STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!!'s topics - tribe.net

change name?

2008-03-05T07:17:29Z

is it time to change this tribes name? is the fight really over? can we declare victory?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 3 replies

Should I delete this tribe?

2006-11-16T11:27:13Z

Well Tribe's back, supposedly, and I'm not sure there's much of a need for this here tribe, and nothing's happened on it for quite awhile anyways. Should I delete it, or should we keep it around as a momento?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

Tribe is deleting you...

2006-04-29T03:07:25Z

Several folks (myself included) got 86'ed today, and all of our content deleted. I rebuilt, just to spite them, but I thought you should know. You'll note others here that are "unsubscribed," well, they aren't. They were deleted by Tribe.

I posted a picture that I had created. Tribe said it violated TOU and removed it, but didn't say WHY it violated TOU - they let me guess at it. When I reposted it, they removed *ME*

Thought you sould know. Free-association is becoming an attractive alternative...

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

TRIBE IS CENSORING OUR TRIBE'S PICTURES!!

2006-03-25T00:11:38Z

Yes, they have finally made it to our humble little corner of the network. This tribe here, with its highly influential 55 members, has had two of its pictures removed for no good reason! They removed the pictures of the two Tribe kids puking, and the fat red Tribe guy getting blown by a teenybopper. Here are the links they sent me so that I could review the photos and contest their censorship:

http://www.tribe.net/template/FlagItemHandle.vm?photoid=12adc7da-68de-4ebd-80cf-b0f57af43a34
http://www.tribe.net/template/FlagItemHandle.vm?photoid=822f9733-d494-4e1a-8ea3-871139110991

Here is one of my censorship protests (they have a link where you can go and say that you think the flagging feature has been abused):

I believe that the above-referenced picture has been removed as a result of someone abusing the system and acting unreasonably. The picture is not offensive, it is a simple cariacature of two people vomiting, but it is far from graphic, and it makes an important artistic statement. Also, since the oral projectiles are not detailed, this picture could be used as a first-aid instructional tool, showing what happens when the Heimlich maneuver is applied to a choking person. Also, this picture can be found throughout the Tribe network. If someone doesn't like the picture, well, this is America and they can very well close the window and go look at something else! There is no good reason for this picture to be censored, as I highly doubt that a parent is going to claim that their children were harmed from seeing a cariacature of people vomiting, as children are well known for their own portrayals of crude humor.

Here is the form letter they sent me:

As part of our efforts to ensure a positive community for all our members,
our Terms of Use allow members to remove content that they find offensive
or in violation of our Terms of Use or Code of Conduct.

The photo will be automatically deleted in 30 days.
--Tribe.net

Terms of Use: www.tribe.net/template/pub%2CTerms.vm
Code of Conduct: www.tribe.net/template/pub%2CCode.vm

what a bunch of bullshit!!

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 3 replies

AND

2006-03-07T02:04:05Z

complain, give em hell AND better ideas. I like the *give em better ideas* part. Censorship is only a tool like any other tool. There is an "art" to using it well. And not abusing it. That's just my opinion.

Personally I like things with many teirs of censorship in the form of warnings. Systems which bring pleasant order and not control-freaking of access. I.E. explicit language, explicit imagery, violence-references, disturbing(nausia affectatious) imagery etc.

Some things are interesting and don't really bother your sensibility for instance, and yet if you're eating some dinner or breakfast and a tv happens to be on nearby and something pops on that just don't jive digestible with the pallate at that particular moment... Know what I mean?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 1 reply

Tribe's new CEO, read and comment at "Online Personals Watch"

2006-02-10T21:22:44Z

you've probably already heard about him, but just in case you didn't know, he's from Pepsi & Proctor & Gamble, and is bringing his well-honed corporate sensibilities to our humble little corner of the internet. Lucky for us, eh?
Anyways, this is a very revealing article, and you MUST read the comments after the article and post your reply, if you have anything to say that is!

http://onlinepersonalswatch.typepad.com/news/2005/05/online_personal.html

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 6 replies

http://www.zaadz.com/ another possible alternative

2006-02-08T22:42:56Z

http://www.zaadz.com/

it's still in beta, it's not meant to be the same thing as Tribe, I don't really know that much about it, but check it out.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 6 replies

Blow A Gaot

2006-02-07T17:17:44Z

Censor ship is bullshit. We need to be as open with our shit as possible.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 13 replies

Question

2006-02-06T20:59:53Z

What the hell is up with pigeons shitting on people?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 3 replies

Knight-Ridder owns Tribe now?

2006-01-30T08:59:19Z

not exactly. they are an investor.
This is explained in a thread at "tribe's new look":
http://tribes.tribe.net/newlook/thread/ec75a3f1-50a5-44de-8ac5-6c607ef8191a

and her'es the press release (also on Tribe.net) about the new investors:
http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/template/pub%2CAbout.vm?section=AboutPress&article=Press001

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

the relationship between customer satisfaction and success

2006-01-30T08:47:59Z

http://www.clickz.com/experts/brand/cmo/article.php/3579021

this is a pretty good article about that! Check out the "Ultimate Question" as it applies to Tribe's new changes.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

yet another alternative - free-association.net

2006-01-29T20:51:52Z

http://www.free-association.net/

this site is being started by, I think, other Tribe members who are sick of the new changes.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Sciontoloogy Tribe Deleted!

2006-01-29T20:32:56Z

A few days ago somebody made a tribe called "Sciontology" as a parody and protest of the sponsored tribe for Scion (the crappy little car with plastic ad-on bling).

Guess what? Tribe deleted it, and unsubscribed the creator.

Also, tribes "interface designer" elliot, seems to be joining tribes full of dissenters. Elliot, congratulations on being the first membert of the Tribestapo.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

Join other anti-censorship tribes...

