SpudFiles

Today at school I tried getting onto the spudfiles site but found that it had been blocked by our school's filtering system and had been put into the category of "Weapons." This disturbed me so I decided to use the re-evaluation function of the filtering system where I could send them a reason why the site should be unblocked. This is what I wrote:

This website is dedicated to the safe and proper use of pneumatic and combustion powered cannons that shoot various projectiles such as potatoes, golf balls, and tennis balls at targets for the enjoyment of designing and fabricating these types of devices.

This positive presentation must've worked because it went from "Weapons" to "Unclassified." In other words, it's unblocked.

This goes to show how far reasoning can go.

Well done. I would have included for the advancement of science and physics of newtons 3 laws. This may have helped it due to the science as well as arts and rec categories.

I would guess that it should be classified as a science related site.

I find it interesting that your school district blocks sites that contain "weapons".

I've been on several airsoft, paintball, and alternative weapons sites in my school's computer lab, and never have I found one to be blocked. However, they do block just about everything else, including Google searches with the word "hack" in it.

Yeah it gets pretty ridiculous what kinds of things our school computers block. ESPN fantasy football among other things.

julktyl wrote:Yeah it gets pretty ridiculous what kinds of things our school computers block. ESPN fantasy football among other things.

Not to sound like a curmugeon, but.... How exactly would ESPN fantasy football be related to educational goals? Like it or not, it is completely reasonable for a school district to block access to any and all sites that can't in some way be related to educational goals. As has been mentioned in this thread, this site can be linked to Newtonian Physics which is in turn obviously linkable to education.

But fantasy football? If you really stretched you might be able to make an argument for a link to general statistics, but I suspect you'd have a tough time making that sale.

D_Hall wrote: But fantasy football? If you really stretched you might be able to make an argument for a link to general statistics, but I suspect you'd have a tough time making that sale.

Actually, I think my high school offers extra credit in math for upper classmen who do fantasy football...I'm not sure, but that's what I've heard.

Good job on the imaginary rifling! (Putting a spin on things )

It's amazing how a certain thing can be interpreted completely different simply by adding an imaginary hop-up.

I suspect the only reason the site was unblocked was because someone went to the trouble to ask that it be unblocked.

If someone complains, want to guess what will happen to the unblocking?

Spud guns are certainly classifiable as a weapon. Just as are a number of other things not designed as weapons but can still be used in that way.

A school is of course free to block whatever they want, but I think blocking should only happen for sites such as porno sites. Other than that, spud guns, fantasy football, etc. should be accessible.

It really isn't anybodies place to judge what is "educational" and what isn't. Somebody is making a living off of fantasy football, it is just a valid a profession as is anything else. Therefore it is just as valid in an educational setting as is physics or home economics.

Of course, the real world doesn't work that way. Small minded people always think that only they know what is appropriate.

My school did the same thing. It blocked the website directly, but if I googled "hgdt" it would bring me to that post, and let me go to the index. I would log in, and it would give me the blocked site message. Pressing back a few times and refreshing the page got me logged in.

jimmy101 wrote:It really isn't anybodies place to judge what is "educational" and what isn't. Somebody is making a living off of fantasy football, it is just a valid a profession as is anything else. Therefore it is just as valid in an educational setting as is physics or home economics.

By that argument, porn should be allowed as well. I suspect more people make their living from porn than fantasy football....

yes, but that actually has age laws applied to it.
jimmy's argument is valid, but i agree with DHall.
Frankly, the school filters suck. if someone want to get to it, they can. Most teachers don't even care what you do, as long as you are done with your work (engineering....)

Haha, you want bad filtering? Hell look at my school, most game sites, sf, anything to do with programing(my teacher told me to look up something for visual basic and it was blocked) are all blocked. Most porn sites and youtube are too(former being a given, latter far from it).

Heres the funny thing:

the mega_____.com's work
a few game sites work
youtube works on firefox
roguesci worked when it existed
4hv works(though educational somethings on there don't have much of a place in a high school)
rotten.com works(or so i'v heard)

and a few more sites work which should be blocked while those that shouldn't are. Hell, schools are useless at stopping anything, weather it is racism, bullying, bad influences of any type or anything else, i've never seen it dealt with well/properly yet.

Today at school I tried getting onto the spudfiles site but found that it had been blocked by our school's filtering system

At what school are you?[/quote]

West of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin