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 Post subject: Blocked on Facebook
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:18 am 
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Hi guys.

I just thought the FreeHostia admins might want to know that FreeHostia has recently been blocked on Facebook, meaning that Facebook users are no longer able to post links to any webpage with "FreeHostia.com" in the address. This is most likely because someone reported one hosted website as abusive or offensive, and Facebook responded by blocking the entire domain. My girlfriend and I both have websites hosted here, and neither of us are able to post links to our sites on Facebook anymore.

Maybe someone here can figure out how to contact Facebook directly -- since their help pages aren't very helpful -- and try to get them to unblock the web host. It's ridiculous for them to assume that everyone hosted here is offensive or abusive.

Any ideas? Does anyone know if Facebook has a procedure for re-evaluating or unblocking websites that were blocked? I'd hate to have to use a forwarding address every time I want to show my Facebook friends a page on my website.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:14 pm 
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I don't think it's a problem on your end. What I mean is that, if I log into Facebook and try to post a link to any FreeHostia site on my wall, Facebook gives me the following message in a pop-up:

Warning: This Message Contains Blocked Content
Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.


And if I go to FreeHostia's page on Facebook and click the FreeHostia links there, Facebook stops me and says:

Sorry
The link you are trying to visit has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.


This is presumably what Facebook does in order to prevent its members from being linked from Facebook to dangerous websites, but there's nothing inherently dangerous about pages hosted on FreeHostia. I was hoping that the admins of FreeHostia would be able to contact someone at Facebook and get them to take a closer look at this issue, since this whole situation might be bad for FreeHostia's reputation.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:14 am 
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ive experienced this too, at first i thought it was just my site that was being blocked, but i tried posting a link to the freehostia.com homepage itself i.e www.freehostia.com to my facebook wall and that was blocked too just as the guy above said. its soo annoying, and unfair, i hope facebook lift the block soon...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:48 am 
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fyi they are even blocking links that use redirecting services like tinyurl and bit.ly that point to freehostia.com sites, really frustrating and annoying.

btw ive figured out a workaround though indirect "proxy" links. i.e link to a site thats not blocked that you can create html on, put a description of what you are linking to and another link to the actual freehostia site, this seems to work fine. as an example i am using a flickr link that goes to a flickr image, with a link to my freehostia site in the description of the image. i doubt they will start blocking flickr links... its not ideal but seems to do the trick for now...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:05 am 
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Just for the record, FreeHostia isn't the only free web host that Facebook will not allow links to. They've also blocked at least one host that I've used in the past.

In any case, there's probably no way to solve this problem, unless someone can find a way to contact Facebook support directly. I tried, but their help pages are notoriously unhelpful, and it's impossible to find an e-mail address or even a form to submit.

Not that FreeHostia's administrators are to blame, but I'm considering switching to a different web host. The fact that links to my site are blocked on Facebook is going to hurt my website's reputation just as much as it hurts FreeHostia itself. I was trying to use Facebook to get more visitors.

Even if something on my site might actually be considered inappropriate by Facebook staff -- who probably freak out when they see mild profanity, thanks to all the little kids who are now making Facebook accounts -- this whole situation is going to give people the wrong idea about my site. People who read that links to my site were "reported as abusive" are going to assume that my website is full of viruses or something.

It really shouldn't be hard to find forwarding or redirecting URLs to do the job, but who knows how long that will work before Facebook decides to block them too?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:34 pm 
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good points darkforce!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:31 pm 
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another workaround i've come up, maybe better than the last as it doesnt require linking to any intermediary hosts.

well it only works on "facebook pages" i.e facebook fan pages
you first need to add the "Static FBML" application to the page
then you need to edit the default page it creates, and just put your links to freehostia in there, you can use standard html links, a lot of the other standard HTML tags work in the FBML box. Once youve saved the FBML, you can then go to the boxes tab of your page and move the static FBML box to the Wall. any links you added in the static FBML box will not get affected by the facebook ban on freehostia links :)

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Customize Facebook with FBP: https://fbpurity.com


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:12 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:07 am
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Thanks for the info, Steve. I might try that.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:11 am 
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:12 am
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Thank you for the information you shared..I appreciate it very much.



chiropractic marketing


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:44 pm 
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btw dark forces, interesting that you mention they have blocked another free hosting service, i wonder if they are blocking all the free hosts, in order to get more people to sign up to their own free hosting effort, i.e the "facebook pages"... hmmm

i emailed abuse(AT)facebook.com and asked them about the ban on freehostia, they replied quite quickly but basically said the same thing that the error message says when you try and post a link to freehostia. i.e someone reported freehostia as hosting abusive content. not very helpful. i replied saying if somone on a geocities or a tripod account posted some abusive content, you wouldnt block the whole geocities or tripod domain.... its madness, havent heard back from them yet.

i suggest if enough people complain about the ban, maybe they will do something... : email abuse (AT) facebook.com


btw, slightly off-topic, but may be useful to other facebook users: if anyone is interested in cutting the spamming applications and annoying "became friends with", "attending an event", "joined a group", "became a fan of" messages on your facebook homepage, ive created a solution, you can check it out here: http://bit.ly/fbpure


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:01 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:05 am
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hooray, it looks like facebook have lifted the block at last :)

_________________
Customize Facebook with FBP: https://fbpurity.com


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:00 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:07 am
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Seriously? Wow. I guess we're pretty lucky.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:51 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:05 am
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its not luck, i had to do a bit of behind the scenes diplomacy to get the block lifted...

_________________
Customize Facebook with FBP: https://fbpurity.com


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