2006-01-29T20:03:14Z

There are too many anti censorship tribes, which means no indication of a united front.

Unfortunately, merging them is a bit of a hassle. So instead...

JOIN THEM ALL.

theres:

2257 sucks
Wade is a big Douchebag
Invite me to your Mature Tribe...

and many more.
If you see a connected anticensorship tribe on one of the tribes you're already in, join it.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 1 reply

This is what the Pentagon thinks of the internet!!

2006-01-29T00:23:10Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

VERY interesting article from the BBC. I wonder why this isn't on Yahoo or CNN news . . .

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 1 reply

CAn't stop me

2006-01-23T09:08:35Z

They think they got rid of TOU. They banned my other e addy from joining again. Well, I just created a new E addy and a new TOU is here. TOU2. Wonder how high it'll get? Each time they do it, I'll be back. They can't keep a good TOU down. Must have really gotten to them. I didn't even get a message from them saying I was unsubbed or banned. Just done. Like the Nazis.

tribes.tribe.net/tou2

TOU tribe is back now. They can't stop ME! I'm TOU.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Join the TOU (Terms of Use) Guy Tribe!

2006-01-23T01:47:46Z

You must create an Alt before joining because you must be the TOU Guy (or Gal, or Barnyard animal) to join. Try to keep your profile as close to the original as possible.

Then click this link:

tribes.tribe.net/touguy

-- TOU (Terms of Use) Guy

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 1 reply

Here's what to do

2006-01-23T00:21:30Z

1. Create an alt membership for yourself. I recommend TOU, or TOU GUY/TOU GIRL.

2. Use this alt to flag photos YOU find offensive. Such as religious icons, photos of Bush, pix of cute puppies. ALSO, flag offensive photos (naked people and the like) as the best of tribe.

3. Keep complaining to TRIBE. Continue telling them how you feel, how they are turning their backs on their base, how they are becoming something their current clients don't want.

4. Encourage all those you know who feel the same to do the same.

5. Their number of subscribers will rise drastically. Then in a week or so, unsubscribe your alt membership and they can watch their numbers start to fall.

6. Have fun and good luck.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 4 replies

Eliminate Ads

2006-01-22T23:25:42Z

Everyone should install Adblock Plus from Firefox, that way all of Tribes ads are removed.

As long as they have the right to remove my content, I have the right to remove thiers.

I urge everyone to use Firefox as their browser, and install the Adblock plus plugin. If we get 100% of tribe users to do this, their advertisers will quickly notice that they are getting NO "click-thru" from Tribe.

They will then pull their ads.

Tribe then has a choice. Stand with us and fight, or stand with Bush and dwindle away!

Heres how:
Download the Firefox Browser:

www.mozilla.org

Then you need to install the adblock plus extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1865&application=firefox

When you return to Tribe, ALL ads will be gone!

(as a matter of fact all advertising on ANY site will be gone!)

You may want to contact Tribes sponsors and let them know why you have chosen to eliminate their content i.e Boycott

I'm sure Tribe's sponsors will appreciate the heads up, they don't want to waste their money here, advertising is expensive.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Censor me, bitches!

2006-01-22T22:51:07Z

Fuck fuck cock bitch suck my ass shit eater donker raper uncle fucker cunt clit fuck me dead in the rosebud penis schlong FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK pussy as titties CUNTCUNTCUNTFUCKER cock shit motherfuckers! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 8 replies

The End is Near!!!

2006-01-20T19:54:12Z

I just got this message from TOU. FUCK EM!!!

Hi Andros --

Please refrain from uploading photos which violate our Terms of Use/Code of Conduct.
Your photos have been consistently flagged by the community, only for you to upload them
again.

Please adhere to the guidelines you agreed to when you joined tribe.net, or your account may be
removed without further warning. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thank you --

--TOU (Terms of Use) Guy

THIS IS THE RESPONSE I SENT TO MR TOU:

Actually the current guidelines are NOT the ones I agreed to when I joined tribe.net. And I will continue to upload the photos again and again as will everyone in my network. And once you have banned us all you will have banned the very people who made your gravy train Asshole!!!

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 4 replies

online gentrification

2006-01-20T17:49:49Z

Simple Logic... look at the largest tribes on here, they are not mainstream groups; they obviously express an affinity for alternative tastes. They are the demographic from which original art and ideas come. Why would they want this latest layout design that screams "I am a sheep, waiting to have the machine do my thinking for me!" ?
The actions recently of this company indicate to me that no concern is being given to the large clientelle that has found this site (up to now) to call "home". The majority of the users here likely chose this site because it invited (at the time) their uniqueness, and provided a place to not be a part of the mediocrity that is otherwise smothering them in the daily bombardment by corporate marketing. If the current infection isn't healed, these people will find a new home. It is the way things work.
The story being played out here is nothing more than gentrification on the internet... an "e" version of downtown Asheville (just one of many cool places ruined in the same fashion).
For those not familiar, here's the plot... pick a place, any place, and notice it has an opening for original thought and an outlet for expression by creative individuals. Thusly, these individuals move in, creating groups, families, soulful businesses, and a rich culture. Growth occurs, and the place becomes fun, novel and inspiring. This attracts outsiders to come "get a taste", or worse, to try to own a bit of the action. This second influx is a group, not with original ideas or even having talent, but just wanting to be "hip" or to capture part of the energy that has made the said place now a hot item. These people are little more than social vampires. The property owners (town real estate moguls, website owners, etc.) now recognize the increased value of their property. They did not create this jewel, they just owned the place where it was formed. Caring more about their wallets than about the people that enriched their world, these owners choose to sell out to mainstream corporate entities, effectually chasing of the real wealth - the artists and thinkers.
That brings us to the current crux... and one of two things will happen from here. Either the property owners recognize the erronious thinking that will cause them to lose the "real" wealth and makes amends, or the beautiful people move along to find a new place to attempt once more to create their utopia.
The jewel makers might be inconvenienced for a bit, but because of their nature, they will never cease beautifying where they reside.
We do our own thinking, so we don't need to buy the ideas of imbeciles. And we will not tolerate censorship!
So, what's it gonna be, Tribe?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Thought Control

