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Huh. Well this isn’t how I intended to celebrate my 2,000th post . . .
A week ago on Monday, WordPress, my blog’s host, suspended my account without warning. I found out about it the same way many of you did: when I tried visiting the site I got a message from WordPress saying the blog had been suspended for violating the company’s Terms of Service.
Much like when I was a child being scolded over some unknown infraction and my parents would say, “You know what you did!” as an explanation, WordPress was less than forthcoming about why my blog had been suspended. Several emails later I was told it was due to my having posted pornographic content. Since my blog was marked as mature to allow for nudity – and that was a regular feature on my blog for the last 2+ years – I questioned the decision and finally was told it was due to my last Stay In Bed Sunday post where the photo of a hottie’s penis exceeded WordPress’ limit on cock size.
Unlike Supreme Court Justice Stewart who said pornography is hard to define but, “I know it when I see it,” WordPress relies on a mathematical formula to know what is and is not pornographic. In WordPress’ world if the genitalia shown is 65% or greater than the immediately surrounding area it is deemed to be porn. I can only guess that someone with a small penis must have come up with that rule. But then 65% is an odd number even as a percentage. So that had to be a decision made by committee. A committee of men with small penises.
No problemo. Okay, small problemo. In suspending my blog WordPress also made it impossible for me to export my image files to a new home. Several more emails later I managed to convince a tech that part of that 65% no-no was foreskin and shouldn’t really count. I think he appreciated my argument that that was a discriminatory policy against uncut men. Or it could have been I lucked out and reached the one tech at WordPress who didn’t have a small penis. In any case, he agreed to unsuspend my blog for a few days to allow me the time to export my blog’s content to its new home. If you managed to click through to my blog during the later part of the week and got a striped down version, that’s why.
I don’t think the powers that be at WordPress are homophobic; I’m sure their love affair with small genitalia extends to vagina too. Not that I want to find out. But I will note that prohibiting a gay man from blogging on Halloween probably should qualify as a hate crime. While I may disagree with their opinion of what is and isn’t pornographic, I can’t fault a company who holds true to its corporate moral compass. When for $1 per month they are willing to take you by the hand and lead you to where you can see said pornography, their pillar of morality gets a bit crumbly. WordPress couldn’t handle what they considered a prodigious piece of manhood on their server, but for $13 was more than happy to redirect all of my blog’s old links to their new home. So any bookmarks you may have still will work. A least for a year. Though you may want to update those before next November.
I no longer believe in cosmic brownie points. As an official pornographer – and I am having business cards printed – the universe should condemn me. Instead, the angels descended and gave my blog a new home. I’d barely discovered my blog had been suspended before I received an email from Surfcrest, the new owner of Sawatdee Gay Thailand, offering me room on their server to host my blog. And Elephantspike jumped right in and handled all of the tech stuff, proving not only is he a nice guy but a geek extraordinaire. I’m sure I will be thanking them appropriately in the not too distant future with some incredibly snarky comment. Spike did 99.95% of the work in getting my blog back up and running again. Not to mention a lot of hand-holding through the process. It’s been a busy week. For him. Still, I really thought I’d use the blog being down as an excuse for a vacation from blogging for a while and thanks to his proficiency, I’m back already. So okay, maybe that karma thing really does work.
On the plus side, no longer being hosted by WordPress is a good thing. In the past they’ve deleted links I published in my End of the Week posts, content they disapproved of. And they prohibit even the simplest java scripts from running on blogs they host, which means bloggers can not use the millions of widgets and plug-ins available to everyone outside of the WordPress family. Design and layout-wise, things I’ve wanted to do with the blog in the past have not been possible. Now that’s no longer a problem. So expect some cool bells and whistles (but not annoying ones) to pop up over the next month or two. And lots of pornographic content too, of course.
What at first appeared to be a major blow to my blog’s future turned out to be a blessing in disguise. So for those of you who have dropped me a note pointing out that WordPress’ actions had to have stemmed from a complaint – possibly made by my ‘competition’ – at worst then I owe that person a big thanks. I’m pleased to have my blog’s new hosting home and to be the first blogger in SGT’s new family. And now I gotta go work on the aforementioned snarky post about Surfcrest and Elephantspike ‘cuz in my book it’s not enough to just be a pornographer, you need to be an asshole too.
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elephantspike said:
Thanks for the shout-out. Great to have you aboard on The Network. BTW- I just fixed your “It’s Not That You Have A Small Dick” link. PHP can’t handle apostrophes in urls. Anyway, I regenerated the shortcode and it seems to be working now.
Bangkokbois said:
Elephantspike to the rescue once again!
🙂
Thanks ES. And I was just kidding about the threat of snarky comments I’ll be directing toward you. Surfcrest on the other hand . . .
lukylok said:
Houray, or yeyeye as my friend here says, you are back.
I missed you all the more as I spent a week in Chiang Mai Ram Hospital, for cellulitis. Not the little fat of the fish, but deep infection in my ankle.
Excellent treatment in Ram H. but not really what I was expecting in Thailand. Luckily the friend has been more than perfect and helped tremendously.
Out again, but not yet running ! 🙂
And all kuddos for Surfcrest and Elephantspike !
