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07/20/2007
Focus on the meta tags -- AGAIN!
So longtime reader might remember that back in November of 2005, we discovered that Focus on the Family was running some VERY offensive keyword "meta tags" to direct traffic to their spin-off site, TroubledWith.com. This was the screen cap we took of those tags at the time of the '05 discovery:
Well, after our story came out, Focus on the Family removed the tags. This is the explanation that was emailed to us at the time:
Now at the time, this response really annoyed us. After all, while it's true that "meta tags" are intended to direct traffic, if one is using terms like "fag," "flamer," and "dyke," then it is more than fair to assume that they are trying to draw in the kinds of folks who use those terms. And considering their "Troubled With" site is all about "curing" homosexuality, we were VERY disturbed that they were aiming to draw in support from raging homophobes. However, since they changed their meta tags, we felt slightly victorious and let the matter subside.
Well, today we ventured over to "Troubled With" to see what's been going on in the past 1.5 years. And wanting to ensure that their coding was "fag, flamer, dyke"-free, we decided to check out the page source for the "Homosexuality" section of the site. Imagine our surprise when this came up:
Yes, my friends, not only are the using the terms "fag," "flamer," and "dyke," but they made a deliberate choice to RE-INCLUDE them after removing they'd already been removed!!!!! What, did they see their traffic drop and needed to re-energize the epithet-spewers among us to reach their quota? UNBELIEVABLE
We are writing FOF once again; stay tuned.
"Homosexuality" section [TroubledWith.com]
(If you don't know how to see the "meta tags," just go to the site and click "View > Page Source" in FireFox; "View > Source" in IE; or "View > View Source" in Safari)
***BACKSTORY: Focus on the Mata Tags[G-A-Y]
UPDATE: Focus on the Mata Tags [G-A-Y]
***RELATED: A reader has sent us their own idea for a "Troubled With"-like site (pdf)
Your thoughts
I guess if you are appealing to Dobson's crowd, you have to use terms they understand. "Homosexuality" has seven syllables, which can be taxing if your IQ is equal to your foot size.
Posted by: Tom Scharbach | Jul 20, 2007 6:12:21 PM
Thank you for this.
Of course it's also the tag on all their international sites.
Posted by: Bene D | Jul 23, 2007 12:45:10 AM
Hmm... isn't it strange that they choose to include again the meta tag "affeminate" as "effeminiate"? I do believe they simply didn't remove the metas at all.
Posted by: Juan | Jul 28, 2007 9:56:25 PM
I just checked to see if there had been changes.
Fotf main site is down. Fotf Canada is up and Fotf redirected to their online resource centre (products)
Family org was also borked. The online redirect to Focal organization site is not loadeding.
Fotf Canada TroubledWith.com is not accessible. All other parts of the site are.
So, is something going one? Would you check. I'll check the Canadian site again and the Family.org which is their international site. I'd appreciate you checking it also.
Again, what's going on with Fotf?
I did not hear back from the Canadian affilaite btw.
http://www.benedictionblogson.com/?p=3280
Thanks Blog on!
Posted by: Bene D | Aug 2, 2007 6:12:02 AM
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