2006-01-19T11:35:52Z

ZNet | Activism
Thought Control
by Paul Street; April 27, 2004

Propaganda at Work: Simon Says 2 +2 = 5

The best definition of propaganda I know belongs to the late Alex Carey. "By 'propaganda,'" Carey wrote, "I refer to communications where the form and content is selected with the single-minded purpose of bringing some target audience to adopt attitudes and beliefs chosen in advance by the sponsors of the communications. 'Propaganda,'" noted Carey, is very different from education at its best, whose "purpose is to encourage critical inquiry and to open minds for and against any particular conclusion, rather than close them to the possibility of any conclusion but one." Propaganda is the management and manipulation of public opinion through misinformation and the use of political and cultural symbols to create popular consent for policies, practices, and hierarchical societal arrangements that are contrary to popular interests. Propaganda is public relations for private and authoritarian gain (Carey, Taking the Risk Out of Democracy, 1986).

I can think of few better examples of propaganda at work than the remarkable American state-media public relations campaign that set up and accompanied the imperial conquest of Iraq. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is thoroughly illegal, totally immoral, and completely unnecessary. It was and is also contrary to the interests of large numbers of Americans in a number of ways. It's transferring hundreds of billions of dollars from needed social programs and basic social needs to the wasteful, and murderous military system, falsely called "defense," and to super-wealthy high-tech "defense" contractors, modern day masters of war like Lockheed Martin and Chicago's own corrupt and blood-soaked Boeing Corporation.

When combined with Bush's massive tax cuts for the super wealthy, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is helping - and this is by design - feed a runaway deficit that promises to cripple basic social programs in areas like education, health, and child welfare for many years to come. It's increasing American's vulnerability to terrorist attack. It's eroding what was left of the moral authority of the United States. It's fueling massive global anti-Americanism and it's putting a bunch of predominantly working class American soldiers in a terrible, dangerous, and unfair situation.

There are other ways in which the invasion and occupation of Iraq is a disaster for Americans, not to mention Iraqis and others around the world. Still, the Bush administration and the Pentagon and their friends, allies, and enablers in the dominant media were able to create a critical mass of popular American support for this illegal, ridiculous, and murderous policy. They did this through propaganda. They combined monumental deception with the powerful deployment and merging of key political and cultural symbols. They convinced enough Americans that Saddam Hussein was the ultimate embodiment of despotic Evil on Earth and a genuine threat to the virtuous, Freedom-Loving and Democratic American Way of Life. They convinced enough Americans that Saddam possessed sufficient terrible weapons, terrorist connections, and malevolent suicidal willpower to pose a clear and present danger to ordinary Americans and that he was directly linked to Osama bin-Laden and 9/11.

Of course, much of the propaganda that people receive in America is less about specific policies than about overall societal arrangements. Less through any sort of reasoned and open debate than through simple repetition and ubiquitous assumption, masses of Americans are led to believe a number of patently false things, such as the following:
Democracy is a system in which the key decisions are basically monopolized by the "leading sectors of the business community and related elites" (Noam Chomsky) and the public are only "spectators, not active participants" (see Chomsky's What Uncle Sam Really Wants for a useful informal discussion of this)

The public is best off spend most of their time in depoliticized atomization and alienated isolation, focusing mainly on local, personal and family matters and leaving the big policy decisions and politics in general to supposedly expert and benevolent masters- people like the shameful George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. We non-elites are supposed to keep our mouths shut and stay out of the "elite's" hair by not interfering in the public arena, where we don't belong (again, see Chomsky).

Democracy refers only to the political system and cannot have anything to do with the economic system. There can be no real popular input on how the economy is run, the workplace is structured. Democracy is going to the polls every few years or so to pick your rulers from a small elite pre-selected in advance.

America does not expand its power out of any venal or self-interested objectives but out of concern for the well being of humanity. The United States is a benevolent, forward-looking, humanistic, and democratic world power. Those who resist and criticize American policy at home and abroad are by definition enemies of freedom, democracy, justice, and civilization.
 
An Invitation to Thought Control

It might seem paradoxical that large numbers of people in a land, THE land (if you like) of free speech - a country with strong democratic and especially civil liberties traditions - would fall prey to such disempowering, nonsensical, false, and authoritarian ideas. This becomes much less paradoxical, however, when you factor in broader interrelated forces of class and empire.

Free speech and strong democratic and civil libertarian traditions are wonderful, glorious, inspiring things in and of themselves. But they are an invitation to thought-control when they exist side by side with the stark socioeconomic inequalities and the related expansionist imperatives of modern American capitalism.

Currently in the United States, the top 1 percent owns nearly 40 percent of all household wealth. The top 10 percent owns two thirds of the wealth and a probably larger share of the nation's elected officials and policymakers. Many of us barely get by from one paycheck to the next while Donald Trump owns numerous luxury states and his own airplane and his own helicopter. At least 23 million Americans stood in food lines in the U.S. during the last year. Many of those "food insecure" Americans are part of the "working poor," a group that "plays by the rules" and still can't keep their heads above water in "the world's richest nation."

