You are in Violation of....

After my recent post about hacking the Navbar from Blogger I got a comment from one Graeme about the possible violation of the TOS. A bit worried about this because I hadn't considered it before I went ahead and researched it just to be on the safe side. I actually went through and read both the TOS with Blogger.com and with Blogspot.com . Here is my personal opinion on the matter (we all know how wrong that could be).

It is possible that I am violating subsection

“(e) upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party; (f) upload, post or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;”

from Section 4 of TOS with Blogspot.com

However, it is my personal opinion that the new flag button gives other members the ability to easily violate this section.

“Member shall not interfere with another Member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity's use and enjoyment of similar services.”

From Section 12 of TOS with Blogger.com

Another thing for them to keep in mind is this section

“You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.”

From section 4 of TOS with Blogspot.com
Right there it tells everyone that you may occasionally find something offensive, indecent, or objectionable...earlier in the TOS they state that you shouldn't use Blogger.com or Blogspot.com to violate any laws. I really don't understand the reason for the flag button except that it may eventually be adapted to help us the members police ourselves from spammers and others who would violate the law with the services and cause possible legal problems for Blogger.com and Blogspot.com I do not want this to happen as I enjoy a free place to blog and keep friends up to date on what I am doing. Therefor I am against the current implementation of the flag feature but would like to see it become a feature where we the members use it to help Blogger be policed against potential illegal activity not against the subjective opinion of what is "objectionable". Thank you.

Damn Censors...(sorry about the length)

Okay, I'm not sure if any of you have noticed however there is a nice new feature added to the navbar across the top of blog pages. It is called the flag. This is to be used for the flagging of "possible" "objectionable" content. There are a few things wrong with this flag button.

First, it is anonymous. It should be tracked what a person rates as "objectionable" and quantitatively added into the formula for determining if something truely is objectionable. This whole idea stinks. If it is not illegal leave it alone.

Second, there is no accountablity for it. A person could get a perversive kick out of randomly flagging things.

Thirdly, the blog owner is not informed they have been flagged.

What does a flag do? From my understanding it removes the blog from the random "next blog" thing, as well as removing the blog from being featured on the blogspot site. Now neither of these are a large concern to me because I could care less if anyone else besides friends ever were to read this. However, it is the concept that I find deplorable. The mob mentality of judging the "objectionablity" of something within a personal blog is absolutly retarded. If something is not illegal it should be left alone. If you care to here is a way to remove the navbar from your blog.

To remove the navbar from your blog, copy and paste this little piece of code into your template somewhere between the style and /style tags and republish your blog:

#b-navbar{
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
}

I'm going to attempt to figure out a way to remove just the retarded flag icon form the navbar though it may be beyond my coding skills. If any of you figure out a way please let me know. I am really moralistically, ethically, valueistically (these are all words now) oppossed to this mob rule censorship that blogger has decided to adopt.

Edit: Okay I have found a massively nasty way to fix this. Basically I hide their navbar and then create my own without the flag button. Here is what you need to do.

In your template between the style and /style> tags place the following. (I'm not sure if it is all needed but mine has it all and it works.) (More instructions follow.)

#b-navbar{
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
}

#c-navbar
{
background:#111;
border-bottom:1px solid #222;
color:#999;
}

#c-search
{
background:#333 url("../../img/navbar/3/corner.gif") no-repeat left bottom;
}

#c-query
{
border:1px solid #555;
}

#c-this a
{
color:#ccc;
}

#c-this a:hover
{
color:#fff;
}


#c-navbar
{
width:100%;
padding-bottom:5px;
border-bottom:1px solid #111;
min-height:24px;
font:x-small "Trebuchet MS",Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif !important;
color:#47a;
font-size/* */:/**/small !important;
font-size: /**/small !important;
margin-bottom:10px;
position:absolute !important;
top:0;
left:0;
z-index:1;
display:block !important;
}


#c-navbar a img
{
border:none;
display:inline !important;
}

#c-navbar #c-logo
{
position:absolute !important;
top:3px;
left:5px;
width:80px;
height:24px;
border-width:0;
}

#c-logo img
{
display:inline !important;
}

#c-search
{
background:#111 url("../../img/navbar/corner.gif") no-repeat left bottom;
margin:0 0 0 100px;
padding:4px 7px;
line-height:1em;
font-size:85%;
text-align:left;
}

