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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:45 am 
 

This is the first time I've seen this happen on here, and unfortunately, I don't know where to post this. So I'm making a thread about it.

I haven't been able to access this site through normal means for the better part of two days now. From what I remember, this wasn't the case until at least the 11th or 12th of April. For every page on the site I try to open, I get some loading time, and then get booted out with an "ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED" error.

Initially I figured it was just unscheduled downtime. However, after a quick search, things turned out to be very different. The site still shows up in search results just fine, the links are still valid. I start looking for forum discussions on the topic, and a few dudes voice the opinion that it got censored (that is, blocked in our wonderful country). As I am currently using a proxy to browse this site (through Tor Browser), and some people have attested to successfully accessing this site via browser extensions, and I can clearly see forum posts dated the current day, I find this believable.

Curious, I open the official Russian registry of blocked sites and... "metal-archives.com" is apparently in there, and has been there for the better part of THREE YEARS. Except... it is blocked in a completely different part of the country from where I live! Then, I found that a similar site called spirit-of-metal.com is similarly inaccessible, and apparently has been for multiple years now... and yet is not in said registry! Nani the fuck?

I did look at the official documents and laws pertaining to this sort of thing, and am sure that this site satisfies none of the given criteria to be blocked in Russia. It's not even done by the ISP in this case, it just barfs up a browser error. Our government's organization responsible for such things, "Roskomnadzor", has in fact made many... questionable decisions (to put it very lightly) to block innocent sites, but this is the first time I've seen it get this petty. I can understand blocking piracy sites, anti-government propaganda, extremist materials and things like that, but a database of metal bands? Why even?

I am not addressing this to anyone in particular, just letting people know this for... reasons. I'm sorry if I'm behaving improperly for making this thread. It's all too common for us to rage at the idiocy of others, I can't help it.
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:35 pm 
 

Sorry to hear about that, man. This Roskomnadzor has been sending me emails for years about one page or another being objectionable, and that they're gonna block... I'm not sure, either the page in question or the whole site. The English translation is spotty. But I guess they finally did it, huh? At first, I tried to comply with their demands and make certain pages inaccessible from Russia, but 1) they didn't seem to care, and 2) there was just no end to the number of pages they wanted to get rid of.

It seems they mostly have an issue with NS bands being listed on the site, which uh... sure, Russian government, you're champions of human rights. :roll: And that's completely ignoring the fact that many people use the information about NS bands to know what to avoid.

Oh well, there's not much that we can do, I suppose. Sorry to our Russian users for the inconvenience. Spread the word to use a proxy or Tor.

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:17 am 
 

Regarding NS bands: our country has had one of the roughest times battling the Nazis during WWII, so, needless to say, the mere mention of the ideology is liable to get you in trouble. Regarding Russian laws, the specific article does state that hosting extremist content is a criteria to block something. I still think it's bullshit, since this site simply lists such bands in an encyclopedic fashion without supporting them in any way or taking any pro-Nazi stance. Since this site got blocked anyway, I can assume one of two things:

1) They are playing it safe and being very protective, not taking any chances.
2) They are lazy assholes who cannot be bothered to look further into such matters. Considering they apparently ignored your attempts to comply with their demands, I find this much closer to the truth. Blocking Nazi-related content is part of their job description, and by god they need to get paid for what they do.

As of right now, this site is still inaccessible without a proxy. I would hope for this to change soon, but considering their track record, I don't think that's happening. I didn't even find anything specific regarding why it was blocked on this specific day or anything.

Moral: you wanna browse the web like a free man, get a proxy or a VPN immediately. And most of the good ones don't come cheap. It's the way of the world.
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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LordSeth MMT
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:12 am
Posts: 7
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 3:49 am 
 

Also thought to open a similar branch.
Well, we are ready to this approach of our state authorities.
Just have found the list of changes applied on Roscomnadzor site from 12-04-2021 (in Russian, but hope it is clear without translation):
https://reestr.rublacklist.net/search/? ... chives.com

As I see for today, almost all main providers in Russia have blocked MA.
Bad luck :(

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:57 am 
 

Wha... Those are only a few specific pages on here, and yet they blocked the entire domain - without even leaving it up to the Internet providers. It doesn't redirect you to a banner dictating that the site was blocked, it just throws up an error for accessing the site. I don't get it.
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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Lunatic_Asylum
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 10:50 pm
Posts: 37
PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 5:40 am 
 

I have taken some time to research the conundrum with the predicament as well: indeed, for an unknown reason the Web site has been blocked in Russia; and in order to unblock it, according to their local censorship agency, the Web-site owner has to contact Roskomnadzor and Internet-service providers guilty in limiting access to the freedom of speech with a request to lift the unjust ban. On paper, Russia has complete freedom of speech and has no right to demand any band to be taken down only because it deals with a political party or anything other than that. You were correct in not complying with their unlawful threats, as they are inconsistent with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The main e-mail address for enquiries regarding lifting censorship:
[email protected]

One of the Internet-service providers that have been blocking the Web site is MTS.
Below one can find their e-mail address:
[email protected]

Here is the sample letter (forgive my Google Translate):
"
Уважаемые господа!

