I could be leaving TFP for good.. involuntarily
 

Dear fellow TFPers

just recieved an sms from my ISP wishing to inform me that "as of the 14th April 2008 that they will be blocking sites with content that do not conform to the moral, social and cultural sensitivities of the United Arab Emirates."

Now, i dont know where this leaves me and TFP. ive been a member for a long while now..since 2004, and to be honest, TFP brings me some sanity having a window to the world where you have so much ideas, ideals, opinions and disparity between so many different people.

i dont know if the TFP will fall under this collosal umbrella. Collosal in that it could be blocking any sites it feels necesary. im certain that porn and adult sites will be blocked. that does not worry me. I do worry that TFP may fall under the 'adult content' site and i may not be able to access TFP any more.

so this may be the last day i post here...its unfortunate, but ive got to look at the worst case scenario. if i didnt care, then i dontthink id be writing this. i couldnt leave without saying goodbye.

what pisses me off the most is that its involuntarily. i didnt ask for them to take this away from me. i guess thats the beauty of living in a western democracy. i do have the choice to do as i please when i please. I do love Dubai..but im starting to reconsider. although my stay in the UAE will never be forever, i did plan on being here a while.

i dont want this thread to become an arab country bashing or a muslim society bashing. for those in the know, and i do know that there are some historians amonst us, that the UAE was based on a british system with lots of british influence etc etc.. but this isnt about this.

last week after hearing of China and the Tibet issue on the news, i thanked god that i didnt have that sort of burden on me. that my internet content wasnt monitored, that i was free to roam where i please. my wings have been clipped and i may as well be living in china.

i do hope to wake up tomorrow and click on the favourites tab and go to my first link "TFP" and click on it to get the customary green screen that ive come to depend on in some ways. a window into another world. another dimension. i really do hope i will be able to see it. if its for my sanity.

will i survive if its gone? sure i will. but i sure would miss the likes of jazz hal cyth abaya will bobby, snowy, mixedm, WK,OCM, bastid. GG..and even ustwo and host. i will miss the slinging matches with will and ustwo. i will miss WK's straight to the point but seemingly sarcastic comments... ill miss a lot and ill miss out on a lot. heck ill even miss posting my travels in my 'gday from dubai' thread.. maybe i should be renaming this thread 'Goodbye from Dubai'

you guys make the TFP for what it is. this is more painful than what i thought it would be.

i do hope that i will see you guys again.. or catch up when im back in the states again later this year. if anyone has any ideas, then feel free to email me. ill update my email address im my contact details after i post this. if theres a way around it then let me know!

at the moment i feel caged. life isnt meant to be like this. and for those that know me..im a wanderer. i love to travel and do my own thing. i dont infringe on anyone..but now i feel like ive been infringed on... oh god i miss sydney right now.

if this is my last post, then i wish you all well. i will miss every bit of TFP.

Thank you for the open window into your lives. Hope i have shared enough of mine so that the feeling is reciprocated. i will always be indebted!

Always
N

OK, it's still today. Hope to still see you here. Quick, check out Boing Boing: Boing Boing's Guide to Defeating Censorware. Some people may have better guides, I've never had to try it myself... help him, everyone!

This post is heartbreaking.

I hope that somehow the filter misses us and we see you here again tomorrow.

But if not, know that you will be missed and that we will look forward to hearing from you again when your situation changes.

Much love...

Eek... I hope to see you here tomorrow!

Dude, that sucks. I'd consider leaving that country too, if I were you. :( Are you on Facebook or anything like that? (I assume they won't block that... or will they?)

Awww, this makes me sad! I hope we get missed by the filter.

I agree with MM--this is heartbreaking. I really hope you'll be back--even if they catch it, I'm sure you'll be back someday, dlish. And guess what? I will probably still be here.

damn.... I do hope we don't make their list. Maybe some of the TB stuff will hit it meaning the hotlinks and links won't show up. It may bring awareness to this site.

anyways, if this is the case, you'll have to reach me at gmail.

it does make it very clear that one can not be here suddenly and we may never know.

I'm hunting for as much data as I can... the only news source so far:

Soon to join the Chinese eh? It is a pity.

This is what http://www.torproject.org/ , http://anonym.to/en.html , and http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html are for.

What is the punishment for breaking the law? Or is it just a filter and has no legal weight behind it?

As for advice on what to do, the easiest would be to download the Linux live CD for backtrack 2 (or any other distro, linux Mint is what I use, but backtrack has more network tools pre-installed). Then try the anonym.to site, but they can block that. If they do, you may need to install Tor (save it to a USB drive if it doesn't come on the backtrack live CD.) That isn't as easy as it sounds (it should be easier, then again I haven't tried installing it in linux and the last time I tried in windows was 18 months ago.), but it should definitely work.

That sucks!

Can you get on the other ISP?

For sure this is going to cut into their expat business. And probably their business with natives, too, though few might admit it.

If you have a proxy or VPN that you can tunnel your traffic through, you should still be able to reach the site. Tor would also work.

That's fine to read, but not to post.

Does the ISP have a list of sites blocked? Is there any way to find out before the deadline?

