MetaChat - Crap. My work just blocked MetaChat,

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28 October 2008

Crap. My work just blocked MetaChat, so I won't be seeing much of y'all anymore.→[More:]I'm on dial-up now. It happened after I watched the Amy Sedaris link (knew I should have let that one go, but I do love Ms. Sedaris). I knew this day would come sooner or later, and frankly I'm surprised it lasted this long. I don't dare fight it as a work-related site. Thing is, MeCha really kept me sane here, so if you here about me going postal, you'll know why. So, while I'm not saying goodbye, I will be around a lot less, much to my disappointment. I'm bummed.

And I have that creepy "1984" feeling, where some unseen force disapproves of your behavior and punishes you for it. And I wonder about a call/visit from HR. *Shudder*

post by: Hellbient at: 12:02 | 28 comments

Oh poopy. That really sucks. And so soon after your birthday, too!

posted by Specklet 28 October | 12:10

:( sorry Hellbient. We'll miss you. And yes, I do know what you mean about the creepy 1984 thing.

What occurs to me is that the more they do this, the more trouble people are apt to go to (usb boot drives, ssh tunnelling, etc...) to defeat it, which seems to me would potentially open up more / worse risk (wouldn't it?). I don't do this, simply because I don't have the knowhow and it's too much hassle to figure it out, plus the risks if I were to get caught. But it's potentially quite a few people. I've witnessed it on multiple occasions, anyhows.

posted by lonefrontranger 28 October | 12:16

Damn. We have a new system in which we need to "log in" for our net access (which involves enabling popups, which sucks) but so far, no repercussions from the various benign places I go.

posted by danf 28 October | 12:19

suckssssssssssssssssss.

posted by Stewriffic 28 October | 12:20

Aww. No fair.
The cost of letting people do it is dwarfed by the consequence of windowless pens.
Ooh, damn Todd Oldham's big floppy vagina!

posted by ethylene 28 October | 12:30

Aw, and it was your birthday at some point too. That sucks, it happened to me at last job.

posted by rainbaby 28 October | 12:30

Booooooo!

posted by -t 28 October | 12:31

Hardly anything at work is allowed any more. At one point they were blocking all flash, but we had to get them to undo that because a lot of the big financial and law firms we have to deal with have big fancy flash-based intros to their websites.

But no MeCha, no MeFi, no YT, no b3ta (oh, what fun I've had pranking teammates with b3ta's Top 10 Cutest Kittens in years gone by) nothing other than work-related stuff.

Warning: b3ta's Top 10 Cutest Kittens is really quite NSFW. But if you work with somebody you hate and can get away with it ...

posted by essexjan 28 October | 12:41

Sorry, hellbient.

Each time I go on Metafilter or Metachat I feel guilty. I wonder who is looking. Do they know I'm browsing? Is my boss given a report of my history? I only visit the Metas, Amazon, and newspaper sites. Sometimes our facility is so slow and I'll browse with the intern to prevent boredom. I wonder if "they" know I'm on Metafilter.

posted by LoriFLA 28 October | 12:44

Jan, i did not need that right now, but the sudden wake of people fleeing was more than worth it, as my audio was WAY up.

posted by ethylene 28 October | 12:59

10/28 never forget

posted by mullacc 28 October | 13:03

/me pours a forty for hellbient

posted by stynxno 28 October | 13:12

Thanks all. Maybe I can get a workaround somehow...hmmm.

posted by Hellbient 28 October | 13:54

Stock up on music and video clips and such you don't need a connection for.

posted by ethylene 28 October | 13:57

Anyone feel like creating a Google gadget? That might work.

posted by Hellbient 28 October | 14:01

Will an SSH tunnel to your home machine work for you? I've never needed to, but friends have done it successfully in their restrictive workplaces.

posted by King of Prontopia 28 October | 14:12

Portable Apps works for me! (Because they disabled Flash, the bastards.)

posted by sperose 28 October | 14:20

SSH tunnels do work. I have to use it, because WebSense blocks this site too as a chat site (I'm sure it's purely URL-based, because MeFi isn't blocked).

posted by middleclasstool 28 October | 14:41

Of course, tunneling could get you a visit from IT, if you don't already work in IT.

posted by middleclasstool 28 October | 14:52

This is going to happen to me one day, I just know it. So many stupid things are blocked, including (apparently) anything with "blog" in the URL (but not Blogger - go figure. Not Youtube either, which is even more odd. I keep thinking there is one of those thermometer graph thingies like they use for fundraisers with my name on it and it will one day reach the target and I'll get a little visit. SSH tunnelling, VPN connections etc to any non-approved target is expressly forbidden, though and ranks up with pr0n in terms of banned-ness, so it would be all over.

posted by dg 28 October | 14:57

The SSH thing sounds risky. It'd be stupid to lose my job over it.
I get gmail through a secure https connection. I don't suppose that is doable?

posted by Hellbient 28 October | 15:09

Do you own a domain where you could set up some kind of redirect? Could tinyURL do this? I guess it would still be loading metachat.org at some point, though.

posted by dg 28 October | 15:23

That sucks. Royally.

posted by chewatadistance 28 October | 15:39

Sorry, Hellbient. That really blows.

jan, you are in deep, deep trouble.

posted by deborah 28 October | 16:07

Oh hai cgi-proxy

posted by chrisroberts 28 October | 16:38

Those sites are all blocked by websense too, though, as "proxy/network avoidance."

posted by middleclasstool 28 October | 16:46

Welcome to the club. :(

posted by Doohickie 28 October | 20:54

@LoriFL: I feel guilty when I peek at MeCha while at work, too, because I've got so much of it that I really shouldn't be spending time away from it. Even reading Gothamist makes me feel guilty but sometimes I find good articles to pass along to my boss.

Perhaps that's how I could explain MeCha usage... you're helping me do work somehow!

posted by TrishaLynn 29 October | 00:39

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