Gonzogun Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Started my new teaching job this week. Had a few minutes to kill, so I thought that I would look up USPSA (on the school computer) and this is what I found: ACCESS DENIED Access to the Page: http://www.uspsa.org/members/classified_sh...st&limit=25 Has been denied for the following reason: Weighted phrase limit exceeded. You are seeing this error because what you attempted to access appears to contain, or is labeled as containing, material that has been deemed inappropriate for an educational environment. If you feel this message has been received in error, please contact your computer coordinator and provide all information given on this page. Can anyone help me understand what on the USPSA website in inappropriate for an educational environment??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Firearms and anything gun/shooting related most likely seeing as profane/pornographic materials are not available at the USPSA website, I know, I've looked ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Firearms and anything gun/shooting related most likely seeing as profane/pornographic materials are not available at the USPSA website, I know, I've looked ;-) Did you check the gallery? You never know if that photoshoped image of Jake made it there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 This looks like the offering from www.freedomisp.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiten Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Q: Some pages block because of "weighted phrase limit exceeded". What does this mean?A: There are certain words or phrases, which carry a weight or a value. These are generally words or phrases that have sexual or violent connotations. For instance the word sex will carry a weight of 5, while rape has a weight of 20. If the sum of all the weights on a page exceeds 120 then we deem that page to be nonviewable and it gets blocked. Certain phrases may have a weight of 200, so that if that phrase or word is anywhere on the page, even once, we will block the page. Weighted phrasing is just one of a number of methods we use to scan the contents of a page. It is the way we catch pages that have never been seen by our system before. Sometimes this will be too strict and block a site such as a newspaper or church because they discuss these topics. The filter cannot determine why the phrase is on the page, only that it is. In these cases fill in the form on the blocking page and we will remedy the situation. It appears that the school's filter is objecting to the references to firearms... Cor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 wow.now just talking about guns is censored Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnhurd Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 good thing it didn't open you would have been in possession of a picture of a firearm.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j2fast Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 wow.now just talking about guns is censored Yep, my company filters this site, USPSA, XDTalk, ARFCOM, etc., etc.... Luckily I have friends in the right places in the IT department and my internet traffics leaves and enters through a gateway that isn't "Websensed". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 "Websense" has extensive configuration options. Some more reasonable employers use websense to protect against actionable items (someone sees a photo of naiki wimmin and suffers psychological damage of the sort only an IV infusion of currency can cure, and contingency fee counsel points out that the defense did not use readily available protective technology) while still letting their employees check match scores and the Enosverse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carinab Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Our school district does the "weapon" block thing too. As a result, most military stuff (WWII included) gets blocked too the moment "gun" or "rifle" hit the filter. As a semi-related thread drift....My boss told me about an interesting conversation she had with HR before I was officially hired for the school district. They supposedly told her that hiring me was a bad idea because I had applied for (but had not yet been granted) a CHL. It came up in a background check obviously. Thankfully my boss wasn't about to be pushed around and hired me anyway. But if that had been the reason I'd been passed over for the job, I couldn't do anything about it. It's discrimination yes, but it sure doesn't fall into the categories of religion, gender, race, or sexual preference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve J Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 (edited) So... before I retired from the Army I spent five years at Fort Hood, Texas (less deployment time.) The information management nazis on Fort Hood have evil gun sites to include the NRA and the CMP websites blocked as "mature content". This is the "armed" forces? Maybe one of our members in Arizona can provide a ray of hope and tell us about their high school marksmanship program. I read that marksmanship had recently been approved as a high school elective in that fine state. Edited August 30, 2006 by Steve J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkS_A18138 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 (edited) i CAN LOOK AT PORN AT WORK, but God for bid I look at brianenos.com! we are getting ready to put 30.06 signs on our gates as you drive in. My bosses don't care but HR will fire you on the spot!!! But if you look at porn and get caught you can tell them that you are sick and need help! Guess what, rehab and your job back! One quick note almost all my gun sights that I look at are outlawed now! Edited August 30, 2006 by MarkS_A18138 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markd Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I teach in MS and my district has a filter as well. It is a thousand wonders I can access this site. Generally nothing gun related gets through. I get pretty sick and tired fo being treated like a child. The powers that be should allow free access on a teacher's computer and then if he looks at inappropriate materials like porn or whatever then take it up with him personally. Otherwise gun stuff and load data should be fine!