Media setting - Did you know HAF is into the occult?

[Amicale]

^^^

Not at all surprising you received the same form letter as Tank.  

Very nearly the same letter, yes. With just bits changed. In his they said "Based on your recommendation and after careful evaluation of the Web content submitted, a Web Content Analyst has recategorized this URL as Alternative Spirituality/Occult and Newsgroups/Forums." and mentioned something about it taking a couple days for them to.... uh... keep it the EXACT same way they had it, apparently. Sigh.  

Edited to add: in response to that letter they sent me, I replied with

Hello,

Thank you very much for responding so promptly to my inquiry! It's appreciated.

I respect your statement about how your service is based on a customer's preferences, with regards to which categories they choose to block or allow. I was in fact one of your customers and was the person who installed K9, but regrettably, I had to uninstall K9. I politely object to the idea of listing atheist websites as alternative spirituality/the occult, and also politely object to a few of your other categories, and how they're quite narrowly defined. I certainly respect your right to define them as you wish, though, and I understand that your definitions come from a conservative (and perhaps Christian?) standpoint, so your company's definitions are likely to be different from those with a different perspective. However, those with a different perspective see atheism as having nothing to do with alternative spirituality and especially the occult. :-)

plus a few totally unrelated comments about the technical use of the program itself, and that's absolutely the last they'll hear from me. I have no desire to argue with them, and certainly no desire to get this website inadvertently blacklisted even further, but I think I do have the right to express my preferences and explain why I no longer wished to use their service. I hope that looks polite enough, because I tried to make it that way.

[DeterminedJuliet]

When I get a few spare moments, I think I might write a little article to Wired about this. At the very least, it's an interesting study on how the parameters for these sorts of things get set (i.e., they, apparently, don't have to make any sense whatsoever!)

[Asmodean]

I have no desire to argue with them, and certainly no desire to get this website inadvertently blacklisted even further, but I think I do have the right to express my preferences and explain why I no longer wished to use their service. I hope that looks polite enough, because I tried to make it that way.

You could also threaten them with The Asmo. His Omnigrayness can, in His omnimalevolence, get through any nomber of blocks for maximum impact.

...And when the Grayness is too fat for the net, The Omniswarm will do His bidding.  

[Amicale]

I have no desire to argue with them, and certainly no desire to get this website inadvertently blacklisted even further, but I think I do have the right to express my preferences and explain why I no longer wished to use their service. I hope that looks polite enough, because I tried to make it that way.

You could also threaten them with The Asmo. His Omnigrayness can, in His omnimalevolence, get through any nomber of blocks for maximum impact.

...And when the Grayness is too fat for the net, The Omniswarm will do His bidding.  

Yeah, about that. I tried threatening them with you, and they were all like "Phhht, that Asmo dude's the knob on the end of a shaman's stick. SEE? You're all occult!" 

[ThinkAnarchy]

I have no desire to argue with them, and certainly no desire to get this website inadvertently blacklisted even further, but I think I do have the right to express my preferences and explain why I no longer wished to use their service. I hope that looks polite enough, because I tried to make it that way.

You could also threaten them with The Asmo. His Omnigrayness can, in His omnimalevolence, get through any nomber of blocks for maximum impact.

...And when the Grayness is too fat for the net, The Omniswarm will do His bidding.  

Yeah, about that. I tried threatening them with you, and they were all like "Phhht, that Asmo dude's the knob on the end of a shaman's stick. SEE? You're all occult!"  

It's only because people don't realize the power he holds. Their tune will change when he goes on the offensive.

Please just promise us you will limit exposing your true powers. As Amicale touched at, we don't want them to fully realize we have learned to control the super-natural forces we claim don't exist. If they found out we were actually the Occult rebranded, we're fucked.

Please be careful Asmo.

[Stevil]

Alternative to what kind of spirituality exactly?

Exactly, and how is atheism considered a spirituality!
Am I missing out on something, come on you atheists, where's the spirituality, let me in on the secrets!

[Asmodean]

Fine, fine! The Asmo will not send the entire Omniswarm at them. Only a little bit.  

oO(Knob. A KNOB!  The audacity of them! A well-known fact that that job belongs to Asmoknobian - a minion, and a lesser one at that. )

[xSilverPhinx]

Seems like we're forced to sticking to our double lives folks, pretending to be normal happy atheists. They've sniffed out our true occulist agenda and we just can't let them know the rest of it! 

[Amicale]

Actually, I have an update, and I was pleasantly surprised, somewhat.

After I sent

Hello,

Thank you very much for responding so promptly to my inquiry! It's appreciated.

I respect your statement about how your service is based on a customer's preferences, with regards to which categories they choose to block or allow. I was in fact one of your customers and was the person who installed K9, but regrettably, I had to uninstall K9. I politely object to the idea of listing atheist websites as alternative spirituality/the occult, and also politely object to a few of your other categories, and how they're quite narrowly defined. I certainly respect your right to define them as you wish, though, and I understand that your definitions come from a conservative (and perhaps Christian?) standpoint, so your company's definitions are likely to be different from those with a different perspective. However, those with a different perspective see atheism as having nothing to do with alternative spirituality and especially the occult. :-)

a guy from their team actually responded to me in person, saying this:

Hi,

Please note that K9 utilizes an older version of our categories. As such it does not reflect the updated naming convention which includes Alternate Spirituality/Beliefs under which we currently place sites related to atheism. That probably does little to assuage your concern, one might even argue that atheism is a lack of belief but nonetheless that is where we place content of this nature.