#c-more
{
float:right;
padding-top:2px;
display:block !important;
}

#c-more a
{
margin-left:4px;
}

#c-query
{
margin-right:.25em;
width:12em;
}

/* hide from IE5-Mac \*/
#c-query
{
font-size:x-small !important;
}
/* end hide */

#c-searchbtn
{
position:relative;
top:-1px;
margin-right:.5em;
vertical-align:middle;
}

#c-this
{
display:block !important;
}

#c-this a
{
margin-right:.5em;
white-space:nowrap;
text-decoration:none;
line-height:1em;
}

#c-this a:hover
{
color:#fff;
text-decoration:underline;
}

Now after your style tags in the template you should see the head tag and then a line or two later the body tag. At this point paste the following. (more instructions after)

<div id="c-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="c-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" height="24" width="80" /></a><form id="c-search" action="http://www.google.com/search"><div id="c-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="c-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" height="15" width="112" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="c-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" height="15" width="72" /></a></div><div id="c-this"><input id="b-query" name="q" type="text"><input name="ie" value="UTF-8" type="hidden"><input name="sitesearch" value="mattsasylum.blogspot.com" type="hidden"><input src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/3/btn_search.gif" alt="Search" value="Search" id="c-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google" type="image"><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="c-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div>



That's all you may need to adjust the background color in #c-search...as well as the border-bottom color in #c-navbar (the second one I believe). Hope that helps folks.

Words of Wisdom

Well perhaps not so much wisdom as mere words. However, my excuse Nathan is similar to yours. I have done nothing except work and read these last few days. My last post was titled boredom for a reason I simply can not wait for school to begin as life is fairly boring while I am in full anticipation of that day which is less than a week away.

I have somewhat begun to prepare (buying books counts right?). I have some background reading to do, begin with English history during Chaucer, move through Shakespeare then into later history through 1780. After that it will be to understand the influences of the Modern Short Novel and the Modern European Novel, by the way Modern European Novel begins all the way back with Cervantes apparently as we are going to read at least part of Don Quixote. But yes John I have begun that background reading as well as reimmersing myself in the art of reading multiple books/texts at once (well not simultaneously but you understand). I am nearly finished with Barth's Floating Opera and I fear I may not have time to read The End of the Road. At the bookstore today I begin to read Gilead:A novel by Marilynne Robinson, the name attracted me as well as the fact that it won the Pulitzer this year. I've read up to page 51 and I must say it draws one in and urges them to continue the reading I may pick the book up, but more likely I'll read it at B&N. Anyways, as soon as I finish Barth I'm going to begin Wiesel's Night which is our first text for my Modern Short Novel class. Don't expect much until Tuesday evening after my first day of classes.

Secondarily, I began work on a personal project which may one day become a novel, a graphic novel, an anime TV/movie program, or remain digital 1's and 0's (the most likely). Anyways, I will talk with you all again.

Sidenote, school is much too expensive for students to ever afford it, I spent $630 on tuition alone after my FLORIDA PREPAID, come on I'm going to college so I can get a real job and make money, what is up with these upfront costs....it's just like those get rich quick schemes that never pan out....ah well. I will definitely have something Tuesday evening...probably not before.

Boredom...

Well it has been an uneventful last few days. School starts in just under two weeks and for the first time in a few years I'm actually looking forward to the start of a school year (I do not however envy John or Nathan who are both neck deep in more work then I will ever desire). So at the moment I'm getting in as much reading for pleasure as I can, Robert Jordan (again), Dan Brown, Barth; I'm sure I'll pick up a few more things because once school starts I'm fairly certain that I'll be reading about 2-3 books at a time and several poems, shorts, essays, and articles, all in a continuous state of fluctuated understanding within my meager brain. Life will become interesting and I'll once again have concepts, ideas, and thoughts to discuss with other folks rather than just "what I did today". Speaking of which, the other night Stites and I went to see Four Brothers. Word of warning, this is a drama movie with a few action scenes, not an action movie with dramatic moments. A bit disappointed because I was expecting something different I came home and watched The Transporter, the sequel is coming out soon and I had not seen the original I figured it was about time. This movie happily satisfied my need for gratuitous explosions and gun-fire. All in all this past near week has been rather boring, school seems so far away, but work is early tomorrow morning. Good night all.