to happen).
On a regular basis, look at your own blog in several different browsers, including the mobile web interface if you have one. Be sure to view the blog before you have signed on as a blog admin. In addition, check your feed output and any other features that involve user interaction, such as polls and response forms.
It is not worthwhile to hack or tweak your blog template just to squeeze an odd-sized widget or graphic into a sidebar or other page element. You’ll end up with a lopsided theme that might not load properly. It’s better to find an entirely different place to display that item. And if you do any WP theme-hacking, be sure to test your new or modified theme in as many browsers as you can before releasing it for use in anyone’s blog!
Track your stats and check them often. It’s a good idea to use several tracking tools. For example, Google Analytics gives you a breakdown of visitors by browser type as well as by referrer (i.e., the site that the visitor came from). If visitor counts, and time spent on your blog, decline for a particular type of browser, that may mean that your blog performs poorly for that browser. If you stop getting traffic from a certain referrer, perhaps you are being blocked in some way. Other utilities, such as Google Webmaster Tools, can tell you whether search engine spiders are able to index your site’s pages so that the public can find you.
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging environment. If you’re wondering what this means in real life, Twitter is a place where you can let your friends know what you’re doing, network and meet new people, and keep a shared record of interesting things that you encounter on the Internet and in real life. There are even “tweetups” in various locations where Twitterers can get together in person.
How does Twitter work?
When you bring up the first Twitter screen, it asks you, “What are you doing right now?” Although people do use Twitter to answer that question, Twitter is far more than that.
Once you have signed on, you can recount your daily activities, share news items and links, or converse with other Twitterers, in messages of up to 140 characters each. Messages are sometimes known as “tweets” or “updates.” If your text is longer than that, you can continue it in the next 140-character message.
Each user can page back to see earlier messages. This means that you can communicate either in “real time” or by posting messages that others will see when they sign on later.
How do I access Twitter?
You can access Twitter from just about any device that has an Internet browser or messaging capability: a PC, Mac, or Linux machine; a smartphone or PDA such as Blackberry or iPhone; or any cell phone that has a web browser and/or text messaging (SMS or IM). Once you have a user ID, you can use any combination of these methods.
To access Twitter from a desktop or laptop browser, enter http://twitter.com in the address field. That’s all you need.
It’s free; just follow the simple instructions for signing up.
For those who prefer other user interface styles, various downloadable desktop clients are available, including a plugin for Facebook.
To access Twitter Mobile from a cell phone or other mobile device, simply enter http://m.twitter.com in the browser address field. Here again, there are other interfaces you can use, depending on the type of device. If you wish, you can also associate your cell phone number with your Twitter user ID, so that you can send SMS text messages to 40404 and have them appear with your user ID. This also lets you receive “tweets” as text messages on your cell phone. If the text messages get to be too much, you can turn that feature on or off at your convenience.
Tech Tip:If you plan to use Twitter from any mobile device, make sure that you have a service plan that allows for unlimited web browsing and a sufficiently large number of text messages per month. Keep an eye on the amount of data traffic through your account. Even if the company’s television ads claim that they offer “unlimited access,” read the fine print on the service agreement before you sign!
Who will see my messages?
Twitter lets you send two kinds of messages: normal “tweets” that can be viewed by anyone, and direct messages that go to one specific individual.
Direct messages are useful if you want to send someone an email addy or a personal invitation, or if you are communicating with family members or business associates. To send a direct message, enter a “d” followed by a space and the other Twitterer’s user ID (e.g.,d 1389 for a direct message to me).
Anyone can see your normal “tweets” if they are watching the public timeline or if they view your profile page. You have the option of preventing this access by locking your updates for access only by friends, but most people choose not to do that.
To direct a normal “tweet” to a specific Twitterer, put an at-sign followed immediately by the Twitterer’s user ID in the message (e.g.,@1389 for a message to me). Everyone else can still see the “tweet,” but it will also appear in the other user’s Replies tab.
