Posted on 12/09/2013 10:08:51 AM PST by cuban leaf
So, I was on this site a few weeks ago and a guy was complaining that they were “auto editing” bad words. The entire word would be replaced with asterisks. I posted and told him that you could always misspell the offending word and gave an example. I said you could spell the N word with three “g”s and their software would not touch it. But I didn’t say it that way. I actually posted the word to prove it. Keep in mind, I posted the word with no context. Just the word as an object, much as someone could post the word “bitch”. In fact any context was not even about the word, but about the concept of words in general. The funny part was I continued to post on the site for a couple of days and then decided I needed to spend my time in more productive ways (it’s why I haven’t been here for a few weeks as well), so didn’t bother going there until today and found that I’m in the last week of a month long ban, and didn’t even know it. I also didn’t even have to log in for the message to show up. And the threat was included that if I ever used that word again I would be permabanned. On a side note, I was never warned nor have I ever been warned or banned before. The interesting part is this: I’m posting from a computer in a VERY large organization. I figured I’d just go on the site and lurk without an ID. I figured they wouldn’t ban an IP address in case other users are also here. So to be safe I cleared all history, cookies, etc., shut down my browser and opened it up again and hit the page cold. It STILL said I was banned and I could not even view the site. Out of curiosity, anybody ever heard of such a thing? Can they ban via mac address or ban your hardware in other ways? Just curious. I don’t really need to go back there and the ban is only temporary anyway, but it does beg the question regarding how I was banned and how they know even my computer is banned. I also find this whole thing a clash of cultures. I don’t consider the N word to be a dirty word, but it “can be dirty”, depending on how it is used, as with the word “bitch”. But perhaps I’m coming from a different paradigm or I’m not niggardly enough with my definition scope.
I was fired from a job back in 1999 for something I downloaded off of Freerepublic. I hold no animosity to the site and a lot of people (not just me) learned from the experience.
Gee whiz, if you haven’t gotten banned from LGF, you’re not doing it right.
Word of warning to you my friend, if your company is VERY large, chances are they have an IT department that handles all your computer needs and problems.
If your company was like mine was and has policy regarding employee internet activity, every month they provide all dept. managers with a print out of every employee's internet activity, be it browsing, or posting or shopping.....EVERYTHING. If they don't do it now, they certainly have the ability to do so......
So just be careful.....
I have heard that you can try a proxy website to hide your IP if word doesnt block it.
i never tried it.
Probably because your support for that site was niggardly little.
It only has a harmless context if you are black, talking to another black - and smiling ... :-) ...
So, out of all the “curse” words you could choose to illustrate your point, you picked the one that, regardless of the context, would label you as a racist? Why not the “F” bomb wuth two K’s or the S word with a $ instead of an S? Seems like you were destined to fail by choosing the word you did, that doesn’t really have a harmless context.
Interestingly, I was actually only trying to point out to the guy that the software was “brainless” and could not interpret context - and would asterisk out a word, even though the context made the word harmless.
Considering that a LOT of people use the N word to describe themselves, I really don’t see it as an offensive word, unless the context creates the offense. I believe it enough to do what I did there, otherwise I would not have done it. Even when the site allowed literally any word you could think of, I never used foul language. I was a rarity there in that way, and they knew it.
It is? Why haven’t you thumped us for it?
I will do better. Thanks for the admonishment.
Nice, you put the ‘G’ in Negro,,,
oh well..
Yep. They can even time travel in a sense. I could stop right this minute, but they could read what was going on two years ago and that would be that, if they so chose.
I depend on my quality of work, though. When I was let go back in 1999, I moved on quickly - to a $20 an hour raise.
The poster wasn't addressing profanity, it was about the selective use of the word "nigga" and we all know that with that spelling it just means "man" if used in a loving and caring way by a person of color {and I am a person of color}, Sicilian is a color that is darker than barry soreteo.
To the question in the original title: No, a website should never be able to "detect" your MAC address, under any circumstances. The MAC address only identifies your NIC on the local network segment, it isn't passed upstream to a website that you're accessing via intermediate routers.To the question in the post body: The website many be able to uniquely identify you, and it may not. There are certainly ways to try and fingerprint a repeat user (cookies, flash cookies, browser profiling, IP address logging, etc.) that allow for various levels of confidence. As Rory mentioned, using the same base VM potentially leaves you vulnerable to browser fingerprinting, but eliminates the threat from cookies.
However, To be relatively confident in your privacy, I don't know that I'd bother with the "new VM every visit" and focus on more traditional privacy-protecting measures such as turning off your browser plugins, using your chosen browser's private browsing mode, and most importantly, using Tor.
If their ability to “see you” is persistent no matter what you do, you might try clearing out the flash cookies. They are quite persistent.
There are other sites??
The NSA lets you post there?
Yes, but they are not places you want to go, Trust me.
So, I was banned from another site
There are other sites??
Make no mistake, I’ve learned a lot by hearing the “thinking liberal” position on some of what, at first glance, appear to be slam dunk conservative wins.
But mostly - especially the last year - it’s just fun to watch them squirm.
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