www.asstr.org

[Siouxsie_XXX]

Just wondering if anyone knew that the massive story archive ASSTR went down, seems their IP decided they were in the censorship business and dropped the site, a true shame as such book burning hurts us all. I do wish the purveyor of ASSTR returns for that collection will be missed dearly by me.....

 

[Debbie]

Don't panic! LOL



"ETA for site return: Thursday, March 11, 2004"

"As many of you know, ASSTR has experienced numerous problems with its ISP over the past couple years. These problems have come without warning, legitimate explanations, apologies, or, to the best of our knowledge, corrective action.

For these reasons, we have decided to move ASSTR's equipment to a new ISP, which we would like to thank for hosting this page while ASSTR is unavailable. At this very moment, ASSTR's administrators are on a road trip to transport our three existing servers to their new home. We also have in tow two new servers that will improve site performance and allow us to add exciting new features. "

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Hmmm, I haven't checked out asstr.org in a while....

 

[GuyJD]

Didn't get the memo, Siouxsie? They sent out emails a few days ago
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Folks,

This is just a quick and final reminder that ASSTR will be going offline
this evening in preparation for a move to our new ISP. We expect to be back
online no later than Thursday, March 11.

The site has been updated to make users aware of the upcoming
unavailability, and we have arranged to have an interim site available that
has a message to make visitors aware of the situation.

The ASSTR Administration once again would like to thank all the donors who
made this move and site upgrade possible. We have acquired two new servers,
one of which will act as a firewall and mail processing machine. Over the
past few weeks, the high volume of virus-laden email received by ASSTR's
email server has brough our primary server to a crawl at times. The new
machine should greatly assist in mitigating such problems, so we are excited
to make immediate use of our available funding.

Anyone who wishes to make a contribution to ASSTR during our unavailability
can send a check, money order, or cash to:

ASSTR
PO Box 1151
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054-7151

Again, we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding and look forward
to a better, more reliable service at our new ISP.

- Rey del Sexo
ASSTR Administration

 

[SanDguy_22]

The last time i checked out ASSTR i put it on my computers
banned list.
Im all for free speech and such but eesh some of the stuff on there is border line illegal.

 

[GuyJD]

The last time i checked out ASSTR i put it on my computers
banned list.
Im all for free speech and such but eesh some of the stuff on there is border line illegal.

I agree San. Some of the stuff on there is as bad as Black Spectre was.

 

[Pookie]

I expect them to have it back up in a day or so, unless they have unexpected problems. They had emailed me back on Jan 24th that the site was being moved to a new isp. ASSTR is a wonderful service for authors that want to post erotic stories. It's run completely by donations. You don't have to deal with any ads, etc. while browsing the site.

As many of your know, for some time ASSTR (and many of its users) have been quite unsatisfied with the service (or lack thereof) given to us at our current ISP. The list of infractions is long, the frequency unacceptable, and the apologies and valid explanations non-existent. For these reasons, we have decided to terminate our business relationship with them and move on to greener pastures.

On Sunday, March 7, 2004 we will transport our servers to a new colocation (hosting) facility. During this time, all ASSTR services will be unavailable (mail, FTP, web). The transition is expected to take a few days, during which time we have arranged for an interim web page to be displayed for all ASSTR URL's explaining the situation for those who are not already aware.

For only $100/mo more than we currently pay ($900/mo total), we will receive our own 7 foot (42U) locked cabinet to securely store our equipment. This means we no longer will need to pay increased monthly fees to add additional equipment. We will also have a known cost for additional bandwidth, giving us the ability to make plans to purchase additional bandwidth based on ever increasing site usage.

We also plan to add two new servers to our arsenal during the transition, bringing the total to five. We will have a dedicated firewall/mail server, two web/FTP servers, a development server, and a backend/database server.

The new equipment will enhance site performance (particularly for dynamic content such as searches) and put ASSTR in a better position to provide some exciting new site features we've been planning for years. The firewall/mail server will help to make ASSTR more secure against hacking attempts and will increase the reliability of email. The development server will allow us to
more securely accept assistance from third parties on site development. We will also be able to test new versions of software without risk of affecting the production site.

We apologize for the inconvenience the downtime will cause but are confident in the understanding of our users for its necessity. It is our sincere belief and expectation that ASSTR will enjoy a healthy relationship with our new ISP for many years to come. While we can make no guarantees for circumstances beyond our control, we have full reason to believe the reliability of service at our new ISP will be significantly higher than at present.

We would like to thank again all of the people who have made a donation to ASSTR over the years. It is those donations that allow us to continue improving the site and afford a more expensive, but more reliable, Internet Service Provider. ...

 

[bknight2602]

I hope the service is better, there was way too many outages.

 

[The Heretic]

The last time i checked out ASSTR i put it on my computers
banned list.
Im all for free speech and such but eesh some of the stuff on there is border line illegal.