Trump and his cohorts receive more income in one hour than these "working poor" will in their entire lives. Meanwhile Americans can't fund their local schools adequately or properly fund drug treatment programs or provide basic health insurance to all its citizens. "Their" country can however afford huge tax cuts for the already super-wealthy. It can pay for massively expensive Haliburton contracts and attack helicopters in Iraq, Saudia Arabia, and the West Bank and the "reconstruction" of Iraq, required thanks to the massively expensive U.S. destruction of Iraq.

The privileged American few aren't content to own a disproportionate share of the wealth only of the United States. They seek as much of the world's wealth as they can grab, which is why we have more than a hundred military bases around the world and a "defense" budget that is bigger than the combined military expenditures of all conceivable U.S. "enemy" states. It's why America sends its working-class sons and daughters to kill and die in foreign lands.

The invitation to propaganda and thought control arises from two things. First, ordinary Americans are human beings endowed with a basic sense of moral decency. Since we are not born with some sort of masochistic, self-hating impulse us to like all this shitty interrelated empire and inequality, the majority of us (not privileged) have to be ruled.

Second, thanks to the British, American and French Revolutions and the living legacy of the Enlightenment, we are free to say that we don't like it. It's not generally legitimate to shoot us if and when we voice displeasure with the consequences and - in some cases even the existence - of empire and inequality.

And precisely because we can't be dominated in purely coercive ways, we must be controlled more softly, through propaganda. Because we are free to speak our minds, our minds must be controlled. Thus, there's a huge investment in the U.S. in what Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman call "manufacturing consent."

It makes sense, then, that, as an American academic named Norman Meier noted in 1950, "Americans are the most propagandized people of any nation." That's what you'd expect in a nation that combines stark class inequality (the U.S. is by far the most unequal and wealth top-heavy nation in the industrialized world), concentrated (corporate and state) power, and remarkable private/corporate communications capacity (organizational and technological) with the world's strongest free speech and related civil-libertarian traditions and protections

As Bad, if Not Worse than the USSR

The invitation to propaganda is taken up and acted upon by the very wealthy men who own "our" media and have no interest in the population getting the real story about U.S. society and policy. The results of their impulse towards thought-control in "free" societies and of their remarkable capacity (technical, organizational, and financial) to act upon that drive are about as bad, maybe worse, that what we would expect in an openly totalitarian society, as Orwell suggested in an unpublished introduction to his anti-Stalinist novel Animal Farm.

One way it's actually worse in the "democratic" west is the covert and therefore more difficult-to-discern level at which it operates. In the Soviet Union, everyone knew that their state communications system was censored and filtered. At the bottom of each day's Pravda (sort of the New York Times of the Soviet state), in fact, you could see the daily censors' initials. The modern west's private media is much less transparently censored and in that way (and other ways) it is more insidiously thought-controlling.

No Such Thing as a Free -Speech Lunch

In short, there's no such thing as a Free-speech Lunch in the eye of the world-capitalist hurricane. In this as in other ways, we pay an enormous price for the partial, nature and inherent limitations - including the restriction of "democracy" (such as it is) to the political sphere and the maintenance of the "the economy" as a private domain (ruled on a day-to-day basis by "the private sector," which is enabled and protected by a captive public sector) - of the "bourgeois" revolutions that brought us free speech in the first place. In an age of stupendous communications technology and advanced corporate media organization, the price is paid in Orwellian and [Aldous-] Huxlean spades.

There's an impressive literature on the structure, mechanics, and content of how this price is exacted. See the writings of Carey, Chomsky and Herman (Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media), Robert McChensney (Rich Media, Poor Democracy), Norman Solomon (Weapons of Mass Deception), and others. I think these writers tend to underestimate the role that "softer," more Huxlean entertainment (as opposed to the more explicitly Orwellan/hard-ideological news and commentary that tends to absorb their focus) media play in the manufacture of consent, but this criticism (see my "Killing Us Softly: Politics and Entertainment," ZNet Magazine (April 21, 2004), available online at http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm? SectionID=21 &ItemID=5372) comes from within the analytical framework that these brilliant left media critics have advanced.

Corporate Media Isn't Beholden to the Establishment, it IS the Establishment

It's very significant and telling that our land of "democracy" and "free speech" is also the land of concentrated corporate media ownership. What is it now ...eight, seven...six gigantic multinational media conglomerates - all them all of them deeply in bed, embedded in numerous interlocking ways with American policy - that own more than fifty percent of all American media print and electronic combined? Whatever (the latest is six, I think) the latest shrinking number is, it's horrifying and Orwellian. A land of corporate media monopoly is a land without an adequate number of independent sources of information and commentary - and entertainment - that are committed to resisting state propaganda and telling the truth about empire and inequality.

Each of "our" reigning "mainstream" media conglomerates is itself an internally totalitarian, savagely hierarchical institution structured to serve the interests of investors and advertisers and expand market share around the world. Modern corporate media is not simply beholden to the global capitalist-imperialist establishment. It IS the capitalist-imperialist establishment. Expecting it to provide an honest account of current events and relevant past history is (as Chomsky says) pretty much like expecting General Motors' company newspaper to give an honest account of shop-floor conditions and collective bargaining issues in GM's auto plants.

FCC

The FCC is the public agency that is supposed to represent the American public on questions relating to media ownership and behavior. When it says that X number of firms can own X number of stations and/or newspapers in the nation or in communities X, Y and Z, it makes decisions that belong on the front page of the first section of the newspaper and not just in the business sections, where you usually find most coverage on FCC and media ownership issues. When it reserves huge swaths of the public airwaves for private, profit-oriented use, when it denies broadcasting licenses to small and independent radio broadcasters, and when it permits fewer and fewer giant firms to own the modern communications system, it creates a world where journalists and musicians and screenwriters and novelists and critics must toe investors' and advertisers' bottom line on everything they write and say. The space collapses for honest, thorough, fully informed, and many-sided discussion of key public issues.