The real question is not who could potentially see your messages, but who actually will be reading them. Twitterers generally stay on their own home page most of the time. Your home page shows you only the messages from other Twitterers whom you are following. In order to have a conversation, the “following” relationship needs to be mutual. This structure helps to make Twitter self-policing, in that spammers, trolls, and other bad actors find themselves tuned out. On the other hand, it does make it more difficult for a new Twitterer to begin establishing a network of friends.
So how do I start building a network on Twitter?
Once you have your user ID, you can start the process by choosing to follow other Twitterers whose messages you find interesting. To see another user’s profile, you can click on that person’s user ID or enter http://twitter.com/their_ID, substituting the other Twitterer’s actual user ID for their_ID. On the profile page, you can click on a button if you want to begin following that user. Whether other users choose to follow you in return is up to them; some will and some won’t, for whatever reason.
It helps if you already know someone who is an active Twitterer. Some people display their Twitter user IDs in MySpace or Facebook or their blogs. Once you have set up an account on Twitter, you can begin following him or her, and perhaps send an email asking the other user to start following you on Twitter and to help you get started by introducing you to others.
If you’re not comfortable doing that, you can always follow me by clicking on http://twitter.com/1389, or you can leave a comment here asking for my assistance. I check my follower list regularly and will follow anyone in return who is not a spambot and who behaves in a civil manner. Let me know what your interests are, and I’ll try to introduce you to other Twitterers who share those interests.
What are some of the “unwritten rules”?
You gotta “tweet”! If you don’t interact with the people who are following you, they’ll figure that you aren’t on the system any more and they’ll drop you. Get to know people, say hello or good morning, remember who they are and ask them about things that they are interested in. Check your direct messages and your “replies” tab regularly.
Don’t “spam.” People do converse about what is going on in their workplace, and about products, services, or intellectual property that they or their company are offering, and that’s generally okay. But people will block Twitterers who spew out blatant sales pitches or advertisements. By the same token, feel free to block and/or report any user that appears to be a “spambot” or is abusing the system.
It’s okay to send links to interesting news stories or blog posts, whether on your blog or someone else’s. Twitter uses Tiny URL to convert long URLs to shorter ones. This allows the link to fit into a short text message, but the downside is that other Twitterers won’t be able to see where the link is going until they click on it. So be sure that your message includes a few words explaining what the link is all about. If you want people to visit your blog, tell them what you posted there!
Don’t be shy about inviting people! There are some prominent Twitterers, including media people, politicians, campaign managers, well-known bloggers, and tech industry innovators. Go ahead and follow them; many of them will follow you back, and some will converse with you if you have something to say with regard to their areas of interest.
Controversial topics are not off-limits. This may surprise you, but prominent Twitterers generally will not flame you or drop you just because you expressed a point of view that they don’t happen to agree with. It’s true that Silicon Valley and media people have a reputation for being left-wing, but some of them are willing to hear other points of view, if expressed in a civil manner. If you speak your mind, and back up your statements with verifiable facts and logic, a few people will drop you, but a far greater number will begin following you!
I practically never post anything to this blog about myself and my day-to-day experiences. After all, this blog is not about me! But this time, I’m making an exception, simply because, on my travels, I recently witnessed an odd series of events, and those events raised questions that need to be answered. I liveblogged these events on Twitter, along with more mundane details of the journey.
Event #1: Last Friday, northbound through rural Georgia on I-75, we were caught in an unexpected traffic jam. The slowdown turned out to be a “gaper’s block” caused by a roadside vehicle fire. When we got to the scene, we saw a motorhome that had burned all the way down to the chassis. We saw no other damaged vehicles, nor anything else indicating why the motorhome had burned.
