A general observation

[katsmom]

I've noticed that around 3:30-4 every afternoon the forum fills up with people. My question is, is it because it's almost time to go home and you just have nothing else to do? or is that when the bosses leave?

If you all put your times on HK time, you would notice that I am most active during the early afternoon here. That's when I have my writing class They write, I surf

[MBH]

It's coming up to 5pm and I'm wandering around here on my own

We've had a relaxation of the Internet rules at Sunderland Council, and I can now use it for personal use during breaks and after work. However I have used the forums as perfectly VALID demonstrations of social networking when showing people how to use computers - so everyone wins

[kingsley]

I'm never on before 5, because that's when I get back from school, although I did make an interesting discovery a few weeks ago. Although school block most forum and chat websites, puzzlebrains is still accessible!

[LAT]

Good discovery Kingsley

[giraffe]

Were you not supposed to be working?

[kingsley]

No, I popped into the computer room after school and after checking my emails found that I had several new messages from puzzlebrains inforiming me of the PM conversations I'd been having the previous day. I checked to see if I could log onto puzzlebrains to stop the emails and I could!

[Scurra]

Your school probably uses one of a small number of "blocking" lists (usually supplied by a specific company.) These are simply lists of URL addresses (like www.suspicious-address.com) which are then blocked from access. Small sites like puzzlebrains will generally not be on these lists unless someone actively complains about it - at which point it will be analysed to see if it is considered inappropriate. Many sites that are classed as "games" suffer badly from this, even if they don't actually have games on them, or deal with board games rather than video games. A lot of it has to do with how much "bandwidth" the site uses (this one uses virtually nil!) and some of it has to do with how much time people might spend on a particular site (they are the ones that are reported directly.)

So as long as no-one reports this site to one of those companies I think we're probably OK

[Bunnylump]

Some of the conversations which have been known to teeter on the edge of suitablity here. >guilty as charged m'lud< But on the whole I think it's all clean fun and can in fact be really quite educational in a funny kind of way. I can access Puzzlebrains at school too, not that I have time to do so. Mind you, most of the "streetwise" kids at school can get round all the controls put in place by the County Council in about 10 seconds. When one of the "Certificate of Achievement" groups were told they could do a project on whatever they were interested in, one boy came back after 15 minutes with a complete printed catalogue of guns, ammunition, explosives and booby traps, order forms, prices and shipping details! I have also on occasion spotted pupils(usually year 11 boys, to be honest) hastily closing down hideous images of the WORST kinds of porn (explicit bestiality, for example). Really scary.

[clvrlad]

well thats the problemmostly cause new sites spring up and there not on the list....yet.....


im under the impression that some sites are blocked by who links to them... i could be wrong though

[katsmom]

At the Uni, my favorite twistypuzzle webpage is blocked and so is the Runes. My own page was blocked and I had to get the IT department to allow me access. I have files on there for my classes and not just puzzles. My husband showed me an easy way to get around the antiquated software on some of the campus computers. PuzzleBrains is accessable on all the computers I use. Now this confuses me because the guy from IT told me my page was blocked because "puzzle" is a bad word Boy if he only knew

[Scurra]

That's why schools (and local authorities and many other places) used a few standard "blocking" lists - because it's easier to pay someone else to spend all day monitoring new sites and adding them to a recognised list, than to try and handle it themselves. How they then implement those lists is up to the customer (and often they are implemented quite badly!), although it is worth noting that there are one or two "block lists" that override everyone - there was a story just before Christmas about how Wikipedia inadvertently fell foul of one of these - and alerted a lot of people in this country to the fact that these lists existed.

Oh, and katsmom - I suspect that it'll only be a matter of time. One of the usual flags is when people spend more than a certain amount of time on a particular site. Then it will be spotted...

[katsmom]

Are you telling me I should do WORK at work and not be on the forum

[Scurra]

Me? <whistles innocently>
Just pointing out the obvious, that's all

[eirian]

but how long is too long????

[katsmom]

I keep logged in all day on my office computer. But leave of course when I go to class and then log in again (Am I an addict?) It must have something to do with the number of page hits in a day.

[clvrlad]

well those of you friendly with the IT dept might want to nudge them to keep it unblocked

[kathlyn]

I've noticed that giraffe is using this forum to conduct conversations with her children

Obviously they don't just grunt on here

[Looby]

When she posts 'Tea's ready!' we'll know there's a real problem

[SparkOut]

I quite often get emails from my wife, of the nature "Can I have a cup of tea, please?"

[Looby]

What happened to good old-fashioned shouting?