When it gives the communications commons away to corporate masters, the FCC betrays its popular charter and attacks the heart and soul of American democracy, or what's left of it. It cuts to the core of our popular free-speech birthright. It contributes to the creation of a dangerous mind-controlled world that is closer to the worst nightmares of Orwell, Huxley, and Vonnegut than the best dreams of Jefferson, Paine, Lincoln, and Dewey.

Paul Street (pstreet99@sbcglobal.net) is a regular ZNet commetnator who writes on imperialism, racism, and thought control. See his blog "Empire and Inequality," which can be linked off the ZNet top page at http://blog.zmag.org/empire/

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Nasty Ass Public Tribe

2006-01-13T02:54:00Z

Yep I made it and it's public just to piss people off. C'mon in and join up. And don't forget to post offensive photos in the gallery for those flagging TOU pussies to gawk at!
http://tribes.tribe.net/nastyasspublictribe?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5Be8327ac0-4f30-41c6-9442-e831ff4e460e%5D

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

UNITED WE STAND

2006-01-07T07:17:41Z

Okay, well here's a loophole in the laws regarding what is "obscene"....

Obscenity laws are based on what the general concensus of a community deems offensive and obscene. SO, Tribe IS a community. Therefore, if the majority of the people on Tribe believe that George W. and his actions are obscene, and sex is not, then his photos should go and sexual ones should stay - AS THE LAW IS WRITTEN.

So, I have created the tribe "Bush IS Obscene, Sex is NOT" - if you agree with that statment, please join the below tribe.

tribes.tribe.net/bushisobscenesexisnot

Let's create a majority in solidarity and create our OWN obscenity laws. War, bigotry, prejudice and hate being created by George W. and our government ARE obscene and offensive. Nudity and sexuality are NOT obscene or offensive.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

A little realism about recent legal fears...

2006-01-06T16:37:18Z

SOMEBODY POSTED THIS ON THE "TRIBE IDEAS" TRIBE, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO REPOST HERE

The actions tribe recently took by establishing flagging and banning explicit content were a TEXTBOOK example of what happens when a young company grows just enough to develop a case of corporate paranoia.

Here's an idea: Stop listening to the lawyers about this. They're paid to be over-cautious.

While you're at it, go to www.craigslist.org/ers/ .
There are blatantly sexual photos and even offers of prostitution all over that site. If Craig Newmark isn't afraid, you don't need to be.

Here's why:

Regardless of the letter of the law, the Department of Justice is exploiting the 2257 statute for a purpose: to harass and intimidate pornographers.
Tribe isn't a porn site, so if anyone in the Tribe boardroom thinks
Tribe is anywhere above #10000 on Alberto Gonzales' hit list, they are just plain wrong. By the time the DOJ works it's way past Larry Flint, Seymore Butts, and the 9998 other perverts ahead of Tribe in line, they'll be a new attorney general, who has different priorities.

What's more, because Tribe is not a porn site, or a pay site, getting prosecuted would actually be GOOD for business. Why? Think of all the free press you'd get when the ACLU and EFF come running to your defence.

You know, all of this is so goddamn obvious that I can feel comfortable saying that none of the new TOU was about the law. Tribe is most likely feigning legal fears as an excuse to clean up the site to pander to big money sponsors.

If you want to cover your ass, leave the ban on explicit material in the TOU. But kill the flagging, and don't police the site. Even if we get sucked into some bizarre parallel universe where Pat Robertson is dictator for life, Tribe will be able to claim that it was powerless to stop abuse.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

another interesting tribe on censorship

2006-01-02T21:45:34Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/2257

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

another media censorship post

2006-01-02T21:41:11Z

Speaking of China. What will happen if corporate CNN can't report this anymore?
What happens when the press starts to get "embedded" at protests?
_____________

www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINES...ts/index.html

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- While the World Trade Organization struggled to reach any substantial agreements at its sixth ministerial conference, disagreement also brewed in the street outside the talks, in the worst protests Hong Kong has seen in decades.

After warning hundreds of protesters paralyzing the city center for hours to leave the streets outside the talks, riot police moved in early Sunday to disperse the crowd.

The crowd gathered outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibit Center, however, did not go peacefully. Protesters continued banging drums and singing songs as some tussled with police.

But the protests never matched the level of violence that marred WTO talks in Seattle, Washington, in 1999 and Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.

The demonstrators included many South Korean farmers who came to the WTO conference to voice their displeasure with globalization and imports, topics high on the conference agenda.

The farmers oppose a number of measures, including lower trade barriers for agricultural imports, which they say would flood South Korea with cheap rice and force the nation's farmers out of business -- a concern echoed by anti-globalization groups around the world. (WTO: No firm date for farm rules)

Around 3:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET), police moved into the fray, linking hands to form a cordon around the activists, then dragging them out and into nearby police vans.

The melee, which followed violence at Saturday's demonstrations, prompted protest leaders to consider abandoning Sunday's anti-WTO march, said Elizabeth Tang, a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong People's Alliance on the WTO.

Tang added that she would contact leaders of individual protest organizations to determine if they would participate in the 2 p.m. (1 a.m. ET) march. A rally slated for the same time will proceed as planned, she said.

Police on Saturday resorted to pepper spray, tear gas and fire hoses to dissuade protesters trying to edge closer to the convention center, located in downtown Hong Kong.

Before Saturday, the fifth day of the conference, demonstrations had been largely peaceful, tainted only by a few minor scuffles, but South Korean protesters vowed to step up their protests on Saturday.