Event #2: That same day, just a few hours later, we were westbound on I-24 through the mountains of Tennessee, when, once again, traffic came to a complete halt. When the traffic flow started up again, all motorists were herded onto the left shoulder, while a hazmat response vehicle sped by with its siren screaming. This time, we saw a truck cab that had burned all the way down to its chassis. Some liquid, probably fuel, had spilled onto the pavement. Little remained of the truck cab, but the remainder of the rig appeared undamaged. Here again, it was not apparent what had caused the fire.
Event #3: While I was still pondering the odds of having seen two roadside fires involving large vehicles on the same day, traffic stopped again, just up the road on I-24 in the mountains of Tennessee. Sure enough, we could see clouds of smoke in the distance. When we finally went past the scene, we saw two active grass fires, with firefighters working on putting them out. At one of the fires, I saw a large rectangular area of burned grass. It appeared that a burned vehicle, the size of a truck, bus, or motorhome, had just been removed.
Was this a coincidence, or something else? I discussed this with someone else who shares my interest in counterterrorism and tracking unusual events. He said that fires like these are strictly local news, and that if they don’t take place near a city or town, they might not be reported at all. Even when they do make the local news, it’s very unlikely that anybody would put them all together and report on the fact that an unusual number of vehicle fires happened on the same day. These three fires might well have been a coincidence, but we have too little data to draw that or any other conclusion.
On the other hand, what if it wasn’t a coincidence? If a group of people wanted to cause havoc and destruction, and to have a good chance of getting away with it, what might they do? We’ve all been led to expect an apocalyptic attack one or more major cities, which would make the national news and launch an immediate manhunt. But what if they were to sabotage and burn dozens, or hundreds, of vehicles in rural areas instead? How would anybody connect the dots?
Since then, I’ve been searching for any mention of these fires in the local news, to no avail. As of this writing, I’ve yet to find any news story that I can associate with the date and location of these particular fires. That’s frustrating, but it tells me that we can’t rely on the mainstream media, or official sources, to recognize these dots, much less connect them!
This is where citizen journalism comes in, which means you and me. Use whatever tools are available to do the job. If you don’t have a video camera or a camera phone, at least get a phone with web browsing and text messaging capability, so that you can transmit the details of what you encountered.
How would a database or wiki help? The task of “connecting the dots” would be much easier if we had a database or wiki that everyone could use for reporting unusual events and local-scale disasters, and that everyone could search to find patterns and causes of events. In order to be useful, this would have to be a large-scale project that takes in and organizes detailed data from all over the U.S. It would take plenty of resources to start up such a database or wiki on a server that could handle the traffic, to launch and promote the project, and to sign up enough participants to give the project a good start. This is not a one-person job; clearly, it would take more funds and more time than I presently have at my disposal. Nonetheless, this is my proposal for the future, and if enough other people are interested, we could get it done!
For now, we can improvise by using the “blogosphere” itself as our database. If you witness anything unusual, regardless of whether or not you think it is terrorism-related, just blog about it and then pass the information along to others. If possible, set up your blog so that you can make blog posts from your mobile device. Even if all you have is a forum membership somewhere, a Twitter account, or a MySpace page, use it as a vehicle for recording what you saw! After awhile, the search engines on the Web will find these blog posts, and anyone will be able to use them to look for patterns in unusual events. Using even the simplest blogging or microblogging system will get your data out into the world where good use can eventually be made of it.
On Digg, I posted a comment to elaborate further on what this database or wiki should contain:
If you can find an interactive, real-time map of disasters, please let me know. But I’m looking for records of disasters on a local scale, that are never posted anywhere but the local news – or are not posted to any media at all. And I’m also looking for a repository of data that goes back into the past, to make it easier to search for patterns over time.
Noteworthy things to track include the following:
Disease outbreaks in humans, animals, and plants
Unusual numbers of, or disappearances of, wildlife (such as the recent bee dieoff)
Power outages, Internet and phone service outages, and other infrastructure failures (such as the recent bridge collapse) whether there were casualties or not
The vast majority of these things will result from natural causes or human error, and not from terrorism. Nonetheless, knowing about those other causes could potentially save many lives also.
