Saturday, September 12, 2009

Behind a curtain


*(see below)

When I first started this blog, I put up the "Content Warning" page. I soon dropped that though. My reasons are myriad. I don't consider my "content" to be all that outrageous. And I honestly believe that people should be responsible for themselves when it comes to looking for imformation. Also, I wanted people to find my blog. At the time the warning page was known to stop the spiders. Supposedly that's been fixed. Those warning pages are like the entry pages to some websites - just a waste of time (especially the ones that make you wait through a seemingly endless animation). I use the internet to find information. And yeah, I'm an adult. And a parent. Speaking as a parent, if you don't want your kids "accidentally" finding something, it's your responsibility to police them. And yeah, kids are sneaky. But if they are, you have to ask yourself why. That's a whole other subject. *puts down on list to tackle*

But still. I have no control over what some person somewhere is doing. When you do a google search - or any other search for that matter - you get a little snip of what the results are. You can filter your searches too if you know you don't want to find "untoward" things. Needless to say, I don't filter my searches at all. But I did a little test. I clicked the safe search button and then typed in "erobintica." Usually (without filters) - my blog is the first result (duh, I'm the only erobintica out there) - but with the safe search, it was not. My amazon profile was. But my blog did not show up - a lot of other folks blogs did with links to mine. It's all so silly. *goes to undo safe search so I don't piss myself off*

It is up to you whether you click on something or not. And it's up to you what you search for. Nobody lands on my blog searching for "apple pie recipes" - at least not yet. ;-) Though now that I've typed in "apple pie recipes," maybe they will. *Waves*

I find it amusing to see what searches have brought folks to my blog. Personally, I think most of them are probably disappointed, since it's obvious from what they typed in that they were looking for porn. My Blow Hard Tour post still is landed on a lot. All those folks looking for dick sucking. Most recently someone typed in "euphemisms for sucking dick" and guess what? A portion of my post was a list of such words. So, they found what they were looking for. I think that's a good thing.

Personally, I don't like the warning page. I go through it when I'm going to a blog that I know is worth looking at. But ya know - they're scary. OMG, what horrible things lie beyond this curtain?

I don't know what is up - but it seems that now Alison Tyler (who's had her blog for how many years?), is behind the curtain. Here's her "official website." And some of her other blogs were taken down (makes me sad because one of them had a photo I'd sent her for it). Right now she doesn't need all this hassle. She's always posting her search strings. We know what folks are looking for when they find her blog. Hmm. Well, I was going to link to a particular post and I can't seem to.

Well, I need to go sweep floors and get some stuff done. For some reason, this whole thing pisses me off. I will be back to ponder it more.

I'm curious as to what other folks think about the content warning page - I know some of you use it and some don't.

* Photo by Randy Lagana.


8 comments:

Jeremy Edwards said...

Nobody lands on my blog searching for "apple pie recipes" - at least not yet. ;-) Though now that I've typed in "apple pie recipes," maybe they will. *Waves*

Ha! Love the wave.

Thus far, I've been hoping that the warning I have up top on my blog is sufficient. But Alison's run-in with Blogger does make me wonder if I'm going to have to switch to the warning page as well.

My website does have a warning page, but it's integrated into the site (and design) and shouldn't interfere with search results, except where people are deliberately filtering. (I have meta tags in place on each page to identify the erotic content of the site.) I've wondered if a Blogger warning page might keep my content from showing up on certain feeds (though I get feeds from blogs with warning pages fine).

neve black said...

Hey Robin,
I reluctantly have a warning page on my website. I moved away from the google blog earlier this year, because I want to own the content. With that comes taking ownership and full responsibility. You'll notice my splash page picture isn't tame at all - it's a reminder of my compromise with the 18 and over laws.

I am sorry to learn that some of Alison's blogs were shut down. It's a shame for a myriad of different reasons. The concept is artistic in it's creative flare, festive mood and hell, it's beenn a lot of fun. No one is hurting anyone with these blogs.

Randy Lagana said...

I don't have a warning on my website, but it may work differently for blogs. However, I feel as you do, Robin, that if you are an adult, you should take responsibility for yourself. I'm guessing that people searching for art expect that the nude male or female figure is likely to be depicted on any art-related site and so they are not offended or otherwise put off. And I think that nude photography is viewed differently from nude paintings. People can accept nude paintings and be upset about nude photography. I have the categories clearly marked as "Nude Paintings" and "Nude Photography" and if you think you might be offended, then don't go in. People...can't live with 'em and can't slap 'em around when they act like idiots!

Craig Sorensen said...

I'm at a funny place in this. I didn't want to do the warning page, so when I started my blog, I kept away from explicit content.

Yeah, an erotica author keeping away from explicit content.

I made the blog about the process of writing, linking to my works at other sites an announcing new publications and etc, and left the filtering to those destinations while keeping my content decidedly PG-13 or at the most R.

But then I thought, "I'm an erotic author and I'm about sharing my work."

So I started to publish some of my own works, with explicit content.

Through this long transition, I do not have the warning page, nor do I have a warning on my masthead.

I don't feel I should need a warning, but there are realities to be considered here. Thank you for posting this; it gives me a lot to think about...

Erobintica said...

Ah, finally getting back to this.

Jeremy, I don't understand it all. I just did a test, typing in various blogger's blog titles into Google to see what showed up. And I can't figure it out. Alison's blog comes cup "Blogger: Content Warning" as the result. But Marina's (she also has the same warning page) doesn't. It comes up as Marina St. Clare. So, I don't get it.

Neve, I go straight to your blog, so I don't remember your splash page, I'll have to check it out when I'm done here.

Randy, yeah - just yeah

Craig, I know. I'm actually thinking of putting up a warning page and post whatever the hell I feel like. Right now I know that I self-censor a bit. But I'm not sure that's what I want. And by the way - I like what you've been doing with your blog lately.

Jeremy Edwards said...

Hmm ... I wonder if the search results for someone who has just put up the warning page take a certain amount of time to return to "normal," as the spiders recrawl the Web and associate the internal pages with the top-level page.

In other words, perhaps the spiders need some time to reroog (my spamword).

Erobintica said...

Hmm, Jeremy, very interesting - I'll have to keep checking that.

along came a spider and sat down beside her...

Janine Ashbless said...

I've just put up the warning page on my blog, with great reluctance, and now a (unfiltered) search on "janine ashbless blog" doesn't bring it up. Which is a pisser. But it's better than getting my blog deleted without warning by Blogger, so I'm putting up with it until someone tells me that's not the reason that Alison's Panty Parade disappeared. Goddamn.
:-(
Thanks for discussing this topic.