And step it up they did, attempting to break through a barrier marking the designated protest zone. When their attempts failed, between 1,000 and 1,500 protesters split into smaller groups of about 12 each, fleeing police over several square blocks before returning to the convention center and pushing forward.

The nearest the protesters got to the convention center was Saturday night, when they inched within 100 meters of the convention center entrance.

Police donned gas masks and propped up riot shields as they fired the hoses, tear gas and pepper spray -- an unusual tactic in normally peaceful Hong Kong.

Forty-one people were reported injured in Saturday's clashes, said Hong Kong Police Commissioner Dick Lee.

In an effort to continue the protests but stem the violence, a South Korean urged his fellow demonstrators, via megaphone, to be arrested with dignity and asked them to lie down and be taken away in a nonviolent fashion.

Police eventually quelled the violence, but the protesters refused to leave.

A main thoroughfare in the densely populated commercial and residential district was closed because of the standoffs and clashes with police.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 protesters showed up at the talks, but only a portion of them participated in Saturday's violence, and though 2,000 police have been deployed to the area, Hong Kong has drawn criticism for choosing a building that is so accessible and establishing a protest area too difficult to contain.

As for the conference itself, it was experiencing its own difficulties. A draft agreement on several issues was reached, but there was no final consensus as of Saturday night.

The main purpose of the draft was to reach a compromise on setting a timeline for eliminating agricultural export subsidies in richer countries -- an issue that has often caused a rift between the United States and European Union.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

more on the new internet censorship drive

2006-01-02T21:40:18Z

Internet Censorship
By Wayne Madsen
12-9-5

waynemadsenreport.com/

Internet censorship. It did not happen overnight but slowly came to America's shores from testing grounds in China and the Middle East.

Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators are beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are beginning to understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by it, major search engines appear to be complying with it, and the low to equal signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and spam appears to be perpetuated by it.

In this case, "it," is what privacy and computer experts have long warned about: massive censorship of the web on a nationwide and global scale. For many years, the web has been heavily censored in countries around the world. That censorship continues at this very moment. Now it is happening right here in America.

The agreement by the Congress to extend an enhanced Patriot Act for another four years will permit the political enforcers of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement as their proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.

Internet Censorship: The Warning Signs Were Not Hidden

The warning signs for the crackdown on the web have been with us for over a decade. The Clipper chip controversy of the 90s, John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness (TIA) system pushed in the aftermath of 9-11, backroom deals between the Federal government and the Internet service industry, and the Patriot Act have ushered in a new era of Internet censorship, something just half a decade ago computer programmers averred was impossible given the nature of the web. They were wrong, dead wrong.

Take for example of what recently occurred when two journalists were taking on the phone about a story that appeared on Google News. The story was about a Christian fundamentalist move in Congress to use U.S. military force in Sudan to end genocide in Darfur. The story appeared on the English Google News site in Qatar. But the very same Google News site when accessed simultaneously in Washington, DC failed to show the article. This censorship is accomplished by geolocation filtering: the restriction or modifying of web content based on the geographical region of the user. In addition to countries, such filtering can now be implemented for states, cities, and even individual IP addresses.

With reports in the Swedish newspaper Svensa Dagbladet today that the United States has transmitted a Homeland Security Department "no fly" list of 80,000 suspected terrorists to airport authorities around the world, it is not unreasonable that a "no [or restricted] surfing/emailing" list has been transmitted to Internet Service Providers around the world. The systematic disruptions of web sites and email strongly suggests that such a list exists.

News reports on CIA prisoner flights and secret prisons are disappearing from Google and other search engines like Alltheweb as fast as they appear. Here now, gone tomorrow is the name of the game.

Google is systematically failing to list and link to articles that contain explosive information about the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, Al Qaeda, and U.S. political scandals. But Google is not alone in working closely to stifle Internet discourse. America On Line, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are slowly turning the Internet into an information superhighway dominated by barricades, toll booths, off-ramps that lead to dead ends, choke points, and security checks.

America On Line is the most egregious in stifling Internet freedom. A former AOL employee noted how AOL and other Internet Service Providers cooperate with the Bush administration in censoring email. The Patriot Act gave federal agencies the power to review information to the packet level and AOL was directed by agencies like the FBI to do more than sniff the subject line. The AOL term of service (TOS) has gradually been expanded to grant AOL virtually universal power regarding information. Many AOL users are likely unaware of the elastic clause, which says they will be bound by the current TOS and any TOS revisions which AOL may elect at any time in the future. Essentially, AOL users once agreed to allow the censorship and non-delivery of their email.

Microsoft has similar requirements for Hotmail as do Yahoo and Google for their respective e-mail services.

There are also many cases of Google's search engine failing to list and link to certain information. According to a number of web site administrators who carry anti-Bush political content, this situation has become more pronounced in the last month. In addition, many web site administrators are reporting a dramatic drop-off in hits to their sites, according to their web statistic analyzers. Adding to their woes is the frequency at which spam viruses are being spoofed as coming from their web site addresses.

Government disruption of the political side of the web can easily be hidden amid hyped mainstream news media reports of the latest "boutique" viruses and worms, reports that have more to do with the sales of anti-virus software and services than actual long-term disruption of banks, utilities, or airlines.

Internet Censorship in the US: No Longer a Prediction

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems have honed their skills at Internet censorship for years in places like China, Jordan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and other countries. They have learned well. They will be the last to admit they have imported their censorship skills into the United States at the behest of the Bush regime. Last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign blocked international access to its web site -- www.georgewbush.com -- for unspecified "security reasons."

