About This Site
Welcome to Disturbing Search Requests. If you're a visitor, you may want to read about this site. Also, if you have an old link to DSR, please update it to the new address. Thanks
kris said on 9/13/00; 3:19:16 PM:
Note: Many useful links can be found in the Directory. Also, here's information for members of the old site.This collaborative weblog is dedicated to misleading search requests. Various tools are available to analyze a website's readers, and where they came from.
This website serves the purpose to reflect upon the process of finding web sites by using search machines. If you write a weblog on a regular basis, chances are you're going to post quotes from other sites, opinions from other people etc. But since weblogs are highly linked to and from, they get indexed very well by search engines. So, even if you only once wrote about your hamster, and on the same day mentioned you were wearing a three piece suit, Google just might list you as the top result for 'hamster suit'. Now just imagine that you check your referrer logs and you find a query from a search engine, looking for 'hamster suit'. This is where this site kicks in.
How to
First, open the search page (the URL will be something like this), and check out what other material is available for the topic, and to which of your pages the search leads (the latter is often far from obvious).
Then, come to this site, sign up and post your disturbing search request.
Title: The Title must be the exact search query string. You may censor parts of it using an asterisk (*), but you shouldn't change the search URL. Please include any quotation marks that were used in the search request.
<i>In some cases, you might want to submit an entry that is not a search request per se. If you do that (and please don't do it too often), choose a title that seems appropriate and add "(not a search request)" in the title.</i>
URL: The URL must be that of the search query or whatever it was that you had in your referrer logs.
Description: The description field must contain a link to the found page on your site, or else it won't be funny for people who don't know your site yet. Writing 'top item of the list' is not enough. This is the web, things change.
How can you access referrer logs?
Most commercial providers have a log access feature included. Ask your ISP about where you can find your site logs. If you use a free webspace provider, like editthispage.com, you can still use a free log analysing tool. Check out the icons in the box at the bottom of every page. Click on one to check out how people found this site. You can get your own free log analyzer at StatCounter, Extreme, Site Meter or at a number of other places.
How do I add the log analyzer to my website or weblog?
Instructions for some sites can be found here.
How do I post to the site?
You can see a step by step guide to posting here.
How do I change my email address, name or website in my profile?
You can change your profile by going to the preferences page. You can also access the preferences page by clicking on your user name near the top of the page. Unfortunately, you cannot change your email address. You'll have to sign up again with your new address.
What is inappropriate to post on DSR?
You cannot post racist or homophobic comments, and you cannot solicit child porn. Also, you cannot post a searcher's IP address or any other information, no matter how disgusting their search was. DSR is for amusement, not punishment. However, as you may have noticed, there are no restrictions on what the search request is. We've never had to censor a legitimate DSR, though there have been some extremely offensive ones.
Why isn't my post working?
You should always preview your post before posting it to the homepage. Once it's posted to the homepage, only an admin can edit it. If something's wrong in the preview, check your code, especially links, that is usually the problem. Make sure that you use the "http://" part in links, otherwise Manila thinks it is a local link. Sometimes the search url may be bad. If the search url page gives an error page, go to the homepage of the search engine and enter the exact search string, and then find your site in the results. Manila also has some bugs, which may be the culprit. These are rare, but sometimes a post just won't work, even though everything appears to be right.
What tags can I use?
You can use bold, links, paragraphs and breaks (<b>, <a href> <p> and <br>). That's it. Don't use anything else or they'll show up as text and make you look silly. ;-)
Where's my post?
If you're search request didn't make it to the homepage, try looking for it in pending news items. There are multiple steps involved in posting a news item, and you may not have completed the process. If it's not in pending news items, see the next question. Your search request (news item) won't be posted to the home page until you press the 'Post to Home Page' button. When you post a DSR, the first button at the bottom is 'Create News Item.' Then, you press the 'Release' button. It is at the top, but the post changes button is at the bottom. Finally, you press the 'Post to Homepage' button.That button is right above the 'Title' box. The 'Post Changes' button is the one below the 'Description' box. If you just press the 'Post Changes' button, it will not go to the home page.
Why was my post edited or deleted?
Whenever possible, posts are edited to conform to the rules. Your post might be deleted if it was posted more than once, can't be salvaged or if it is inappropriate. A bonus of DSR participation is that more people may visit your site. However, you have to post a valid search request.
Why has my membership been blocked or deleted?
We don't block members for formatting problems, such as not including a link to your site. However, if you don't post legitimate search requests, post ads, child porn solicitations or racist comments, your membership will be blocked or deleted. Your postings will also be deleted or edited. Please play by the rules. If you have questions about why you were blocked, you may email an admin from the active list.
Am I receiving spam because I'm a DSR member?
It's possible, but probably not if you signed up after the winter of 2003. Manila was updated so that a member's email address is no longer visible. You should not get on any more lists since then, but you will still get spam from lists that you're already on. Unfortunately, deleting your account will make the spam problem much worse because your email address replaces your member name on all of your posts. Just in case, you might want to use a public address that can be discarded when there is too much spam. We prefer that use a legitimate address, though. Otherwise, we can't contact you if there's a problem.
