OpenDNS "tags" difference sites on the Internet in categories, and then you can configure this free service to block those kinds of sites or not.
One thing that I noticed for "Free Republic" is that someone is trying to get this site tagged as a "Hate/Discrimination" site.
There are five categories that it's currently being "tagged" for ...
It's already been accepted and "approved" for "News/Media" and "Forums/Message Board". It's still awaiting votes by the "membership" (and that is free membership) for those other categories of (1) Chat, (2) Hate/Discrimination, and (3) Politics.
Now what this means if it's accepted and approved for any of those categories all the other "OpenDNS users" can configure their own computers and companies they work for or schools or whatever to accept or reject these categories.
If they want to block all "Forums/Message Boards" for their kids at home (for example) they can make it so that OpenDNS will not load anything that is a Forum/Message Board so that their kids can't access anything like that on the Internet.
And so it goes for all the different categories and you can configure it any way you want for about 55 categories.
Thus, if someone has it configured that they want all "Hate/Discrimination" sites blocked -- and if Free Republic gets classified as that -- then no one will be able to access this (for example, a business or a school or many different families for anyone in the family).
Anyway, you should join up for the free membership, then vote on Free Republic not being a "Hate/Discrimination" site.
OpenDNS is the biggest DNS service out there on the Internet (as far as I'm aware of) and so this vote is significant here ...
The webpage where you vote on this (but you have to join as a free member first) is at ...
DC Chapter Master Ping List
Check out Star Traveler’s explanation in his Post 6
Something to do before going to work and it helps FR
[Mr]T
Very interesting......and done.
VirginiaMom
You can vote "YES" for any of the others (or none of the others) if you want, but the critical one is the "NO" on "Hate/Discrimination" ... thanks ...
It's at ...
And you need to "sign up" as a member [it's free and no obligations and they don't bug you ... :-) ...].