What would you consider "illegal" in a textual work of fiction? I can't think of anything.

Yeah, some of the stories get rather extreme, but I believe the best solution for those is to just not read them. Personally, I would rather have people writing those stories than acting them out - of course that doesn't mean they couldn't do both, but...

I like ASSTR. I think many of the stories here are superior, but it is not easy to download the stories here for offline reading. In fact, the stories here are not formatted for easy online reading. Erotic stories and images are for me masturbation fodder, and I usually don't masturbate at my computer desk, I masturbate in bed - so ASSTR stories better facilitate that need.

 

[Pookie]

The last time i checked out ASSTR i put it on my computers
banned list.
Im all for free speech and such but eesh some of the stuff on there is border line illegal.

As long as it's fiction, it's not illegal ... no matter what the story is about. Most authors at ASSTR post story codes for those that might not like reading stories with certain themes/fetishes.

There are some wonderful authors that post almost exclusively at ASSTR, because of the lack of advertising and rules on content. I enjoy the ability to control exactly how my stories and website appears. I don't have to wait days for an update to take place either. I just make it. Also, ASSTR seems to generate much more feedback for me as well.

 

[SanDguy_22]

well....

I was merely trying to imply that if any site contains "controversial materials"... child porn etc....
regardless of its context be it only stories and nothing more...
May incur a visitor to the site to be placed on a govt. list for
people needing further examination.


But then again that is merely a hypothetical situation.

thats one of the ways various govt agencies have gone about
orchestrading raids etc.
pick a site look at the IP adress list on the visitors there.
Your internet service provider will usualy happily give out that info to them.....
pick out a number of individuals who have the largest number of
"questionable" sites on their repertoire and voila get dirt on em.

Again that is only a hypothetical situation. (when it comes to "big brother" legality of investigative methodology has no real relavence to reality)

 

[Pookie]

Re: well....

I was merely trying to imply that if any site contains "controversial materials"... child porn etc....
regardless of its context be it only stories and nothing more...
May incur a visitor to the site to be placed on a govt. list for
people needing further examination.


But then again that is merely a hypothetical situation.

thats one of the ways various govt agencies have gone about
orchestrading raids etc.
pick a site look at the IP adress list on the visitors there.
Your internet service provider will usualy happily give out that info to them.....
pick out a number of individuals who have the largest number of
"questionable" sites on their repertoire and voila get dirt on em.

Again that is only a hypothetical situation. (when it comes to "big brother" legality of investigative methodology has no real relavence to reality)

I'm not aware of any "controversial materials" at ASSTR. There is no child pornography there. Fictional erotica is not illegal, and has been protected by a number of Court rulings. You have no more reason to be concerned about visiting ASSTR than you are Literotica.


Legal Definition of Child Pornography: An unprotected visual depiction of a minor child (federal age is under eighteen) engaged in actual or simulated sexual conduct, including a lewd or lascivious exhibition of the genitals. See New York v Ferber, 458 U.S. 747 (1982), Osborne v Ohio, 495 U.S. 103 (1990), U.S. v X-Citement Video, Inc., 115 S. Ct. 464 (1994). See also U.S. v Wiegand, 812 F.2d 1239 (9th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 856 (1987), U.S. v Knox, 32 F.3d 733 (3rd Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 897 (1995). Note: In 1996, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A was enacted and § 2256 was amended to include "child pornography" that consists of a visual depiction that "is or appears to be" of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. See Free Speech Coalition v Reno, No. C-97-0281 SC, judgment for defendants, Aug. 12, 1997, unpublished, 1997 WL 487758 (N.D.Cal 1997).

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Re: well....

I was merely trying to imply that if any site contains "controversial materials"... child porn etc....
regardless of its context be it only stories and nothing more...
May incur a visitor to the site to be placed on a govt. list for
people needing further examination.


But then again that is merely a hypothetical situation.

thats one of the ways various govt agencies have gone about
orchestrading raids etc.
pick a site look at the IP adress list on the visitors there.
Your internet service provider will usualy happily give out that info to them.....
pick out a number of individuals who have the largest number of
"questionable" sites on their repertoire and voila get dirt on em.

Again that is only a hypothetical situation. (when it comes to "big brother" legality of investigative methodology has no real relavence to reality)

They keep info about where you went under lock and key until you become a political thorn in someone's side, and then they unleash it in the form of a scandal.

 

[The Heretic]

Re: well....

I was merely trying to imply that if any site contains "controversial materials"... child porn etc....
regardless of its context be it only stories and nothing more...
May incur a visitor to the site to be placed on a govt. list for
people needing further examination.

If ASSTR is going to get you put on a list, then this site probably will too.

thats one of the ways various govt agencies have gone about
orchestrading raids etc.
pick a site look at the IP adress list on the visitors there.
Your internet service provider will usualy happily give out that info to them.....

