Office Site Bans - Websense and Other Software

[Dobber]

It has come to my attention that DobberHockey is blocked in some offices. After some research, the office-blocking software is created by a handful of companies and sold to offices.
I decided to write to them and find out my options. So far, as expected, it would seem that I have none. But I do like messing around with big companies in my spare time - sometimes I even win :lol:
Let\'s publicize our communication so far, shall we?

Dobber
For some reason, your software classifies my website as \"games\" and as such is banned in many offices. There are no games on my site, and no gambling of any kind. My site gives news on happenings in the hockey world. How can I go about changing the classification? I am losing a lot of traffic to competition who offers similar content...but does not suffer the same classification.

Your advice is very much appreciated.

Websense
Thank you for writing to Websense.

The sites you submitted have been reviewed. We have found that they are best classified accordingly:

http://www.dobberhockey.com/ - Games

For our category definitions, please refer to:

http://ww2.websense.com/global/en/Pr...Categories.php

Please note that it is your organization’s Websense administrator who determines what categories are to be restricted. If you would like to access these sites, we recommend that you contact this person and request that either the category(ies) or specific URL(s) be custom-permitted.

Thank you for your inquiry,

The Websense Database Services Staff
J.B.
Monday, June 16, 2008 11:29:25 AM


Dobber:
This is a news-blog and fan forum. I don\'t have or promote any games - categorize me the same as nba.com or mlb.com or rotoworld.com please. This is a news site. Help me out here! If there is a word I need to remove, I\'ll remove it!

How is NHL.com classified? Same as Dobberhockey, because they both provide hockey news.

I appreciate you getting back to me.

Websense:
Thank you for your feedback.

The site you submitted has been thoroughly reviewed; we have found that they are best classified accordingly:

http://www.dobberhockey.com/ - Games

At this time, according to Websense Category Definitions sites that provide information related to Fantasy Sports are being classified under the category Games.

If you have any other questions or concerns related to this issue, please let me know.

Thank you for your inquiry,

The Websense Database Services Staff
O.B.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:39:08 AM


Dobber:
I know all about messing with the hard and fast \"rules\" of a company. Try and get them to change it...

So how about this - \"categorize\" my competition please.
www.rotoworld.com can be seen from company computers. Companies that use the same software that block dobberhockey.

Classify www.rotoworld.com and www.dobberhockey.com the same. Also www.rototimes.com, www.NHL.com (they have a fantasy hockey section), www.waynegretzky.com (they have a fantasy hockey section), www.tsn.ca (they have an extensive fantasy section), www.espn.com (huge fantasy section - so big they absorbed a giant fantasy sports website last year).

Just put me on equal footing, or kindly tell me the next level I can take this to...
Please. This costs me a lot of traffic, which is the lifeblood of any website.


Websense
Thank you for your feedback.

Your suggestion has been forwarded to the Websense Database Architectural Review Board for their review. Should there be any changes, you will be notified with the latest category update.

Thank you for your inquiry,

The Websense Database Services Staff
M.P.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:53:58 PM


Commentary:
I know where this goes - it gets filed under \"G\". Now, this is unfair (yes, I understand life is unfair), but it sounds like some businesses may be getting preferential treatment, although unintentional. I made a phone call to a business lawyer friend and he says that there may be something here if I can prove this and that and blah blah blah - Anyway, I thought I would use this in hopes that it will not be filled under \"G\" and will actually be taken seriously.

Dobber:
Thank you. Websense\'s decision has a direct impact on my business and my lawyer has indicated a keen interest in Websense\'s next move. We hope that all sports news websites with fantasy content are treated equally and fairly - hopefully I hear back shortly as to your next step.

For your consideration:
DobberHockey.com is a news and opinion site, as well as a user forum. The user forum constitutes 90% of the content and 90% of the traffic (this is easily verified). Because only 10% of the fantasy content is actually site-driven, that is roughly equivalent to the site-driven fantasy content of NHL.com, TSN.ca and ESPN.com. Those three websites, as well as DobberHockey.com, are equal in that regard. We are certain that, after careful consideration, the Websense Database Architectural Review Board will agree and either remove DobberHockey.com from the \"games\" classification, or will add NHL.com, TSN.ca and ESPN.com to the \"games\" classification in the sense of fairness.




Commentary:
Yes, I understand that I am taking other good sites down with me, but do not fear - if Websense were to ban TSN.ca and ESPN.com do you really think corporate offices will buy the software? When the CEO is a Steelers fan? Or a Yankee fan? Nope. Never happen. TSN.ca and ESPN.com are safe. I am hoping - and I CLEARLY understand that this is a long shot at best - that they will just re-classify me so that I will go away.

I will update this as I hear back.

B)

[fantasyhockeygeek]

Karma Dobber, that\'s awesome. Writing complaint letters is one of the great joys of a sh*tdisturber\'s life...

[mister_mcgoo]

dickheads...they should be legally required to document exactly why you are being classified as you are so that you can make necessary adjustments and resubmit your site for a re-review. Don\'t be afraid to suggest legal action, the main reason they are choosing to **** with you and not nhl.com, tsn.ca, etc is that they don\'t think you\'ll fight it

[narduch]

This is a great topic Dobber.

