Violet Blue: My erotica is not your child porn

In today's San Francisco Chronicle column, Violet Blue has advice about what to do when your blog's content has been hijacked by a spam blog, which offered her content as child porn bait:

[ . . ]

Adorkable Grrl didn't just write a blog post and send e-mails; she also sent a cease and desist to the offending Web site, and asked for my advice. Being no stranger to having my content reposted without permission, or having my RSS feeds pilfered, I did a quick public records (whois) lookup for the URL offering her content as child porn bait, and discovered that the site was registered in India, but hosted by American company GoDaddy. I sent Adorkable Grrl the information, telling her to take extreme measures:

"Along with the e-mail cease and desist, send them a physical, registered mail copy of the notice of action. Also tell them that their false affiliation with your content brings to your attention their advertisement of pornographic material that is in direct violation of U.S. child pornography laws, and that you are left with no choice but to forward their information to the following entities:

1) Reporting Child Pornography. Provides contact details of field offices of the FBI in major cities throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

2) CyberTip Line — NCMEC. Handles calls and online reports of sexual exploitation of children.

3) Adult Sites Against Child Pornography. Nonprofit organization that works with the United States Customs Service and the FBI in enforcing anti-child-pornography laws. Includes their goals, FAQs, press releases, details of members, and a facility to report suspected sites.

Tell GoDaddy. I'm sure once GoDaddy finds out (and is aware you're reporting them to the FBI), they'll yank the site altogether. How awful; these people are truly horrifying."

[. . .]

Blog, spam, violet blue

Tits for Our Troops

We have been running a weekly feature on our blog called Tits for Troops. Each week we post six to eight pictures of contributor breasts and well wishes to our troops (click here for an example). Everything seemed to be going well until recently the number of comments dropped off. We chalked it up to lurking more than anything else. Then, we got this e-mail.

Question, I am Marine in Iraq and while looking for I guess porn for troops, I saw that you had tits for troops. I was able to google your site to get an e-mail address. The site is blocked from the internet, even our personal internet we pay for in our rooms are blocked. Is there a way to sign up for anything or is everything on your website? If you have time and you reply could you also send a reply to my regular email address which is Mxxxxxxx@hotmail.com I sent the email from my work one to prove to you that I am in Iraq. I appreciate your time.
Cpl K,
OSP/Alpha Company

Since our blog is blocked for most of the guys and gals this feature is designed for, how should we go about fixing it? We were thinking of a news letter type of thing, but we don’t know what kind of effort that. We are open to suggestions and recommendations from anyone on how to do a news letter or way to fix the blocking problem.

Ken & Jen

MySpace - It's Not Just For Kids

I have an update on my MySpace article. Click on this link to read the original article. After two failed attempts, I finally have a working MySpace page. While that one image that I had talked about in my previous article violated MySpace's Terms of Service, it turns out that it is likely that my account was phished ... twice. I woke up two mornings in a row to find my MySpace page had turned into ether. The message was that my account did not exist, and that it had been deleted. I had no explanation s to how or why. Nothing in e-mail. Turns out MySpace didn't delete my account due to content problems. Most likely, I had been phished.

MySpace apparently has a big problem with phishers. Why MySpace doesn't fix its weaknesses and bugs is beyond me. I've never had a problem with a computer virus or phishing mainly because I have a Mac and I don't fall for the usual phishing lines. Apparently, one way phishers get into MySpace pages by abusing the HTML in comments. I learned that to prevent this from happening, I had to disable HTML in comments so that no one could leave graphics in my comments on either the page itself or my MySpace blog. I was also told to change my password. So far, my latest and hopefully last MySpace page is alive and well. Phishers be damned!

Anyway, I think that sex writers could get a lot of mileage out of MySpace. I'm using it to meet other erotica, romance, horror, and bizarro writers and publishers. The image MySpace has as being only for teenagers is very wrong. Within only a couple of weeks, I've successfully networked with other writers, magazines, and publishers. Because of MySpace, I now have a new writing gig, writing an interview with a Scottish punk/metal band for Kink Magazine. I've heard of Kink. I had never seen their MySpace page before. I've become very close MS friends with an erotic romance writer from my publishing house, and she's helping me set up a brand new web site for my erotic and romantic writings. I've wanted a good web site location for awhile now, but I had not looked all that hard. This one is made for erotic romance writers.

Aside of finding some great networking opportunties, I'm enjoying futzing with the layout of my page. There are scads of web sites full of fun MySpace layouts and comments graphics. You can design your page to reflect your interests or your line of work. There are lots of sexy layouts for sex writers. One way I network is to post a "hello" on the pages of people at the top of my "friends" list. If they allow graphics, I post something sexy, magical, or funny. I do this on Mondays, Wednesdays (Hump Day), and Fridays/weekends. It's a lot of work, but it's working out well for me. My name is out there. I change my layout often, and I am going to frequently change my password to keep the phishers at bay. I've had a sexy devil layout, a Halloween layout, and a fantasy layout. Right now, I have an ocean layout with the sound of the ocean as my background music for the page.

Warning: MySpace is addictive. ;)

I think that sex writers might be able to find MySpace useful. We might have to be a bit careful with our content, which is something I will look at in future posts about MySpace. However, I think that MySpace could help sex writers find other writers and even magazines and publishers. I'm new to MySpace, so these are my initial thoughts.

ICE campaign - "In Case of Emergency"

Intro: I actually live in the heart of Earthquake country, and I've seen this popping up a few times. This is a subject that is dear to my heart and well written here. Although not strictly about Sex Bloggers. It's about people, and well worth passing on. If their are objections, I'll remove it.

ICE campaign - "In Case of Emergency"
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this " ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign

The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE".

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc.
Be sure it's in your kid's cell phones also.....

Plagiarism

I've recently found a blog which has copied some of my content.

I've 'Contacted' the Abuse contact through the form, but my protests seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

I thought that Alex and Suze had an area to tackle this sort of thing, but my mind's paying tricks.

How has anyone else dealt with someone stealing their content?

A New face At SBC

After a great deal of deliberation I have decided to step aside as primary administrator of SBC. Real life commitments and new demands on my online time mean that I can’t give this site the attention it deserves.

Effective immediately I am handing over the administration of SBC to Devil. If you’re not familiar with her work you can find her here.

I hope you will all join me in welcoming her to the position as primary administrator of SBC and give her all the support you can in the future.

Mr Gently retains the position of secondary admin.

Alex