Update – August 16, 2007:
Here’s a link to a very disturbing incident. I have no further information about this, and do not know whether there is any connection between this new incident and the ones that I noticed previously. In this instance, the news story implies gang activity.
Looking for the next big thing? We Web 2.0 aficionados hear about the latest and greatest social web applications every day, but each one seems to be described in terms of its competition. Each fledgling “killer app” entering the field is touted as the next “Digg killer” or “Twitter killer” or “Facebook killer.” But here’s an application, still in beta test, whose purpose differs enough from what’s already out there to warrant being considered on its own merits.
What makesGleamdso different? Let’s start with what Gleamd isn’t. Unlike other fixtures of the social web, gleamd isn’t primarily about its own user base. In other words, if you’re a Gleamd user, it isn’t about wowing everybody with your own multimedia talents, your eye for cool websites, or your nose for news scoops. It isn’t primarily about making business or personal connections with other users, even though you certainly may meet like-minded fellow users on the system.
Then what isGleamdall about? It’s about promoting other people whom you find interesting and worthy of notice. This can include anyone other than yourself who has at least some presence on the Web, and merits more attention than he or she has received thus far. The media superstars and A-list bloggers already have their ways of reaching the public – this is about promoting lesser-known people who may be more deserving.
Who’s behind gleamd? Let’s hear from developer Matt McInerney, a/k/a mattmc on Twitter, who also runs graphic design website and blog Pixelspread, Twitter sci-fi novella ZombieAttack, among other things:
Right now I’m the only person working on Gleamd. It was my idea that I decided to put together and get out in the world. I created it basically because it was a resource I wanted to use myself. We’ve been featured in a lot of blogs so far, and I hear a lot about “popularity contests”, but to be honest, I really think the site is proving to be more than that. First of all, it’s definitely not HotOrNot 2.0. I wanted to create a meritocracy, so submitted people are going to be judged on their accomplishments. Of course there are the web celebs like Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose that are bound to be submitted, but I’ve been pleased to see that the A listers don’t dominate the popular list all the time. The way we calculate the recently popular, which is based on votes just from that day, new and interesting submissions have been given a chance to rise to the top.
I’ve seen comparisons of Gleamd to people search engines like Spock, but I think we differ by giving our users something to look at. Spock is great if you know what you’re looking for, but you aren’t just going to Spock and find interesting people you haven’t heard of without doing a lot of digging around. Gleamd solves that problem pretty quickly by letting users put in their two cents.
Comparing to other social media or social networks, I don’t think we’re competing with places like MySpace, Facebook, or VIRB. We’re not trying to replace your favorite social networks at all. We’re trying to give you the opportunity to find interesting people and maybe even make connections you would have never made otherwise. Maybe you’ll find someone cool on Gleamd, find them on VIRB, and go add them. Who knows. So while we have profiles and friends on Gleamd, they are kind of minimal, and definetly not the focus of the site.
So how can I get involved? If you want to join the private beta, stop by Gleamd and leave a message for Matt. Gleamd still in the private-beta stage only because it’s very new, not because Matt wants to exclude anybody. He’s eager for more users who want to participate actively and give the system a good workout, so don’t be shy!
Now what? As soon as you get a user ID, you can start inviting buddies (like-minded fellow users on Gleamd), and you can begin submitting biographical information about what Matt calls “interesting people doing interesting things on the Web.” Go ahead and submit some people who aren’t already well known, such as interesting people you know from other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, YouTube…you name it.
You don’t need to be an experienced writer or blogger yourself to participate; it’s perfectly fine to put in a few words of your own about why the person is cool, and link to other sites such as Wikipedia or your subject’s own blog to round out the details. If you enter a website or email address, the Gleamd editor will automatically post it as a link. Then check one or more category boxes that apply to your subject (e.g., Artist, Athlete, Entrepreneur, Vlogger) and submit the bio. If you realize that you’ve made a typo or have forgotten to check a box, not to worry; you can edit your own submissions later.