I sit on the category committee. I like to think that I was elected to this body for my decidedly liberal stances on a great many things though I and the majority of the board are indeed Christian. Perhaps a dedicated Atheism category might be in order?

I’ll pass your customization message to the K9 support group for review/response.

Best, [his name - leaving it off the public board] 

I was kind of impressed, and suggested that an atheism category that could be turned on or off would be fine, or better yet, simply remove atheism from the out-dated old category. He wrote back to say he agreed with me, and that he would pass the information along to his team.

The kicker?

Well said. I’ll take this to the category committee for review. Note that we only meet every 18 months. Our next meeting is not scheduled until Dec. of this year.

So, the good news.... they may either give atheism its own category, or at least take it out of alternative spirituality/occult. The bad news, it probably won't be until 2013. 

Ah well. At least someone gave half a damn. That impresses me.

[ThinkAnarchy]

Good work. I'm sure they will need to be reminded just before their meeting though. Hopefully someone here remembers in late November to shoot off an email to remind them of this discussion point, while also reminding them atheist parents don't appreciate their current categories for blocking sites.

I'm honestly shocked you received an actual message. I have had to spam the CEO's email in order to get non-form responses from some companies in the past.

Added I wonder if they sent someone to look at this thread. It wouldn't be hard to find since they have had at least two members contact them stating they were from HAF. They could simply be trying to silence us hoping we forget about it come December. I doubt it, but it's possible.

[Amicale]

Good work. I'm sure they will need to be reminded just before their meeting though. Hopefully someone here remembers in late November to shoot off an email to remind them of this discussion point, while also reminding them atheist parents don't appreciate their current categories for blocking sites.

I'm honestly shocked you received an actual message. I have had to spam the CEO's email in order to get non-form responses from some companies in the past.

Added I wonder if they sent someone to look at this thread. It wouldn't be hard to find since they have had at least two members contact them stating they were from HAF. They could simply be trying to silence us hoping we forget about it come December. I doubt it, but it's possible.

Oh, it's very possible someone did look at the thread. I'm kinda hoping that they did, actually. I also hope they take a good look around the site, see how we interact with one another, and realize that we're a supportive, fairly easygoing community that has zilch to do with alternative spirituality or the occult.

And sure, I'll shoot them off an email by November, with copies of everything that was said -- just in case the original guy I spoke with is suddenly no longer on the board, or whatever.  

But, yeah. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a response, and he earned my respect for that, as well as for what he said, and how politely he said it.

[DeterminedJuliet]

one might even argue that atheism is a lack of belief

Ummm. How could anyone reasonably argue that atheism is anything BUT a lack of belief?

Still. Nice that a real human responded to you without acting like a complete idiot. Yay.

[Anne D.]

Thanks, Tank and Amicale 

[The Magic Pudding]

So would this filter also block Harry Potter and Tolkien yet let Narnia through?

[Guardian85]

Actually, I have an update, and I was pleasantly surprised, somewhat.

After I sent

Hello,

Thank you very much for responding so promptly to my inquiry! It's appreciated.

I respect your statement about how your service is based on a customer's preferences, with regards to which categories they choose to block or allow. I was in fact one of your customers and was the person who installed K9, but regrettably, I had to uninstall K9. I politely object to the idea of listing atheist websites as alternative spirituality/the occult, and also politely object to a few of your other categories, and how they're quite narrowly defined. I certainly respect your right to define them as you wish, though, and I understand that your definitions come from a conservative (and perhaps Christian?) standpoint, so your company's definitions are likely to be different from those with a different perspective. However, those with a different perspective see atheism as having nothing to do with alternative spirituality and especially the occult. :-)

a guy from their team actually responded to me in person, saying this:

Hi,

Please note that K9 utilizes an older version of our categories. As such it does not reflect the updated naming convention which includes Alternate Spirituality/Beliefs under which we currently place sites related to atheism. That probably does little to assuage your concern, one might even argue that atheism is a lack of belief but nonetheless that is where we place content of this nature.

I sit on the category committee. I like to think that I was elected to this body for my decidedly liberal stances on a great many things though I and the majority of the board are indeed Christian. Perhaps a dedicated Atheism category might be in order?

I’ll pass your customization message to the K9 support group for review/response.

Best, [his name - leaving it off the public board] 

I was kind of impressed, and suggested that an atheism category that could be turned on or off would be fine, or better yet, simply remove atheism from the out-dated old category. He wrote back to say he agreed with me, and that he would pass the information along to his team.

The kicker?

Well said. I’ll take this to the category committee for review. Note that we only meet every 18 months. Our next meeting is not scheduled until Dec. of this year.

So, the good news.... they may either give atheism its own category, or at least take it out of alternative spirituality/occult. The bad news, it probably won't be until 2013. 

Ah well. At least someone gave half a damn. That impresses me.

See!? This is what happens when you let crazy cat ladies off the leach.

Seriously, though. Good one!