Earlier today I attempted to post to the BME group on Facebook. I generally share links to BME articles on both Myspace and Facebook. At first I was getting “no title” errors. I then tried to post the link via the “share” utility on Facebook to post it on my wall. It became clear then that Facebook deemed BMEzine.com an unfit URL to publish or even mentioned on their site..

Shortly after I posted on IAM, with a screenshot of the error that I was getting. Several other users mentioned they received both these messages when trying to add the URL to their profile, interests or sending the link to a friend on Facebook. Previously entered URLs remain unaffected.

“Some of the information you entered is not allowed on Facebook. Please try again.”

“Warning: This Message Contains Blocked Content. Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.”

I’ve already sent a few emails as well as made some calls to a few friends to see what can be done about it. One thing I know that works is getting users to speak out!

Select the following text and copy it, click the image below it to take you to their contact form, choose “other” and paste the text into the description box, click submit!

To whom it may concern..

It has come to my attention that Facebook has tagged www.BMEzine.com as a site that contains “abusive content” and all mention of the URL has been prohibited on Facebook.

This allegation is utterly untrue and I feel that on further investigation this decision should be overturned. BMEzine.com has been online for over a decade and is the largest online community site that documents body modification and ritual aspects of the body modifications culture.

Please look into this further and allow BME to continue their relationship with Facebook.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for taking the time to write to Facebook. If they don’t think any of their users care about BME, they won’t remove the block.

Where in the world is BME?

BMXnet is hosting it’s second annual conference to bring together artists from the body modification community from around the world. Registration closed last week but there are a few seats still available for last minute pre-registration. You can pay upon arrival. For more information, check out the article from the 2007 convention.

For the seventh year in a row, Wings Of Desire brings us their Oslo SusCon. Håvve Fjell and Christiane Löfblad facilitate suspensions for a growing number of individuals each year, and are setting new records each year for their event — both in the sheer number of participants and suspensions, as well as the nations represented at their convention. The 80-plus attendees hail from 14 different countries around the globe, with an astonishing 67 suspensions predicted.

Photos courtesy Helene Fjell

In addition to providing access to suspensions themselves, WoD conducts workshops to encourage the development of safe suspension practices in a friendly environment. WoD has given their workshops in Norway, Sweden, Poland, Brazil and Italy, and works closely with the annual Italian SusCon.

The SusCon runs from July 18-20, with a BBQ/afterparty on July 21. It’s an honor to be invited to participate at the upcoming convention and I look forward to seeing you there!

Oh, hello! And welcome to the brand new BME News!

After years of the old news design (which is still there as an archive for the time being until we can transfer everything over), I thought it was time for a change. I don’t know about you, but I’m a fan. Look at it! It’s so clean! It’s still got that new blog smell! Big thanks to Jonathon and Jordan for putting this together.

As you can see, the launch of BME News means changes in some other areas — most notably, the end of the old ModBlog. But ModBlog isn’t gone — it’s now integrated into BME News, which makes sense, and is more convenient than having to juggle several different URLs to access all of BME’s content. (Now you only need to juggle a couple!) As well, the ModBlog archives aren’t here yet, but they are most certainly on their way, so hold tight on that one.

Please note: Comments on Modblog are disabled to allow the entries to be migrated without the loss of new comments. Once the old entries are imported, the template will be updated to allow browsing of the “new” modblog in a similar format as the old one. You will not have to click through to each link.

We’ve got a lot of exciting additions on the way, including a weekly (hopefully) advice column from David Vidra, the return of Shawn Porter to BME’s editorial team, and some other surprises that we’ll ideally be able to unveil soon. At the moment, though, everything you see on this page at the moment is 100 per cent new, and updates should be coming soon and often.

If you run into technical issues, please, let us know via e-mail or in the comments. Other than that, enjoy all the new content, and I’ll check back in soon!