Прошу вас рассмотреть возможность разблокировки нашего ресурса, расположенного по адресу metal-archives.com, не содержащего информации, которая могла бы нарушать какую-либо статью Конституции РФ. Причина блокировки не выяснена, но явно ошибочная. Значительный поток трафика из Российской Федерации снизился, и пользователи жалуются на недоступность информационного ресурса.

****YOU MAY ADD IT HERE if you want to know what article of Russian Constitution has been violated; otherwise, leave it out:
Если какая-либо страница явно нарушает конституцию РФ, то, пожалуйста, сообщите о странице с указанием статьи в Конституции.
****

К сожалению, я не говорю по-русски и по этой причине прошу вас прислать ответ на английском.

Заранее благодарю вас за рассмотрение заявки!

С уважением,
[here goes your name]
[here goes your position in affiliation with metal-archives.com]
metal-archives.com
"



Some information is contained herein:
https://dzone.com/articles/three-reason ... rn-c-today

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HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun May 23, 2021 10:12 pm 
 

Lunatic_Asylum wrote:
Some information is contained herein:
https://dzone.com/articles/three-reason ... rn-c-today


Well, that link says it's pointless to try to reason with them... But anyway, I still tried sending an email similar to what you suggested, and didn't hear anything back as of yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 20, 2021 12:20 am 
 

Four months now and it's still like this. Did they respond at all?
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 3:33 pm 
 

Gas_Snake wrote:
Four months now and it's still like this. Did they respond at all?


Not a word.

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:52 am 
 

Oh well, we have VPN's. I use Windscribe (https://windscribe.com/), easy to set up and you get 10GB/month for free with very good consistency (I only need it for a few specific sites, it's more than enough).
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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 Profile  
Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:43 pm 
 

PPPFFFTTTTHAAAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHOOHAAHEEHEEHUYAY "coughcoughohgod"

Okay, so, you see: turns out that while the main site cannot be accessed normally without Tor (the powers that are have been successfully nullifying VPN's for a while now), I can access the forum just fine, because it is a different domain name and it is separate from the main site, hence the forums are not blocked. That said, I can recall that they used to be blocked along with the main site for a long while after the ban came, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

dudududun-du~du-dutudu "insert final fantasy victory jingle here for rejoicing"
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

Top
 Profile  
HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 3:11 am 
 

Gas_Snake wrote:
PPPFFFTTTTHAAAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHOOHAAHEEHEEHUYAY "coughcoughohgod"

Okay, so, you see: turns out that while the main site cannot be accessed normally without Tor (the powers that are have been successfully nullifying VPN's for a while now), I can access the forum just fine, because it is a different domain name and it is separate from the main site, hence the forums are not blocked. That said, I can recall that they used to be blocked along with the main site for a long while after the ban came, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

dudududun-du~du-dutudu "insert final fantasy victory jingle here for rejoicing"


You should be able to use https://cats.metal-archives.com ... which is the superior version of the site, anyway. ;)

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 5:48 am 
 

That works for me, thank you very much!
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

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Forever Underground
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:35 am
Posts: 1137
Location: Galiza
PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 7:53 pm 
 

Hello, I'm having the same problem as Gas_Snake mentioned, the site just won't load and it's impossible for me to access it, any idea why this might be happening?
_________________
MetlaNZ wrote:
As I write this I'm mentally body slamming an innocent old lady walking down the street like that dude from Scatterbrain.

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Forever Underground
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:35 am
Posts: 1137
Location: Galiza
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:46 am 
 

HellBlazer wrote:
You should be able to use https://cats.metal-archives.com ... which is the superior version of the site, anyway. ;)

I'm actually using this version but for some reason it won't load a single image.
_________________
MetlaNZ wrote:
As I write this I'm mentally body slamming an innocent old lady walking down the street like that dude from Scatterbrain.

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Forever Underground
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:35 am
Posts: 1137
Location: Galiza
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 3:31 pm 
 

Ok, it was something very strange and there was really no reason for it not to work, but it was more than 24 hours, but it has fixed itself.
_________________
MetlaNZ wrote:
As I write this I'm mentally body slamming an innocent old lady walking down the street like that dude from Scatterbrain.

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:07 am 
 

Actually, it's not loading any images for me too, but that's probably because they're all on the regular metal-archives.com domain, which is all blocked. If I open the site in Tor, it shows the images just fine, so yeah I'm not sure if it's possible to do anything about that.
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

Top
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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2023 4:31 pm 
 

And now the main version appears to be working again. Yay? I guess?
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

Top
 Profile  
HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 1:09 am 
 

Gas_Snake wrote:
And now the main version appears to be working again. Yay? I guess?


Oh? Has it been unbanned?

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Gas_Snake
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:07 am
Posts: 161
Location: Russia
PostPosted: Thu Oct 19, 2023 12:40 pm 
 

Sometimes it has trouble loading still, but most of the time it works, and all of the images like band photos and album covers show up fine. So yes, pretty sure they unbanned it.
_________________
TheBurningOfSodom wrote:
... stop laying the blame on me alone, as next time I see you calling out my name in public just to vent your frustration, as if I were some sort of second coming of Stalin, I might stop being so polite and I might even tell you where to put your Philosophy degree.

Top
 Profile  
HellBlazer
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:48 am
Posts: 2119
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2023 11:46 am 
 

Good news! I wonder what caused that.

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