Actually, most ISPs don't keep such info, it has to be collected upon request, and most ISPs will not let the FBI into their servers without a court order. Finally, for the most part, the government is not really interested in people perusing the web for porn, unless it is child porn. ASSTR does not contain any child porn that the government is really interested in (there are stories about children, but that is not illegal). The only reason the government would show interest would be if they came there on a tangent - i.e., some other lead brought them there, and if so, it would probably be for the authors not the readers.

Bear in mind that ASSTR is basically an archive of stories posted on newsgroups - you can't get much more in the open than a newsgroup, and you will find child porn there unfortunately.

 

[SanDguy_22]

The Heretic

those stiries are not illegal now... but just imagine if they sudenly would become illegal.

Oh and in adition to that...
the FBI etc need a court order if they want to use the evidence collected trough the aforementioned methods in a courtroom.

Hell ever see the movie 7.
The nice little scene about library records and how certain books are flagged.
It hapens be it legal or not.

 

[SanDguy_22]

Just think about all of the free speach violations that have come about with gw in office.
Just imagine about all of the other things his administration could bringabout if he gets an other term.

new laws and definitions can be introduced and voila the hypothetical situation is somehting else.

 

[Pookie]

The Heretic

those stiries are not illegal now... but just imagine if they sudenly would become illegal.

Oh and in adition to that...
the FBI etc need a court order if they want to use the evidence collected trough the aforementioned methods in a courtroom.

Hell ever see the movie 7.
The nice little scene about library records and how certain books are flagged.
It hapens be it legal or not.

If any form of fictional writing were to ever become illegal in any way, then surfing ASSTR or Literotica will be the very least of all our worries.

 

[SanDguy_22]

Pookie


Just think of how happy gw etc people would be... especialy
laywers and the people running prisons if the hypothetical situation i mentioned were to come out a reality.

 

[bknight2602]

Re: Re: well....

I'm not aware of any "controversial materials" at ASSTR. There is no child pornography there. Fictional erotica is not illegal, and has been protected by a number of Court rulings. You have no more reason to be concerned about visiting ASSTR than you are Literotica.


Legal Definition of Child Pornography: An unprotected visual depiction of a minor child (federal age is under eighteen) engaged in actual or simulated sexual conduct, including a lewd or lascivious exhibition of the genitals. See New York v Ferber, 458 U.S. 747 (1982), Osborne v Ohio, 495 U.S. 103 (1990), U.S. v X-Citement Video, Inc., 115 S. Ct. 464 (1994). See also U.S. v Wiegand, 812 F.2d 1239 (9th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 856 (1987), U.S. v Knox, 32 F.3d 733 (3rd Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 897 (1995). Note: In 1996, 18 U.S.C. ? 2252A was enacted and ? 2256 was amended to include "child pornography" that consists of a visual depiction that "is or appears to be" of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. See Free Speech Coalition v Reno, No. C-97-0281 SC, judgment for defendants, Aug. 12, 1997, unpublished, 1997 WL 487758 (N.D.Cal 1997).

Nice research Pookie.

 

[Pookie]

Pookie


Just think of how happy gw etc people would be... especialy
laywers and the people running prisons if the hypothetical situation i mentioned were to come out a reality.

Well ... I just don't see your hypothetical situation as being something that could realistically happen. It would require reversing a number of US Supreme Court decisions that protect fictional literature ... or an amendment to the US Constitution.

 

[Pookie]

Re: Re: Re: well....

Nice research Pookie.

Thanks.

 

[bknight2602]

Re: Re: Re: Re: well....

Thanks.

Now back to breakfast.

 

[SanDguy_22]

Pookie

Istn gw trying to get a constitutional amendment against gay marriages right now....
Which in it self is in violation of the constitution as well as a whole bunch of equal rights laws... etc.
Hell it can be argued that such an amendment would be in violation of the separation of church and state as well...


But thats an other issue... Im just saying that when nazies are in office anything is possible... regardless of its plausability...

My original point of it was mainly that if a site contains questionable material accessing it might get one red flagged...
kind of like getting the wrong batch of books from the library or saying the wrong words on the phone.

 

[beetlebum]

Siouxsie Sioux is my downtrodden goddess.

if you named yourself not after her, then excuse the waste of a perfectly good post

cheers and love.

 

[woody54]

The Heretic

those stiries are not illegal now... but just imagine if they sudenly would become illegal.

Oh and in adition to that...
the FBI etc need a court order if they want to use the evidence collected trough the aforementioned methods in a courtroom.

WWW stands for worldwide web.
If the US government pressures free speech on the internet as they did after 9/11, the website just needs to move offshore to a more enlightened country.
But dont be expecting any better deals on child porn