I recently switched employers. When I first started my new job, dobberhockey.com was totally blocked. The software my work is using is called \'Content Keeper\'. It would allow me to go to sites like tsn.ca or yahoo sports but it would block dobberhockey.com (it called it a \'gaming\' site as well). Then miracoulously, over the last month I\'ve been able to access this awesome site from work.

I\'m not sure how Websense works, but I believe what happened is that the IT guy at my work toggled the filter to allow more sites.

One other point, I wouldn\'t stress the forum point too much. At my work it is technically against rules to visit forums. I would put a major stress on the hockey news you deliver. Some of these blocking softwares also specifically block forums. You wouldn\'t want your site blocked because of that.

[Sin Bin]

Today was the first day that I was unable to to access dobberhockey at my work and it sucked and need a way to get this rectified.

[peekNpoke]

Hey Dobber,

Any way you can talk to the Websense Sales staff instead of the database services staff.

Flat out tell the sales guys that your clientelle cannot reach dobberhockey.com and its because of a miss-classification on their part.

This miss-classification will only make Websense look bad to your target audience and because we are loyal will complain to our own IT departments endlessly about not being able to access your site.

When all our IT departments have to renew Websense licenses they will no doubt hesitate because of all the complaints and will look at alternative services.

All because they do not want to re-classify your site to an accurate grouping.

Their own sales guys will put the presure on the database serives guys.

[narduch]

peekNpoke wrote:

This miss-classification will only make Websense look bad to your target audience and because we are loyal will complain to our own IT departments endlessly about not being able to access your site.

I don\'t see how that can work. I can\'t walk up to the IT guy at my work and bitch that I don\'t have access to my favourite fantasy hockey site. The office politics just don\'t work in my favour in that regard.

I can\'t really see how he would have any sympathy for me.

[peekNpoke]

That may be the reality Narduch but sales people don\'t want to hear that they will lose money, especially over something simple as changing the classification.

We may not be enough to complain to our own IT depts, but we can find boards that talk about WebSense support and we can post negative articles about how they treat a simple change so badly. Maybe our IT depts don\'t want to change but other new IT depts may choose not to bother with them if they see there are many complaints.

If you can get to the sales guys and tell them its a 2 second change vs a possible negative impact to their image and therefore to their sales there is a chance that they go to their db support people and tell them to change things.

I have no idea how big Websense is in their marketplace but I am sure there are other solutions to them.

[notch4077]

Dobber, I thought you would like to know this. I am not a computer savvy guy and have no idea what Websense is, but as of last week, the Town of Aurora and the Town of Newmarket employees can not access your site through their work computers. The name that comes up and says we are blocked because of \"Games\" is Iron Port.
Hope this helps.

[Reddawg]

If I was the IT guy at my company I\'d block your site too Dobber...

I\'d hate for the others in my office pool to enjoy the same advantages I get here. :cheer:

[duballstar014]

Well I\'ll be on my way to work soon...so far I\'m not too excited about what I see here...my work blocks everything, and my fears thus far is that maybe I go on Dobber too frequently and one day it will be blocked...we\'ll see soon...

[hoopej2]

A common work around to being blocked is having a mirror site. I\'m not a techy so I don\'t know how it works but someone on here must.

I run my own business and am happy my employees can\'t visit every site out there. I know how much time I spend on here and I know how much productivity I lose so I wouldn\'t want the people I\'m paying to also be dicking around while on the clock.

[Dobber]

hoopej2 wrote:

A common work around to being blocked is having a mirror site. I\'m not a techy so I don\'t know how it works but someone on here must.

I run my own business and am happy my employees can\'t visit every site out there. I know how much time I spend on here and I know how much productivity I lose so I wouldn\'t want the people I\'m paying to also be dicking around while on the clock.

On the other hand, a very underestimated expense is turnover. Employee retention is very important. I once had an office job with no Internet and a factor in my taking a new job was the fact that they had Internet.
Everyone needs a break - work should be measured in results, not time committed. An employee leaves work a little happier if they spent three or four 10-minute windows surfing the net, be it for fantasy hockey, crossword puzzles, whathaveyou.

One person quitting leaves you with many intangible expenses - the cost of re-training, the cost of errors (potentially can be very high) for starters.

[notubble]

Im an IT Guy at my office, so should dobber ever be blocked I would most certainly unblock it...

For you guys that have IT departments that block this, befriend the IT guy, or buy him a lunch or something and ask him to white list DobberHockey. Approach the younger guys or the sports fan. Tell them you like to check the site while you eat your lunch, etc, something that you know will not raise any problems as far as productivity go and you can prob get the IT guy to get you in.

Good Luck, and Dobber, i like the approach you have taken, but the suggestion of the sales team is also good.

[Shadow]

I just went onto our network and unblocked the sites I wanted to access. For those of you who can\'t do that, like some others have suggested, just befriend one of the IT\'s. As long as they don\'t sense any trouble will come to them, they will usually do you a favor or two.

Once a software company has \"classified\" a site, it is very difficult to get them to change that classification. It\'s much easier to just unblock the sites via your network at your place of employment.

Good luck to those who are having trouble.