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks Lucky.
Sorry to hear about your illness, but it sounds like your caregiver took good care of your needs!
Ash Register said:
It is great to have you back. After I got bitten by Thailand earlier this year I reckon I would’ve troweled through every forum, blog and tourist tip site there was and you’re the only one I stuck with. You and Stickman (so you know I’m not here just for the dick).
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks Ash. Mitch says he only reads my blog for the articles so maybe I should quit publishing those pix.
Nahhhhh.
Mitch S. said:
If Timmy! complained to wordpress, they would just roll their eyes and chuckle at his functional illiteracy; however, if Bitchlover complained, you must admit, she can get that righteous indignation going…
Bangkokbois said:
Whoa!
Maybe Beach is preparing for another comeback!
Looks like Xmas might come early this year!
Eli said:
Hey, glad to see the blog up and running again!! It’s hard to go a week without reading what’s posted here. 🙂
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks Eli. I’m glad to be back too.
ChristianPFC said:
I wonder about that 65% rule. Is there a position where someone sits with a ruler and measures and calculates dick size? If yes, where can I apply? And how about ass, is that pornographic, too?
Bangkokbois said:
That was my first thought too!
What a perfect job!
Dekar said:
They actually have this job in China and the Middle East. Requirement is however that you are a natural bureaucrat with 0 sense of humor. Not sure if its worth soo much misery to get the job.
And welcome back 🙂
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks Dekar, guess that means I’ll never land that dream job. Christian on the other hand . . .
🙂
Caleb Wickham said:
Thank the universe for opening its arms and for WordPress for closing their legs. I was starting to withdraw! I was bedside myself with all the comments I had made bouncing back from the blog. (Still, you were further blessed by not having to out up with my diatribe for a few days.)
Bangkokbois said:
lol
Sorry about that Caleb. Having the internet reject your comments must be a real downer!
SA said:
Welcome back! You were missed.
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks SA. Glad to see you are still around.
Oro said:
Congratulations to your 2,000st post, which almost did not happen. I am following your blog now for well over a year and admittedly started to get nervous when the blog was down. Regarding a ‘blessing in disguise’ currently travelling with limited internet access, I was able to catch up much quicker… Anyway, great to have you back online and your blog a secure future. Anyway even if pornography is hard to define, I know when I see it, and more importantly, like it. Thanks for all your posts and welcome back!
Bangkokbois said:
Thanks Oro.
The ‘why’ is still debatable, but I’m gonna go with that it made your catching up a bit easier!
🙂
Wen Johnson said:
While I am THRILLED that you are back I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse for several reasons.
1) Since I started my day reading your posts (your posting in California is middle of the night here in Japan) in their absence I was getting used to getting something done. However, since retirement is now my game procrastination comes easily and it won’t be hard to get back in the habit.
2) I had figured it would be a while so had deleted all my WordPress links to the blog! So happy there was one I hadn’t erased and the old shot over to the new!
HUGE hugs and tears of gratitude to those who stepped up to offer this wonderful solution!!!
And of course, kudos to you for the incredible content! I still think you don’t have any other job than writing this blog! You have a gift for capturing words and ideas and turning them into verbal photographs! Of course, the actual photos you post are just as incredible!
May you continue the interest in sharing for a long time!
Bangkokbois said:
Thank you Wen. And I’m glad the old links still work for you. Knowing my blog provides an excuse for procrastination warms my heart.
🙂
Wen Johnson said:
Hang on. I’ll get back to you in a minute. Just painted the wall and not sure if it’s dry or not yet.
Bangkokbois said:
🙂
Andi Cheok said:
Yeah!
Bangkokbois said:
🙂
Good to see you back Andi.
SA said:
Hey are the email updates working?with wordpress I used to get an email every time you made a new post. Great idea! But it’s stopped working. I re-subscribed again on this site the other day but still no updates. Have I done something wrong or is this part broken? Thanks.
Bangkokbois said:
Try again SA, but wipe the lube off your hands first.
🙂
I ‘followed’ myself to check it out. After inserting your email addy you should get a confirmation note, and then an email asking you to confirm your desire for email updates. After you click on the link to do so, new posts are sent to your email as they are published. Except without pix.
Andi Cheok said:
it was a painful week!
not only am I suffering from BKK withdrawal symptom…
your blog is not accessible – it is the closest avenue I can get to BKK (well at least virtually)…
glad to see your blog back online…
on another note… the buffalo is dying soon… been receiving messages from my devil boi about bhat issues.. mostly about the lack of them…
Bangkokbois said:
lol
Funny how those bois never send an email about the exra funds they have just in case you need a short loan, huh?
Andi Cheok said:
yeap… with the numbers of offs he’s been having… think he might be earning (relative to living costs) more then me? LOL…
also been telling me he not like his work… not like to stand on stage…
Bangkokbois said:
Uh oh.
Sounds like university tuition is in your future!
Chalee said:
I am glad to read your blog again. I was missing it and those were sad days. Came back from Argentine and to find your blog again was a gift from paradaise. Thanks.
Bangkokbois said:
Thank you Chalee, glad to have you back reading again.