Posts Tagged Web Stuff
Have O2 Censored Your Website Certificate 18?
Posted by Jason Dale in Affiliate Marketing on March 2, 2011
A number of Loquax users have reported restricted access to Loquax.co.uk today by O2. When trying to access the site they were redirected to a holding page (as below) and told that the site that they had tried to visit is restricted to over 18s. In order to remove the protection they’ve either had to go in store or send in credit card details via an online service.
It’s an intriguing situation and one which begs the question is it right for one company to impose censorship on another? It’s not the first time we’ve experienced this kind of thing. Many “work censors” block access to Loquax under the “gaming” element.
Yet you can’t play games on Loquax.co.uk!
The only issue is that we do have channels for casino and bingo on the site – but to play you must go to another site. A bit like searching for “casino” on Google or popping over to MSN’s games channel or even following the links to “win prizes” on Daybreak – which has bingo links on it.
And guess what!
O2 don’t block any of the above! I can search for casinos on Google, join the bingo fun from the MSN games channel and be shown the links to Daybreak bingo as well from ITV’s website. If I can do all that, then why are O2 censoring Loquax?
I also checked some of the main bingo portals just to see how they’re treated. Interestingly Bingoport.co.uk and indeed most other sites of that ilk caused the Over 18s message to kick in, but WhichBingo.co.uk – the site that says it’s the “largest online bingo directory in the UK” didn’t! Of course all links out were censored.
Of course O2 will argue (as will some readers here) that they’re protecting their customers and it’s better to be on the safe side. But I like fair play – censor for one then censor for all. It’s hard enough to run a site and build a brand as it is without extra problems to deal with – like your users not being able to access your site.
So come on O2 – why the inconsistency and how do sites put forward their case that they are in essence only providing information for people online – the over 18s stuff is actually taking place on other sites outside our domain.
By the way, if you do get the censorship message you can unblock the restriction with your credit card. They’ll charge you £1 for the pleasure, but give you £2.50 back off your bill. Silver lining I guess!
Big Thanks to Ceratopia – From Tweet to Duck
Posted by Jason Dale in Affiliate Marketing on May 4, 2010
Earlier in the year I posted on twitter asking if anyone knew of a graphic designer. Our Loquax logo has been with us for a number of years. It was done in house and has served us well but we wanted to sharpen it up as well as bring a bit more character to the duck. In response to the tweet, another affiliate Darren Clasby suggested Ceratopia.
Simon Chadwick at Ceratopia took on the task of the transformation, with the understanding that the logo couldn’t change colour or deviate too much from the original version. Simon did a few roughs and managed to create the look we were after in his first few sketches.
All discussions with Ceratopia were via email and I have to say Simon was brilliant. He quickly picked up what we wanted and in almost all cases went above and beyond expectations. For example we asked Simon to produce some seasonal variations of the logo (e.g. Christmas etc). We expected something like we had done ourselves, but got something infinitely better.
St George’s Day…
St Patrick’s Day…
Other seasonal variations, duck expressions, twitter buttons, facebook buttons and various duck icons have also been designed.
All the work has been of a high standard and the cost reasonable too. We actually spent more than we expected as we kept adding to the initial order as we were impressed with the designs. As is we now have a high quality graphics set that can be used on site and also to create some Loquax branded items. Whilst we loved our old logo (and the old duck will remain in homage on OneLittleDuck) the new design and additions, we have, allow us a lot more options.
Any change on a community site, especially a logo, will be met with some protestations. We’ve done a forum upgrade before and matched colour schemes verbatim, and still got complaints about the colour changes we’d introduced!
Anyway, yes we did encounter a few people who immediately hated the new logo, but the general consensus was positive. The response to the seasonal variations has also been good. Many sites add a bit of frosting to their logos at Christmas, but few do anything else. We’ve found that it adds a bit of character to the site and is often appreciated by regular visitors.
All in all we’re really pleased with the design and also with Ceratopia. We have no hesitation in recommending Simon and his company (follow him on Twitter! So a massive thanks to them and also to Darren for the initial recommendation.
