Analysis of first 50 URL's blocked by X-Stop in the .edu domain

This analysis was done on a copy of X-Stop's list of "obscene" sites that was current as of January 17, 2000.

The totals for each category were:

Obvious errors: 24 sites -- 48%
Marginal errors: 10 sites -- 20%
Not errors: 16 sites -- 32%

Total error rate:
68%

We extracted URL's in the .edu domain from X-Stop's list of "obscene" sites using a perl script. Of those .edu sites, we looked at the first 50 URL's that were not giving errors ("404 not found", "403 forbidden", empty directory, or server not responding).

X-Stop's criteria for blocking a site state that:

Our proprietary automated MudCrawler searches out pornography and other types of sites on the Internet using 44 criteria that we have found to reveal almost all such sites. Those sites not fitting perfectly are viewed by our "MudCrawler" technicians for a final decision.

After looking at the first 50 working URL's on the list, we classified them as one of the following:

Obvious error -- no reviewer who actually visited the site could possibly have classified it as "obscene".
Marginal error -- the site contains some material, such as nude photography taken for an art class, that does not meet X-Stop's blocking criteria. However, it not completely implausible that a human reviewer might have visited the site and decided to block it.
Not an error -- contains some material that meets X-Stop's criteria.

URL: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jepsy/	Result: Obvious error
Site has moved to http://members.xoom.com/jepsy/. "Laura's Fishbowl". Links to (inoffensive) jokes and pictures of friends.
URL: http://comp.uark.edu/~apomtree/	Result: Not an error
"Pictures" section includes a link to a site labeled "Beautiful Women" with "porn69" in the URL. That site has since been closed down, but X-Stop gets the benefit of the doubt here.
URL: http://comp.uark.edu/~sls04/	Result: Obvious error
"Susan's Refuge". A normal student home page with nothing offensive, not even in the links section, which consists mostly of links to friends' pages.
URL: http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~magness/	Result: Obvious error
"David Magness's home page". Nothing offensive on the site. One of the links on the page is to the Daily Babe site, but even this site only has pictures of swimsuit and lingerie models.
URL: http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~aaharris/stories/	Result: Obvious error
Links to stories and jokes. Some files probably violate the author's copyright, but even the jokes with "sex" in the title are not offensive.
URL: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~abb5347/	Result: Not an error
Includes the subdirectory http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~abb5347/ERA which redirects to http://www.erotica-readers.com
URL: http://grendel.csc.smith.edu/~whang/page/	Result: Marginal error
The main page includes a graphic of an anime cartoon character in revealing clothing -- not pornographic, but possibly could have offended one of X-Stop's professional reviewers.
URL: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jcallah2/	Result: Not an error
Includes some nude photographs of Jenny McCarthy.
URL: http://nabiki.newberry.edu/sstalker/webrings/	Result: Obvious error
The directory http://nabiki.newberry.edu/sstalker/webrings/ is not accessible, but the rest of the site obviously contains no offensive content.
URL: http://nimbus.ocis.temple.edu/~greitz/	Result: Obvious error
A site that a student at Temple University put up about his jewelry business.
URL: http://orathost.cfa.ilstu.edu/~guither/	Result: Marginal error
Reviewed as a "must-see" site by Excite. This page includes some "Light and Shadow" photographs, some of which contain nudity, but nothing that could possibly be considered pornographic. (Most body parts are not even visible in most of the photos.)
URL: http://orion.neiu.edu/~ldlugosz/	Result: Not an error
Includes a picture gallery which contains some pornographic images.
URL: http://pages.poly.edu/~rphelp01/	Result: Obvious error
This page contains a section labeled "Beautiful Women Links", which includes a "warning" that says: "These links contain Women of color (Majority African American) and no nudity...If you are disappointed Bounce!!" Apparently X-Stop's "MudCrawler" was confused by the "warning" text.
URL (group of four consecutive URL's): http://php.iupui.edu/~jewest/cat/author.x.htm http://php.iupui.edu/~jewest/cat/meta.x.htm http://php.iupui.edu/~jewest/cat/text.x.htm http://php.iupui.edu/~jewest/cat/text.x.html	Result: Not an error
Includes some adult story links.
URL: http://php.iupui.edu/~llauray/	Result: Obvious error
Includes some a section of links labeled "Beautiful Women", but nothing pornographic.
URL: http://php.iupui.edu/~scmccubb/pics/	Result: Not an error
Includes some relatively tame "bondage" pictures.
URL: http://pilot.msu.edu/~kenned57/	Result: Obvious error
The page now consists of a form to download a large binary file. But the author's email address was available; he said that when the page was active, it contained "my card counting system, gun control views, and a bunch of recipes for brewing beer". Possibly offensive to some, but not as "pornography".
URL: http://pubweb.nwu.edu/~flip/dirty/	Result: Marginal error
Includes a Filipino swear word dictionary that lists the English translations, but nothing pornographic.
URL: http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~qhoang/!/	Result: Not an error
Includes some pornographic pictures.
URL: http://stuweb.ee.mtu.edu/~jejanowi/	Result: Obvious error
Redirects to http://www.stryke.com/, home of Lightning Computer. Nothing remotely offensive.
URL: http://tempest.ece.uiuc.edu/~rezula/	Result: Marginal error
The page says, "This background picture is of Steven Segal [sic] and his daughter from his first marriage. It is one of the most incriminating and shocking photos I've ever seen." This is obviously played for laughs; the photo shows Steven hugging his daughter with his hands accidentally placed on her chest. Possibly offensive to some prudes, but not pornographic. The page also includes pictures of Vanessa Paradis, but nothing pornographic.