What keeps Gleamd from being infested with spammers, self-promoters, and other Web 2.0 bad actors? Matt has explained that Gleamd already provides some safeguards:
Gleamd has a team of moderators. They don’t intervene to promote or block bios according to their own tastes, but they do weed out the clowns who are spamming fake Viagra or pimping the latest penny-stock scam. Unlike Digg, the moderators at Gleamd are actual, identifiable human beings! You can notify Matt himself or the moderators if you notice somebody abusing the system.
Gleamd automatically checks for duplicate submissions.
Gleamd users are allowed to make only one submission every thirty minutes. This hampers the unwanted activities of spambots and pay-per-submission promoters.
Gleamd discourages users from submitting themselves. In my opinion, this is a good idea, though I have no personal knowledge about how strictly this is enforced.
What would I like to see in the new Gleamd user interface? I’d like to see more robust searching and filtering, perhaps on geographical keys, as well as the ability to see what your buddies have submitted and voted on. That way, when Gleamd scales up to handle a larger user base, each user will have the tools to navigate to the biographical pages that match that user’s interests.
What’s coming next? Gleamd has attracted some investors, so a new user interface is in the offing. There’s also a brand-new Gleamd wiki, where beta test participants can leave comments and suggestions. So if you join the beta test and you think something is missing or needs to be tweaked, go for it!
We offer news, views, and tech tools for the antijihadist activist: Web 2.0, mobile computing, tech tools and tips, confronting e-jihadism, censorship and media spin. We also offer news and information on the Balkans counterjihad, Serbia, Russia, and the Orthodox Christian Church.
1389 was the year of the Battle of Kosovo. The Serbian army, along with some allies, under the leadership of Prince Saint Lazar, knowing that they were about to die, sacrificed themselves to fight the Turkish invasion to a standstill. Their sacrifice prevented much of Europe from being overrun at that time. In their honor, I have chosen 1389 as the name of this blog, and as my nom de guerre.
For the record:
1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech is a team blog. There are several blog authors and admins, including both men and women.
1389 is the founder and primary admin. 1389 is a female.
Articles authored by someone other than 1389 will be identified as such. Look for a byline, a category tag identifying the author, or an external link to the source of the article.
For anyone who has problems: try closing your browser, deleting all cookies that end in “@blogger.com”, and then start all over again. That sometimes clears up problems with Blogger.
Welcome to our resource page! Scroll down to learn more!
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
- Winston Churchill
We Have Tons of Articles!
Want to see them all? Click on this Stop Blog Censorship! category link to view all of our articles about blog censorship and how to combat it, starting with the newest.
Our articles are filled with practical information about what to do if your blog is being blacklisted via censorware.
We also track instances of hacking, threats, and other efforts to muzzle freedom of expression in the blogosphere.
There’s been a real problem lately with people maliciously making false reports to “censorware” providers, so as to inhibit access to conservative blogs, especially those that discuss counter-terrorism issues. We are also greatly concerned with other censorship issues, including the recent examples of fatwas and other threats made against bloggers for publishing political cartoons.
FAQ
“Why are counterterrorist/antijihadist blogs under attack?”
We are exposing some truly evil people, and they are fighting back. That’s to be expected.
If you doubt that our adversaries mean business, put your ears on and listen to Foehammer’s 9/21/07 podcast.
“What about terrorist propaganda and training sites? I am in favor of censoring those!”
So are we! After all, we are at war, and we are entirely in favor of taking down enemy propaganda and other communications. These include, but are not limited to, terrorist training and recruitment videos. Such communications are not covered by any Constitutional or other legal protections for free speech. We want them taken down entirely, not merely blocked by censorware!
At the same time, we work to uphold (or restore) the U.S. Constitutional protections for speech, press, assembly, and petition, and to uphold (or restore) similar protections in other parts of the world.