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bayoupirate Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I too am a teacher, and can't access this site at work. The filters are very simplistic and see one word that's on the list and Whamo!!!! On top of that, anytime a computer blocks a site, it prints a report of that in the administrators office. It generally blocks any sights that contain the words FORUM. Trying doing a project on breast cancer at school. I can access our Louisiana Section site and the USPSA Site at school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38superman Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 When I was in high school we had an Army JROTC program. Every male in the school had to take two years of ROTC as requirement for graduation. Once a week we wore an Army class A dress uniform or khakis to school for formation drills. It was a large school and we had a full battalion of cadets. Our ROTC unit also had a rifle team complete with indoor rifle range which was in the basement of the gymnasium (built with the help of federal funding). I was awarded the US Army sharpshooter badge when I was 15 years old. Can you imagine such a thing in this day and time? How will we ever continue to field the best military in the world if 18-20 year old recruits have never seen a gun, much less fired one? Tls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Johnson Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I was doing engineering research when I got the ACCESS DENIED screen and an e-mail from the net mommy in HR. She wanted to know why I was trying to access a 'weapon related' web site. I used one of the circumventors available through peacefire.org to check the site. Turns out the filter (Surfwatch) got its bowels in an uproar because of the word 'gun'. I was looking for pneumatic chillers to be used in a plastic thermoforming application. The web site had links to 'cold air guns'. I called the IT manager and told him his net nanny was keeping me from doing my job. He said it was HR that mandated the filters. I sent an e-mail to HR informing them that their web filter was preventing me from conducting research on an important project. They have yet to reply. It'll be interesting to see what happens when HR gets the order to hire an outside consultant to do the research for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnhurd Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 IIt'll be interesting to see what happens when HR gets the order to hire an outside consultant to do the research for me. Gotta love it............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bayoupirate Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 When I was in high school we had an Army JROTC program.Every male in the school had to take two years of ROTC as requirement for graduation. Once a week we wore an Army class A dress uniform or khakis to school for formation drills. It was a large school and we had a full battalion of cadets. Our ROTC unit also had a rifle team complete with indoor rifle range which was in the basement of the gymnasium (built with the help of federal funding). I was awarded the US Army sharpshooter badge when I was 15 years old. Tls TL The program is alive and well at our school! Producing many great citizens and soldiers. The Program at our school actually runs the concessions and helps as brass rats and stage helpers at our Louisiana Gator Classic Match. The rifle team had to put away the .22's about 5 years ago and go to air rifles. I believe that it was due to concerns over lead exposure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ankeny Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 I also teach at a high school. As a matter of fact, I teach informational technology, including Web technologies. I doubt there are a whole lot of network administrators that would object to the content on this forum. However, some of the IT professionals have this silly notion that the bandwidth provided by tax dollars should be used for educational purposes instead of recreational purposes. Some of them are so anal as to believe computers at schools only exist for the purposes of improving instruction and/or personal productivity. They don't seem to understand that letting employees kick back and surf for a few minutes at lunch time or during their conference/planning time allows them to unwind and it can go a long way towards improving morale. I believe a little recreational surfing on the job can actually improve productivity (if not abused). As for filters, I hate them with a passion, but I understand why they exist. Internet abuse by students (and teachers) is a discipline problem, not a technology problem. With proper classroom supervision, there would be no need to filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tptplayer Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 I also teach at a high school. I got blocked from a restaurant menu I was trying to access for a school field trip. (Cross my heart this is true.) I figure it was the chicken breast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRT Driver Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Let me guess - Your district buys their servers and software with PayPal on Ebay. Here is another test: search for www.ichv.org and see if that gets the same error message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnhurd Posted September 2, 2006 Share Posted September 2, 2006 (edited) Here is another test:search for www.ichv.org and see if that gets the same error message. Crap now I have to go into the quarintine \ decompress chamber you should warn people The only thing good about that site is I didn't see a full frontal nude photo of Rosie Mc Edited September 2, 2006 by johnhurd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRT Driver Posted September 2, 2006 Share Posted September 2, 2006 Sorry, John. It's an obsure Anti sight that anyone other than Illinoians probably wouldn't know about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vance Shearer Posted September 10, 2006 Share Posted September 10, 2006 I actually am the IT sysadmin in charge of network security for a county network. My feeling is that each department head should set policies on how employees may "browse" the web. My only concern is blocking malware from suspect sites from infecting computers. I do not want to be a "net-nanny" as it is a total waste of time and current filters are far too general in blocking. My approach is to secure workstations by rights permissions and leave the browsing open, if department heads want to set policies on browsing that is thier right, and I will give them records, but beyond that I try to stay out of it. Our libraries do have to be filtered per State law, but it is vague on what has to be filtered so I set it for the obvious porn and leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nontactical Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 I tried to give a gun safety lecture for my daughters brownie troop... I told the leader that it would pretty much consist of "if you find a gun dont touch it, RUN and go get an adult". She said that because the meetings were held at the elementary school, they couldnt even mention guns. To reiterate, I was NOT ALLOWED TO TELL A BUNCH OF LITTLE KIDS NOT TO PLAY WITH GUNS BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING SO AT A PUBLIC SCHOOL. My kid sister just started working at a hardware store, and they told her in training that she had to refer to staple guns as "power staplers" even though it clearly says staple gun on the package.... I think PC stands for "pretty crazy". But I digress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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