Q: I have a gay/queer/LGBT parent. How do I get my blog added to Oversampled?
A: Contact Abigail with the link to your blog along with a brief description of why you identify as a kid of a queer parent.
Q: What are the requirements for being added?
A:
- You have or had one or more parents who identify as LGBT/ queer.
- Your blog has feeds like Atom or RSS.
- You are at least 18 years of age.
- While Oversampled will not censor individual posts, blogs with extreme tones that are violent or threatening will not be included.
- Journals and blogs provided by social online networking portals (such as Xanga, Friendster, Live Journal, AOL journal) are not included. If you disagree with the policy and believe your journal/ blog is of superior quality than the average passing-notes-in- history-class style of the typical Live Journal, send me a link and I will take a look.
- Blogs that are not updated in over six months will be considered "abandoned" and will be removed from the blogroll. (Do contact me if you have a new URL or you pick up the old one again.)
- Oversampled reserves the right to remove any blog from its list at any time for any reason.
Q: How long do the post-excerpts stay on the site?
A: Oversampled retains links to posts for seven days.
Q: My gay parent is no longer living. Can I still participate?
A: Yes. The fact that a parent is no longer living does not change the fact that s/he was your parent.
Q: My blog doesn’t have anything to do with my queer parents or queer activism. Can I still be included?
A: Yes! This site aims to show the diversity of kids of queers. That not all are activists. That not all have great relationships with their parents. That some will mention from time to time a gay parent without hiding the fact that they are gay. You get the idea. If people are really curious to know how we “turn out,” they should know that we turn out to lead our own lives and think our own thoughts.
Q: I don’t have queer parents, but I am queer myself, and I have a blog documenting my children’s experience. Will you add my blog?
A: Sorry, no. This is a forum for kids of queers only. If you are a queer parent who is offended by this boundary, you’re certainly not the first. Most parents don’t understand that what their children are experiencing and parents’ interpretation of what their children are experiencing are two different things. This site is for the children to say what they want to say, not for the parents to hear what they want to hear.
Q: I don’t like all these strangers invading my privacy! How do I get my blog removed from Oversampled?
A: De-linking happens as soon as I receive your request for removal. (Keep in mind that this will not necessarily happen immediately since I travel a lot and am not chained to my computer 24/7.) I honor any request to be removed because it is my personal policy, not because there are any ethical or legal issues in question. Oversampled is what is called a blog aggregator and is a common tool on the web that falls well within the parameters of “fair use” laws.
Bonus PSA: The web is public and accessible to everyone and anyone. No one is invading anybody’s privacy when they read a post on a publicly accessible site. While you can’t control who links to your site, you can disable your feeds to keep it off of aggregators. You may also want to consider a pass-worded site that only your friends/ family can access. Finally, if you are “only writing for yourself” and/or “don’t really want an audience” consider the non-Google-able option of a hand-written journal tucked under your mattress.