I've never used it, but I believe http://www.torproject.org/ is free. It might work.

Dlish, I hope the big brains around this place figure out a work-around for you if this does come to pass. If they don't, it will make me pretty sad.

@allaboutmusic:
I'll hide mine if you hide yours (the quote of mine). People are all ready posting about Tor tings or proxies; how are those any more appropriate than my suggestion?


@dlish:
This is a damned shame for you, as is all of us. We each take (learn) something from each other here and for what it is worth, your responses caught my attention.

@Augi, sorry if my brevity was confusing... I wasn't dismissing your suggestion at all. I use Google's cache all the time for blocked sites at the schools I teach at (for some reason lots of song lyric sites get blocked).

:)

hey thanks for all the support guys..

if i go.. i guess keep me in your thoughts.

i will be in sydney on the 25th april (in about 2 weeks) so ill def log on then! and prolly even post my yemen pics.. why does this sound like a goodbye?

ive only got 30 mins to go untiil midnight

thanks for your help and support. i wont have time to try everything, but ill be trying! ill cut and paste this into word document in case i cant access it later.

for those that need to reach me.. ive given halx my email address. u can reach me on facebook with that email too.. if that one is not blocked either! who knows.. ive got the shits with this place!

hope to see you guys on the other side in half an hour. if i dont post in an hour im probably gone...this definately sounds like a goodbye message.

always indebted to you all
Dlish

wow I never thought I'd see a post like this on the internet.

To me, the internet was always about freedom os information, freedom of communication.

This... this is the kind of thing that people should revolt against.

If you're not free to think for yourself, and act for yourself, then what are you but another pawn? YOU GOTTA FIGHT


FOR YOUR RIGHT



to PAAAAAARRTTYYYYYYY

or to browse TFP..

god, seriously this is such bullshit, my opinion of the internet is at an all time low.

dunno if im through..says its 12:02am here.. maybe my clock is fast.. wouldnt want to jinx myself...

This is why net neutrality is important to maintain.

I've got my fingers crossed here.

So I'm curious as to exactly what ARE the "moral, social and cultural sensitivities of the United Arab Emirates"?

Well, its a muslim country. That pretty much means public displays of affection are right out.

http://www.stealthsurfer.biz/

i've been thinking about a product like this, but don't have the real need for it at the moment.

That product is really funny since we have those listed in the Freeware section, if not those, but damn good alternatives...
Actually, I am surprised I don't see PeerGuardian and TrueCrypt on there. I thought they were free to do whatever the hell you want with them.


Dlish, you still here?

I've grown tired of DYI for some things. Sometimes I'd like to just be a consumer and buy something read to roll without having to worry about figuring out why something doesn't work. I already have most of these things on my USB drive, in fact, I love torpark and use it from the office. Husmail is the most attraction for me since there's already a subscription requirement to get the most out of it.

/Dlish peeps head out...looks around

anyone there?!??

woohooo! i made it through!

feels like ive survived an 'end of the world' catastrophe!

honestly feels so good to be back! i was getting strange feeling in the bottom of my gut when i turned on my laptop this morning..my fears have been proved false. i just glad i get to see you guys again.. you guys dont understand.. really! i guess its a lease on internet-life..and im glad to take it!

but net censorship has really irked me. i now realise its importance as soon as it was going to get taken away...

u dont realise whatt you love till u lose it!

"the moral, social and cultural sensitivities of the United Arab Emirates." could mean anything. is a blanket policy to ban as it feels necesary to guard its values. that includes porn and criticism of the ruling families. it also bans sites like boingboing that help you get around censorship too. so it could mean anything really.. quite whimsical if you ask me.

in terms of things in public..its very liberal..but making out or public displays of affection are forbidden. what they means...god knows.. is a peck on the cheek to the mrs public display of affection? pffft

anyways, ive got to split.. will be back later!

Dlish

:) nice to see you!

Phew.

Well I just popped into this thread now. Saw the heartbreaking beginning, and the fairy tale ending! Just like a movie or a novel.

Glad you can still post here! I love reading up on your G'day from Dubai thread. You cant get away that easily!

Not to be a party pooper, but I'd guess they are hardly going to have a definitive list of sites to block on day 1. You may want that list of 'what to do if...' saved away for future reference.

Can you tell any other sites have been banned? Can you try to poke around and see if any discernible action has been taken?

Yay. :)

OMG. I'm so glad you're still here. I can't believe Big Brother's scope. :cry:

Hey dlish... glad to see you made it through. They censor the Internet here as well but so far it appears that only blatant porn merchants are the ones that get filtered out at the ISP.

I am pretty sure that unless they either visit TFP directly and judge it wanting or have some sophisticated software that can determine a site's worthiness without human eyes, then you are OK.

Barring that, start looking into some of the software that has been suggested above.

glad you're still here so far :)

Glad you're still here, but I doubt you're really out of the woods. Any filtering system is going to have a way of updating what sites are filtered, and if it ever found out about this site, it would certainly make the list.

What's the word on the other major ISP? Are they going this direction too? Could you switch to them?

This is a nice start to my day. Hopefully TFP will continue to fly under the radar.