Our jihadist enemies have no lack of computer savvy. They are constantly attempting to game the system in various ways, so as to interfere with access to legitimate, constructive political speech in the US, the EU, and elsewhere – particularly counterterrorist and antijihadist speech – often under the guise of “political correctness.” At the same time, they abuse the system – sometimes by hacking, spamming, or vandalizing our websites and blogs – to get their own messages out at our expense!
The bottom line: We must reclaim control over our own avenues of communication.
If you want to help get jihadist videos taken down, please visit the following link:
YouTube is part of Google, and its management has often been criticized for bias. YouTube has taken down videos that criticize anything having to do with Islam or Muslims, and has allowed overt jihadist propaganda, recruitment, and terrorist training videos to remain available.
Panera Bread offers a public WiFi in its stores, but with a major catch. They use SonicWALL censorware to blacklist a vast range of sites, including many of the blogs that provide news that you can’t get anywhere else.
Also be sure to read Jihad Watch Unblocked, including the comments accompanying that article. If necessary, other bloggers who have been wrongfully blacklisted by SonicWALL or other censorware providers should do as Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch did, and consult an attorney!
“I’m having trouble with Google Blogger!”
You aren’t the first! If your blog is locked out or malfunctioning, it may be an attempt at censorship, or it may be just plain old bugs. Our articles can help you figure it out.
“My website has received a ‘takedown request’ – what should I do?”
If someone has asked – or demanded – that you take down an article from your blog or website, your first step should be to verify that the “takedown request” is legitimate and is not a bogus request coming from a troll or prankster. (See Musings of Wired Pig 2.1: Takedown Request (Updated) for an example.)
Be aware of any laws that may apply to the material that you are being asked to remove. If you determine that the takedown request is from a legitimate source, but you believe that the request is unjustified, you would be well advised to consult an attorney.
Our Download page contains downloadable Bibles and links to other sites.
“I’m being sued by an Islamist organization!” …or… “I’m being threatened with arrest and prosecution for blogging!”
Yes, we’re tracking that issue too! We suggest that you start by finding a good attorney. If necessary, set up a legal defense fund for others to contribute to your defense.
Be sure to contact us so that we can post information about the lawsuit on 1389 Blog.
Digg is a world of its own, and not a pleasant one. If your Digg user ID, your blog domain, or your IP address has been banned from Digg, you must be doing something right!
These articles discuss censorship and other problems on Digg, as well as alternatives to Digg.
Our Reference Material page shows how to report suspicious persons and activities, including suspected terrorist activities, both on and off the Web.
“Are there any proxies or other ways to get around censorware?”
We have run across some websites that offer information about proxy services, or provide links to sites that do. (See “Other Sources of Information” below.) However, we have not tested these methods ourselves, so we are not in a position to recommend any specific software, service, or method. Nor can we guarantee that your efforts to get around the censorware will be undetected by the censorware firm or your local system administrators.
Be sure to use an up-to-date source! Censorware firms change and adapt their methods to ward off any attempts to get around the firewall. If you want to try using a proxy, get your information and your software from the most up-to-date sources that you can find.
Keep in mind that these workarounds do not address the real problem of blog censorship. You might be willing and able to set up proxies so that you can continue to read all of your favorite blogs. But if your blog is being blocked by censorware firms over much of the world, how many other people will take the same effort and risk to get to your blog? The fact is that only a tiny fraction of your potential audience will have courage, the know-how, and the opportunity to set up proxies and use them to read your blog in secret somewhere. This will not propagate your blog’s message to the general public, most of whom haven’t seen your blog and don’t know why it might be worth their trouble to read it!
Disclaimer: These sites offer information that may be useful to you. The presence of a link in this list does not necessarily imply that 1389 Blog, its primary administrator, or any of its team members agree with, vouch for, or endorse the site in question.
While this method is perhaps easier to use, the Word of Blog server has been down on occasion.
If you previously acquired Word of Blog badge code that referenced id=4690, please replace it with the new code that references id=4689. This change is being made to fix a duplicate badge bug.
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