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Person_Man
2009-09-15, 12:12 PM
My job has recently expanded it's use of Websense, which is a program that blocks 90% of the interesting websites out there. It's a very capricious programs, which I don't fully understand. 90% of the interesting web sites, including every gaming site and forum I used to lurk on, is now blocked. Except for this one. It's weird, I know.

I don't really begrudge my employers their right to strangle my internet access down to whatever they like. Most days I rarely spend more then my lunch hour surfing the net anyway. But there are some days (particularly around the upcoming holidays) where I have very little to do except poke around, and I miss my unfettered ability to read up on D&D at realmshelp or crystalkeep or the WotC site or forums.

So I was wondering what websites you frequent, particularly websites about roleplaying or d20 games, and why you like them. (Feel free to pimp your own personal work as well). Maybe you can help me find a few that aren't blocked. Thanks in advance.

BooNL
2009-09-15, 12:31 PM
It's the same at my company. I don't overly mind either, I'm payed to work, not to play DnD.

I usually have GiantITP open on another browser though and check in every half a hour or so. It helps me get my mind off things and get my focus back.

That said, there's one SRD website I found that Websense hasn't blocked. Try googling for Realmspire SRD, I think that's what it's called.

Meek
2009-09-15, 03:43 PM
The absolute best web site on the internet, in my opinion, for RPGs is the RPG Blogger's Network (http://www.rpgbloggers.com/). Why? Because it's just a massive list of blog posts from hundreds of blogs each catering to their own flavors of RPG. There's blogs with information, homebrew and news of every type you can imagine. You can either read everything that pops up on the main list and taste some new flavors, or you can look through the categories for just what you want.

I have my own blog there which I cover 4e and write my homebrew setting in. It's in my signature.

I use Myth-Weavers (http://www.myth-weavers.com/) for play-by-post, because it has a good community and some of the downright most excellent play-by-post tools and framework I have ever seen. Spiffy sheets, personal forums for your games, game ads, etc.

Person_Man
2009-09-16, 12:34 PM
Thanks for the tips.

Realmspire isn't blocked for me either. It's nice to finally be able to access the SRD again. Neither is Myth Weaver. Maybe I should find a play by post game.

Unfortunately, rpgbloggers is blocked. I wish I knew why. I bet there's some key words or something that Websense is picking up on, that could easily be removed.

Any other suggestions?

Yukitsu
2009-09-16, 12:36 PM
I tend to just go here now, as well as a variety of warhammer websights. I used to spend time on wizards in character op before the edition change made navigation irritating.

Meek
2009-09-16, 12:36 PM
Ouch. Hmm. I'm honestly pretty stumped about this. I'm trying to see what other sites I go to regularly for RPG news, but RPGBN usually was it.

Keld Denar
2009-09-16, 12:45 PM
Person_Man, I feel your pain. The client I work for (who owns EVERYTHING I touch, including most of the clothes I wear) has websense. Whats worse is that at least you can go home after work and troll. I LIVE at work when I'm on shift, so I can't even get to fun stuff outside of normal business hours. Its annoying. If I couldn't get to gitp at work, I'd go crazy during my 12-15 hour days.

I've heard there are websites that host other websites that can get through software like websense, but I've never experienced them.

Luckily, I keep all my reference material on a flash drive, and gitp and myth-weavers still work. Its just sad.

valadil
2009-09-16, 01:13 PM
This is my favorite. Gnome-stew has some great articles, but I found the community interaction to be lacking. Other than that, I get gaming info from reddit, which is probably blocked. My own blog (see sig) also comes highly recommended :-D

Can you access google? How about google reader? If you can get to that, why not use it to subscribe to a few other sites you like to read? Your job will probably block images, but the text will be coming from google so it might work. Websense or no, I recommend google reader to nearly everyone who reads stuff online.

Thajocoth
2009-09-16, 01:31 PM
That really sucks. I hope nowhere I work ever does that... Doing nothing at all while waiting for code to compile instead would suck.

random11
2009-09-16, 03:56 PM
That really sucks. I hope nowhere I work ever does that... Doing nothing at all while waiting for code to compile instead would suck.

Looks cool on XKCD :smallbiggrin:

http://xkcd.com/303/

Person_Man
2009-09-17, 09:35 AM
Thanks for all the tips everyone. Unfortunately, rpgnews is blocked. Gnome-stew is blocked. Sagotsky's blog works (which is great but odd, since most other blogs are blocked). I'm figuring out Google Reader, which seems to work for news sites, but is useless for forums. While Googling other sites to see if they worked, I discovered critical-hits.com, which works.

Anywho, please keep the good advice coming. Also, if any tech geeks know how Websense works, please explain it to me. Again, I have no desire to hack or bypass my employee's website rules. I'd just like to know what they are.

AslanCross
2009-09-17, 09:41 AM
I only really read GITP, which thankfully is Graylisted at work (Likely because our MIS guy reads OOTS). Early in the morning, when I arrive, it's up, but it goes down until lunch break. The Graylist goes back up from 12 noon to 1 pm, and then goes down again until 5 pm. I'm only at work until 12:30 pm anyway, so it's all good.