The “Alas Debate Annex” is now open for business. This will be a parallel blog, for the moment moderated by me, which will have looser rules on who can comment, and what comments are allowed, than the main “Alas” blog.
Right now, I’m the only “Alas” poster posting at the Debate Annex, and the only thing I’ve posted so far are cross-posts from “Alas.” Other “Alas” posters are free to cross-post as well; just choose “crossposted to the Alas debate annex” as one of the categories for any post, and it’ll be automatically crossposted there. This is a strictly opt-in program; if you’d rather not see your posts (or any particular post) there, just don’t check the “crossposted to…” category.
The plan is that discussions on “Alas” will become less welcoming to debate from right-wing an anti-feminist views than it has been, while simultaneously discussions on the Debate Annex will be more open to criticism from the right and from anti-feminists than “Alas” has been. (Although I’ll still be banning people who I think are acting like total assholes.) How exactly this will all work out in practice is something we’ll have to discover as we go.
I’d be interested in hearing comments or suggestions from everyone.
Alas (pun unintended), my office servers block the Debate Annex, but I can still comment on the regular blog…
That’s so weird! I wonder why…
If its of any help Amp when I try to go to the Debate site it comes up blocked as “Social Networking” (we use Websense for blocking at my job).
Here’s another curious thing. If I go to…
“www.amptoons.com” it gets blocked as “Social Networking”
“www.amptoons.com/blog” it gets blocked as “Social Networking”
“http://www.amptoons.com/blog/” I get through. And it must be exactly that. If I leave out any part of it, “http”, any of the “/”, I get blocked.
But if I switch out “blog” for “debate” I still get blocked.
Odd.
I’ll see if I can get websense to change the rating, although I don’t know if they’re willing to do that.
You can also get around workplace web-blocking software by installing this software on your home computer. Or you can try subscribing to this service.
Or you can do what I do, and download the Tor Browser Bundle and keep it with you on a flash drive at all times.
A lot of web blocking software will block the circumventors, but since TOR doesn’t actually install anything on your hard drive or leave anything behind it’s a lot harder to detect and a lot harder to block.
Plus it makes me feel like a secret agent.
—Myca
I was just thinking last week that it was a shame that Blog by Barry fell by the wayside. I’m happy to see that you’re bringing it back.
Isn’t circumventing web blocking software kind of a risky career move? Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone getting fired for it.
Websense is horrible and evil, if useful for getting those idiots to stop streaming local radio.
The original (and still very effective) way of getting around websense is to use a proxy server. Eventually websense will block the one that you’re using but there’s always another one & they’re easy to find. Plus it requires no software installation.
Here’s one set of instructions on that.
And here’s the wikihow.
Good luck.
Yes it would be rather risky. And I don’t think it would look good for a member of the IT department to get caught doing end runs around the blocking software.
But as far as this blog is concerned the answer is actually rather easy. I just search for “Alas” on google and click on the result. Odd I tell you.
The problem with BBB is that it was just too much of a pain in the neck — I had to copy and paste when I posted, then copy and paste again if I edited, and again, and again, and so on forever. I’m hoping that this one will be easier to keep up just because it’s so much easier to do.
That picture made my day. It doesn’t even need a caption; it’s a lovely symbol for “Internet Debates” all by itself, perfectly capturing that strange mix of pain and enthusiasm.
Any chance of getting a link to TADA somewhere? For example, the upper right hand corner under Alas-related links.
Second Dianne’s request. Many of the crossposted articles don’t contain direct links to TADA so it would be useful to have one on the main page.
Link added!