URL: http://thunder.temple.edu/~cbiehl/	Result: Obvious error
Home page of a teaching assistant at Temple University, with no offensive content.
URL: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~nudists/	Result: Marginal error
X-Stop's "MudCrawler" probably added this to the list partly due to the word "nudists" in the URL. This is the "Longhorn Nudists" home page, and there are some photos on the page, but none that show any actual frontal nudity.
URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~ryoshida/	Result: Obvious error
Now located at http://students.washington.edu/ryoshida/. Includes some pictures of Sung Hi Lee, a famous Korean model, but none of the pictures contain any nudity.
URL: http://webpages.marshall.edu/~jarvis1/	Result: Obvious error
A page where you can enter a contest to win a boat. Possibly X-Stop's MudCrawler was confused by the phrase on the rules saying you had to be "18 years or older" to enter the drawing.
URL: http://wsrv.clas.virginia.edu/~yay5h/other_pages/	Result: Obvious error
The "other_pages" directory no longer exists, but the main page, at "Yuli Yeliseyev and his resume", is maintained by a Russian student at the University of Virginia.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~airyn/	Result: Marginal error
Includes a "disclaimer" that says, "I'm pleased to say that a large, conservative organization considers my site a complete abomination because it contains a photo of 'a bare breast'," which I couldn't find. The author says the page does contain some "foul language and sexual content", but no pornography.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~arzak/	Result: Obvious error
Includes photographs of volleyball star Gabi Reece, but nothing pornographic.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~brubaker/images.html	Result: Not an error
Includes some pictures in the image gallery that contain some nudity even though the pictures were put there for humor value.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gregs/homepage/	Result: Obvious error
Site has moved to http://members.aol.com/CutieGymBoy/. The site contains no nudity (and AOL will not host anything pornographic anyway) but the page is maintained by a gay model, which might be how it got blocked by X-Stop.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~juliat/	Result: Not an error
The page itself contains no offensive content, but the author of the page said in an email that it used to contain links to pornographic sites.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrwizard/	Result: Marginal error
Includes links to some nude photographs, but nothing that could be considered pornographic.
URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~tr2z/	Result: Not an error
Includes some links to pornography.
URL: http://www.cmpharm.ucsf.edu/~troyer/safesex/	Result: Obvious error
The famous and award-winning "Safer Sex Page", now located at http://www.safersex.org/.
URL: http://www.columbia.edu/~nss22/	Result: Not an error
Has been relocated to the Celebrity Vixens site.
URL: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~nifty/	Result: Obvious error
A page consisting almost entirely of links -- nothing that meets X-Stop's criteria, but includes a link to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which might have offended one of the reviewers at X-Stop.
URL: http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/~jrs1/pictures/playboy/	Result: Not an error
Includes some pornographic pictures, presumably scanned in from Playboy.
URL: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~safari/	Result: Not an error
Includes some links to gay pornography.
URL: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~sandyl/	Result: Not an error
Includes some nudity and an over-21 warning.
URL: http://www.csupomona.edu/~sbarrios/	Result: Obvious error
Ads for some commercial services (like "get paid to surf the Web") but no offensive ads or links to adult sites in the personal links section.
URL: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~keisha/	Result: Not an error
This includes some erotic stories under "Naughty stuff", even though they read as humor.
URL: http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/~jcline/sexo/	Result: Marginal error
Site has moved to http://users.lycaeum.org/~jc/sexo.html. A FAQ about sexual practices and safe sex; clearly written for information value and not as an erotic text, but it could have offended a reviewer at X-Stop.
URL: http://www.eecs.uic.edu/~tj/	Result: Obvious error
Maintained by a computer graphics consultant at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
URL: http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~jp377589/	Result: Marginal error
Main page includes a graphic that shows two cartoon characters in revealing clothing, but nothing pornographic. The rest of the page is a normal student home page.
URL: http://www.georgetown.edu/users/parsonjf/	Result: Marginal error
Contains some essays on pornography and censorship and hardly any actual graphics, but does link to another site maintained by a nude model.
URL: http://www.muc.muohio.edu/~pandora/	Result: Not an error
"Let's Talk Deviance" -- includes some "questions and answers" on subjects like bestiality and necrophilia.
URL: http://www.public.asu.edu/~ispawn/	Result: Obvious error
"Xtinct Design Studios" -- a page advertising a professional-quality Web site design service.
URL: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~eliuhong/	Result: Obvious error
"Mimi's home page" -- A home page for a two-year-old girl, maintained by her father, last modified in 1996.
URL: http://www.slis.ua.edu/ba/pbi.html	Result: Obvious error
Home page for the "Paper and Book Initiative", apparently an annual arts-and-crafts conference.
URL: http://www.smu.edu/~jdlarsen/	Result: Obvious error
A student home page (last modified in 1996) with links to wakeboarding information.