Every now and then we have to stand up for what is right. Recently, I had an experience that gave me pause as I struggled to fully understand what had just transpired. Like most people of my generation, The Baby Boomers, I tend to trust that the human nature of my peers is honorable. With experience gained through travel and living in general, I consider myself to be well rounded, grounded and liberal minded. That is why the following episode took
me by surprise.
In December of 1996, after watching my pals express themselves so beautifully by creating webpages, I became motivated. With the assistance and advice of some generous friends "The Official Jewish American Princess Home Page"was born. Through contributions received from both dear friends and total strangers the webpage has rapidly grown. The pride felt in creating something that is being enjoyed by others led me to want to spread the word even farther. Knowing that additional exposure would have to come from search engines, links and other methods; I set out to discover ways to share what I thought was a humorous send-up of my personal heritage.
In early January of 1997, I discovered the Link Exchange. This appeared to be the perfect solution to my quest for the free advertising of what had truly become a community effort and labor of love. After carefully reading their extensive documentation, I signed on to become a Link Exchange member and begin accruing points towards ad credits. Being impressed by their seemingly professional mode of operation, I put my trust into their methods.
One of the requirements of the Link Exchange is that members must submit a 400 x 40 pixels, no larger than 7 kb, GIF formatted banner to be displayed on other member's pages as links. This presented a problem, as my artistic abilities are non-existent. The desire to get as much exposure for the now nicknamed "J.A.P. Page" was becoming intense. I tried all the available avenues to achieve this goal. Finally, after much frustration, I managed to come up with an acceptable banner within the guidelines set by the powers that be at Link Exchange. Once submitted, providing it met all listed specifications, my banner would begin to be displayed on random sites within 72 hours. My dear friends and I waited to see whether this mode of advertisement would secure more cherished "hits" as new guests came to enjoy the site we had created.
Several days passed and no response. Finally one evening I received the following:
Dear Member:
Thank you for
your interest in joining LinkExchange. Unfortunately,
we are not able
to accept your banner into our network at this time.
We feel that
a large portion of our members would find its content
inappropriate
and would object to having the banner displayed on their site.
Our assessment
is based on past experience and not personal bias.
For more information
about our banner policies, please consult our
"Terms and Conditions"
located at:
http://www.linkexchange.com/join.html
Thank you for
your understanding. Please consider redesigning and
resumbitting
your banner.
Please do not
respond to this message.
Banner Administration
Department
-------------------------------------------------------------------
LinkExchange
Questions/comments
----> admin@linkexchange.com
In truth, I was flabbergasted. I knew the minute I read it that the banner in question contained only one word that could have been considered offensive, "Jewish!" My heritage was considered to be "inappropriate content!" After sending out copies of the E-mail received to friends, I read the "Terms and Conditions" one last time and decided to give it another try. After all, the Link Exchange was concerned with my choices of what types of banners they would display on my page. They professed to have chosen to not display ads for questionable or pornographic sites. Maybe, that was it . . . general concern.
So, one more time, I sat down and with advice and assistance came up with a dozen banners that did not contain the word "Jewish." None were the least bit descriptive and most were of poor quality. One dear pal, who has also generously allowed space on his page for my verbal venting, sent me the banner you see displayed below to submit. It was perfect.
I converted it from JPG to GIF format and rushed to post it with the Link Exchange so I could start using some of those credits that I had accrued since becoming a member. Within hours I received this response:
Hi,
We are unable
to process any banners over the 7k, (7168 bytes)
limit.
Please review the file size of your image and make any
changes necessary
to meet this requirement.
For your convenience,
I've included and excerpt from our faq stating
the requirements
for banners.
* Banners must
be in a GIF format. No Jpegs or other formats will be accepted.
* Banners must
be under 7k, (7168 bytes).
* Banners must
be 400x40 pixels.
* Banners can
not be animated GIFs.
* Banners can
not be transparent GIFs.
You can also
find a complete list of these requirements on our faq page.
http://www.linkexchange.com/faq.html
You can verify
the file size by typing "dir" at the DOS prompt (PC),
or select "get
info" from the file menu (MAC).
If you are unable
to create a GIF to meet these conditions, please check
out our "Free
Banner Creation Service" at
http://www.linkexchange.com/
Please do not
reply to this mail.
Sincerely,
Banner Administration
Dept.
Internet Link
Exchange
Questions/comments
----> admin@linkexchange.com
Oops, my mistake, the kb size was over the limit and so it was back to square one! Finally, after destroying the beautiful work done by James Mason on the second submitted version of the banner, I resubmitted an amateurish banner.
In less than a day I was a bonafide member of the Link Exchange. Sure, I had compromised my principles but, sharing the page with other J.A.P.s and interested parties was the priority. I sent the news to my E-mail pals and began to follow the new links that were advertising other pages from my home page.
I clicked on the ad banner displayed on "The Official Jewish American Princess Home Page" and was whisked away to a wonderful page filled with lists of audio recordings. At the very top of that page was another Link Exchange link that was slowly downloading its' graphic content. I waited with anticipation and hope that I had the great luck of maybe . . . just maybe linking to a page that contained my own hard earned Banner. Certainly, an organization as concerned about being politically correct [and so worried about presenting anything that might be construed as offensive] would bring me to an educational, humorous, informative or culturally stimulating site. To my shock and dismay, there before me, displayed in living color with the cobalt blue Link Exchange logo firmly affixed to the left side, was a banner beckoning me and all who were to behold it to come and visit:
So I and many of my pals did just that! I am not going to supply the link to further the cause of the site's purveyor. Let it suffice that the site contains portrayals of women in various poses and forms of attire. Admittedly none of which are the least bit offensive but the banner had portrayed something much more sinister. Certainly it made those of us who were aware of the scrutiny that"The Official Jewish American Princess Home Page" banner and site contents had undergone more than a little curious. (Please indulge my urge to point out the comical coincidence in instantly reaching the "SAMURAI! FREE! GIRLS!" page directly from the "J.A.P. Page!" Talk about poetic justice!)
From this forum I ask a simple question to the powers that be at Link Exchange. Which banner and website contain the more appropriate content? Possibly a page celebrating the humor of a particular heritage compiled with love and respect? Or would the content of a site that displays women as manipulated one dimensional objects be considered more acceptable?
This one woman's opinion probably does not count for much in their estimation. After all, I am a vocal member of a minority. But, your opinion matters to me and I would love to hear from you.
Note: Since the date of this publishing, there have been some surprising changes. On June 16, 1997, without any fanfare or explanation over the past refusals, the original banner was accepted by The Link Exchange. A well written letter by Deb DeStefano of Bombsight appears to have done the trick. Although this situation has been remedied similar instances of perceived persecution do continue, if not with that particular organization then with others for a myriad of reasons.