Can search requests for commercial sites be posted?
Yes, but DSRs for commercial sites must be legitimate, of course. Also, they must be funny or disturbing in some way, as opposed to someone searching for "digital cameras," and finding a photography store. Finally, the comments have to be about the search request, not an advertisement.
Can search requests for private sites be posted?
No, the vast majority of your site must be viewable to the public. A few restricted pages would be okay, and you can restrict posting however you choose. One reason for this is that other DSR members would not have any context for the search request. Another, is that it makes it harder, sometimes impossible, for an admin to fix mistakes in your post. Finally, we need to know if your site is appropriate for DSR. For example, we don't allow racist or porn sites here.
Who pays for the site, and can we advertise on it?
DSR was hosted for free for several years by Userland. The site was moved after that was discontinued. The hosting fee is paid for by Kevin. We don't make any money on it. At this time, we do not accept advertising and don't plan to, but thanks for your interest. :-)
What was the first DSR?
Here is the first DSR. It was posted on 9/13/2000.
What happened to the posts between 6/22/04-7/17/04?
Unfortunately, these posts were lost in the move from weblogs.com to weblogger.com. The root was downloaded on 6/22, but there was a delay in the upload to weblogger.com, so posts on the old site after 6/22 were not transferred. No posts were lost in the move to our current host.
Are all edits by admins noted?
Fixes for code typos are longer noted, but they were in the past. Stuff like not including http will be because it isn't a mistype. Content edits will also be noted.
Nobody's posted for days, what's the deal?
Visitors and members who don't post their own search requests sometimes wonder why nobody is posting. Although there's many active and semi-active users, most don't post on a regular schedule. Our traffic, and therefore new member recruitment, has taken a big hit since the move and that's made it more noticeable. I know it's hard to satiate your Disturbing Search Request lust, but please try to be patient. If you have an additional reason to believe there's something wrong, please email an admin. In the meantime, I suggest you got to the archives, they're found at the bottom of the homepage. You can also check out Tasty Pirate's Lawn Pig.
What about people looking for children or child porn?
They're sick, but the only purpose of this site is to have fun. If you believe a child might be in danger, please contact the proper authorities and give them all the information you can. However, on this website, you may not post a searcher's name, alias, ip address or any information that could be used to identify him or her. You also may not post the url or link to a site that allows these things, such as vigilante sites. Law enforcement sites are okay, but again, that isn't DSR's purpose. Sometimes people comment on the location or ISP of a searcher. This is okay, as long as it isn't too specific. Besides distracting from the fun, there are other reasons to keep this information off DSR. First, it might not actually be a pedophile. As far as we know, they're just doing a search. It might be a policeman, someone doing research, a vigilante or a parent who is curious if child porn really is easily available online. If you posted the search request on DSR, it might even be a DSR admin who is verifying or fixing the post. Oftentimes we have to do the searches ourselves, even the most horrible ones, or go through the results pages, dozens of them if necessary. When the page is found, clicking on the link is the easiest way to get the correct url, since Google inserts spaces between some characters. So, DSR admins, or curious DSR visitors, have shown up on many members' logs as if another person was actually looking for what was searched. Another reason is that we don't want DSR to become a vigilante site. This would take away from the fun and might cause retaliation from the individuals identified. For these reasons, we ask that you not post this type of information.
What is your privacy policy?
DSR's privacy policy can be found here.
Who founded the site?
Sean and Kris founded DSR in September 2000. They came up with the idea and built the website. They also established the fundamental posting guidelines. Kevin is just the current maintainer. Adrian and Joe also helped out for a while.
Your friendly admins
Active
KevinRetired
Adrian
Joe
Kris (founder)
Sean (founder)
Tommy said on 1/17/01; 2:14:54 AM:
thanks
Mole said on 1/26/01; 9:43:02 AM:
I work for a weblog analysis company - so I have access to the referrers of a *lot* of important sites out there.For reasons of confidentiality, I can't disclose which sites these referrers were found in - but if I find any funny ones, I'll let you know and I can certainly tell you the TYPE of site (eg. financial, sports) that these referrers came to...
Gene Hedlund said on 2/11/01; 12:31:15 AM:
I hate to admit ignorance regarding your instructions, but in general, I am at sea. I will just attempt to avoid doing anything terifically stupid. I read about amihotornot in today's Spokane paper and thought it would be neat to paticipate in the fun. Being 64 and 10/12ths, I have no illusions about my status (10 to a Swedish or Russian farm woman, 1 01 1 1/2 to an American chick. And probably 6 to 7 to my wife of 38 years.) Anyway, I think it'll be fun, and here I am.
Sean said on 2/11/01; 1:58:00 AM:
Err, Gene, this is not Amihotornot, this is Disturbing Search Requests. There's actually a difference here :-)Sean
Liam Draper said on 4/23/01; 11:08:39 AM:
Kris wot r u doin on this site man , give me a ring on this number and we can hook Tel:-07946663959
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