Only those in the Federal bureaucracy and the companies involved are in a position to know what deals have been made and how extensive Internet censorship has become. They owe full disclosure to their customers and their fellow citizens.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Re: TRIBE.NET > We've Made a Change to Your Profile

2005-12-28T23:55:30Z

I removed my photos that might be offensive to YOU. I hate tribe now, as do many others. You have KILLED a previously great resource. As soon as an alternitive comes up I and MANY others are out of here!

Since I am not currently in defiance of any tribe regulations, although I know not how long before my being a homosexual will be offensive to YOU, 'I bite my thumb at thee, Sir!'

Wade wrote:
> you gotta read the def of sexually explicit
> conduct and make the decision for yourself:
> www4.law.cornell.
> edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002256----
> 000-.html
> w
>
> Tolver wrote:
> > So I have a NON-sexual photo of my bare
> buttocks
> > online in my photo album. Im just standing
> there
> > with NO genetalia showing, have a look at it
> and
> > tell me, is that too offensive for your
> delicate
> > tribe sensabilities or should I remove it? How
> > obscene is a view of the human body? What if I
> > had a photo of a naked dog? would I have to
> > cover the dog in a diaper? What about a cat?
> > What about a photo of a naked fish?
> >
> > I find your notes about how you are censoring
> my
> > photos to be obscene, can I complaine about
> THAT
> > form of obscenity here on tribe.net?
> >
> > If you are THAT concerned about people
> > complaining about things on tribe.net then you
> > should make ALL of tribe.net a 'mature
> > environment' and be done with the posibility of
> > offending God or Children, just BAN God from
> > looking at anything and it will not be
> offended,
> > DuH?
> >
> > Tolver.
> >
> > Wade wrote:
> >
> > > Hi--
> > >
> > > Along with the other changes today*, we've
> made
> > > a change to your profile. We've changed the
> > > photos in your photo album to all have
> Friends
> > > Only status. They're still there, it's just
> > that
> > > only your first-degree friends can view them.
> > >
> > > This is not because we've reviewed your
> photos
> > > one by one. It's because your profile was
> > > formerly marked mature. We've done this
> > because
> > > there may be content in your photo album that
> > > you should remove, since the Terms of Use
> > ("
> > > TOU") have changed.
> > >
> > > The biggest change in the TOU is that it does
> > > not allow the posting of content that
> portrays
> > > obscenity, pornography, or sexually explicit
> > > conduct. We suggest you review the definiton
> > of
> > > sexually explicit conduct here:
> > > www4.law.cornell.
> > >
> edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002256----
> > > 000-.html
> > >
> > > So if you have content that fits the above
> > > definitions, you'll need to remove it. If you
> > > don't, you need only make a decision about
> > > whether you'd like to keep the photo as
> Friends
> > > Only or not. To edit a photo's privacy
> > settings,
> > > just click on it in your photo album. A few
> > > lines underneath the photo's title, you'll
> see
> > a
> > > link called "edit privacy".
> > >
> > > This is something to consider, since
> effective
> > > today other tribe members have the ability to
> > > flag photos they see for removal if they
> > violate
> > > the TOU or are offensive.
> > >
> > > If you have a question, we suggest you post
> it
> > > in Tribe Ideas, tribeideas.tribe.net/
> > >
> > > Here are some other helpful links:
> > >
> > > FAQ
> > > sanfrancisco.tribe.net/template/pub%
> > > 2CAbout.vm?section=AboutFAQ#flagging01
> > >
> > > TOU
> > > www.tribe.net/template/pub%2CTerms.vm
> > >
> > > Code of Conduct
> > > www.tribe.net/template/pub%2CCode.vm
> > >
> > > Thread in Tribe Ideas Discussing These Changes
> > > tribeideas.tribe.net/thread/dd585700-
> > 9597-
> > > 418e-8c21-f97dda1ed600
> > >
> > > These are big changes, ones we've carefully
> > > considered, and we appreciate your help and
> > > patience as we all get through this.
> > >
> > > Wade
> > > (you can confirm my employee status at
> > > sanfrancisco.tribe.net/template/pub%
> > > 2CAbout.vm )
> > >
> > >
> > > * For a complete list of changes today, see
> > > release notes at releasenotes.tribe.
> > > net/thread/e65cf3fc-b0fd-4060-91c3-
> f733ac250b0a
> >
>

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

just in case...

2005-12-19T21:03:20Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/thedisappeared

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Worried About Bush Administration, Tribe.net Makes Unpopular Changes

2005-12-19T17:56:43Z

www.ynot.com/modules.php

Worried About Bush Administration, Tribe.net Makes Unpopular Changes
by Darklady

CYBERSPACE - The residents of Godly, Texas can heave a sigh of relief the next time they log onto Tribe.net. Wade, a moderator for the site, explained in the tribeideas.tribe.net group recently that by December 20, 2005, the company will ensure that the popular social networking service is “a respectful site for everybody, including people from Godly, Texas!”

What this means in layman’s terms is that Tribe.net has decided to bring its membership’s uploaded image collections into compliance with 2257 regulations – and that the company appears poised to err on the side of extreme caution by catering to the most conservative online community standard possible as regards the possible definitions of “obscenity,” “pornography,” and “sexually explicit” content.

An email that went out to members last Wednesday announced the upcoming release of a new Tribe.net “Terms of Use” document outlining a number of changes to the site. Among those expected changes are a minimum age requirement of 18 for membership, the removal of any images that might fall under 2257 regulations, and the end of the “Mature” designation for profiles or groups, with the replacement of a “Community Flagging” tool that will allow users to determine whether or not they find content to be “offensive.”

“In effect,” said Wade, “we're not drawing a line other than stating that content portraying obscenity, pornography, and sexually explicit conduct is prohibited on our site. The Community Flagging tools will be in the hands of tribe.net members, and it's up to them to define where the line is, and to enforce it.”

The announcement was met with immediate and often intense hostility and suspicion, with some users calling for acts of intentional disobedience or boycott while others expressed fears that malicious users could falsely accuse them of posting offensive material. Attempts by concerned members to learn whether their topless photographs, art nude paintings, or BDSM and other adult oriented special interest groups would likely be in violation of the unreleased TOU were met by moderators with recommendations to visit the Free Speech Coalition and Electronic Freedom Frontier websites for definitions. Also provided were non-specific philosophical statements, such as “the spirit of these changes is that this is all up to your best judgment, in good faith and respect.”

For a self-identified online community that prides itself on its counter culture, alternative-lifestyle, Burning Man, and sex-positive individuality, the restrictions and vague answers from moderators smell of oppression by “The Man” and questionable compromises on the part of a company that promotes an ultra indie-hip image.

According to Wade, “The reality is we have a Republican administration and Congress that have made this a hot-button issue. As a business we have no choice but to obey the law or shut down, regardless of what our personal feelings are about the law here.”

Wade went on to point out that some liberal leaning sites, including PlanetOut.com, have removed all “questionable content” or completely closed.

Few solid recommendations were made to users, except that all “sexually explicit” images should be removed. Beyond that, Wade suggested that images that “might be on the edge for some users” be marked “’Friend Only’ out of respect for” those who might be offended were they to see them.

Under the previous rules, Wade explained, “Some users, even with the ‘Mature’ system in place, were still coming across content they found offensive.” In addition to avoiding possible prosecution for 2257 violations and removing the opportunity for more sensitive users to encounter materials they might find upsetting, Wade contended that the new arrangements are “more tribe-like for users to decide together what content is appropriate or not,” and thus create a unique community standard for obscenity. Wade promised that Tribe.net would incorporate “checks and balances” to ensure that abusive use of the flagging tools would not become a problem.

Given that Wade states the majority of users post from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon (whose state constitution guarantees nearly unlimited free speech protection), the people of Godly, Texas may still not find the Tribe.net community as restrained as the moderators would like to hope.

The site was offline for approximately six hours on Thursday evening. A number of users have substituted anti-censorship themed images for their previous primary identity icons.

Darklady is Assistant Editor at YNOT.

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 2 replies

And this is why TRIBE is now censoring your civil rights....

2005-12-10T21:25:45Z

Wave of Obscenity Prosecutions Leads to Closure and Self-Censorship of Websites

Contact:
Susan Wright, NCSF Spokesperson
(917) 848-6544

October 20, 2005
October 20, 2005 - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced that his office will specifically target "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" in pursuing new obscenity prosecutions. The Department of Justice began recruiting in late July for a new anti-obscenity squad to pursue obscenity prosecutions, and the FBI announced in September that it was forming an anti-obscenity task force to crack down on pornography.

Any website that has content containing "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" should be forewarned that prosecution is possible. Additionally, Federal sentencing guidelines state that any obscenity- related punishment should be "enhanced for sadomasochistic material."

Forty people and businesses have been convicted of obscenity since 2001, and 20 additional indictments are pending according to Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation and obscenity section. There were only four obscenity prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration.

Though adult content is, in theory, protected by the First Amendment, only a jury can determine if a work is obscene or not under the subjective set of standards that vary from one community to the next established in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Miller v. California.

Text is not inherently more protected than images when it comes to obscenity charges. The erotic fiction website Red Rose Stories is facing obscenity charges after federal agents raided the owner's home on October 3rd, taking computer equipment and diskettes that contained all of their files and site information.

The Department of Justice is clearly hoping that websites will self-censor or remove their content entirely. Midori, a fetish model and SM educator who teaches classes on bondage, has removed her website, BeautyBound.com, citing fear of obscenity prosecution. The owner of three SM websites, known as GrandPa DeSade, removed his websites from the Internet. SuicideGirls.com also announced they are self-censoring their materials over concerns about a possible obscenity crackdown.

Recent prosecutions of obscenity on websites include: A former police officer in Lakeland, Florida, was arrested on October 7th on over 300 obscenity-related charges for the sexual content posted on his website. The same day, webmaster Chris Wilson, owner of amateur website NowThatsFuckedUp.com, was raided on charges of obscenity by a local Sheriff s office.

"I think it's crucial for us to stand up for consensual sadomasochism and other alternative sexual practices," says Barbara Nitke, fetish photographer. "This is a battle worth fighting, and I hope everyone who can will just censor out the most provocative material from their websites, but keep them up. I also appeal to the lawyers in our community to help us find ways to keep people's websites up."

Barbara Nitke and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) have proactively challenged federal obscenity laws as applied to the Internet, arguing that obscenity laws based on "local community standards" are too vague and their existence burdens protected speech, resulting in self-censorship due to the fear of prosecution. A district court three-judge panel in New York ruled that while Nitke and the NCSF members were at risk, more proof was needed that obscenity laws cause otherwise protected speech to be restrained through acts of self-censorship. The case is currently on appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

"The effect of silencing alternative lifestyle speech was exactly why we brought the lawsuit," says attorney John Wirenius, lead counsel for NCSF. "The self- censorship we are seeing underscores the importance of supporting our ongoing obscenity challenge."

To contribute to the appeal of the CDA lawsuit, go to: www.ncsfreedom.org/donations.htm

Barbara Nitke - www.barbaranitke.com

###

A project of NCSF and the NCSF Foundation

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual expression.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
410-539-4824
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies

Tribe.net alternatives?

2005-12-10T19:06:23Z

If people are leaving Tribe, where should they move to? Any suggestions?

posted in STOP TRIBE CENSORSHIP!! - 0 replies