Official TSP Site is Blocking Us

[tsptalk]

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The links I have throughout this site to the tsp.gov site are being blocked by the tsp.gov site. We geta "Forbidden" error page. This is confusing to me since most of the links are to information pages. I guess they would rather keep this info from us (like fund prices and access to your account). I am thinking this is a deliberate block of my server because the timingcoincides with one of the tsp.gov employees signing up for our email alert service. Their customer service is not the greatest already and they are trying to stop me from providing a little help. If I am wrong, I apologize but if I am right,it is not cool at all.

I updated the links to show the URL so you can still cut and paste the address into a browser and get to their site.

For example, in my menus you'll see...

• Access Your TSP Account
http://www.tsp.gov/account/index.html

Just cut and paste the http://www.tsp.gov/account/index.htmland put it in the top of your browser.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Rolo]

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Perhaps they should spend less time worrying about what other sites are doing and work on improvingtheir own instead. :?

:i Perhaps they didn't do that. Perhaps there is a real technical problem. Perhaps we should report it to them. Perhaps they would want to hear from all of the users having this problem so they can fix it. "I'm not authorised to access the server? huh?"

 

[tsptalk]

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Rolo wrote:

:i Perhaps they didn't do that. Perhaps there is a real technical problem. Perhaps we should report it to them. Perhaps they would want to hear from all of the users having this problem so they can fix it. "I'm not authorised to access the server? huh?"

That might be a good idea. Let them know about this site and how you are able to solicit information from other TSP members without bothering them. They may get a bit more site traffic from us (which I assume is their problem) but they probably get fewer question type requests.

Does anyone know an email address we can use? The one I have is from an employee who signed up for the email alert anditwouldn't be ethicalto use that one.

 

[Pete1]

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I think TSP's official site was down for routine maintenance over the weekend. Not sure when it was to be available again. I tried the regular path yesterday and was unable to get through.

 

[smine]

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[align=left]Special Notice for June 11, 2004: Due to hardware maintenance, Account Access will be unavailable between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., eastern time on Friday, June 11th. Due to system maintenance updates, some of the transactions in Account Access may not be available from 5:00 p.m., eastern time on Friday, June 11th, to 1:00 a.m., eastern time on Sunday, June 13th. [/align]
[align=left]This was listed on the home page of tsp.[/align]

 

[tsptalk]

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I don't think that is the problem. My links have been broken fora week now and the URL's will work if you put them in your browser manually. This is a block by "referrer". I'm not sure exactly why, but I believe it is a deliberate link block by tsp.gov from anywhere on tsptalk.

 

[rainmaker]

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Hi Tom,

I have been a daily observer of your web site since Nov. of last year. I havenever jumped in to make a post as I have been learning and have not had any value added information to give any of your readers.Iam retiring from the Navy next Month after 30 years and have been a big advocate of the TSP program since they started it for the Military. My wife is a government employee and has contributed max since she started working for the government. I came across your site when I was surfing the internet looking for information about TSP. The reason I am jumping in now is just to tell you thatyou are doing a great service for a lot of people and you probably don't know how many because many of them sit back and observe. I have held training sessions with my sailors about the TSP program and I always use your site as a place to keep up with what is going on in the markets and get educated about their retirement plan.

I don't know if the tsp.gov web site is blocking you or not but, Ithink they should have your site as a link for additional information. Thanks for what you are doing for everyone and Keep up the good work.

 

[tsptalk]

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Thank you rainmaker. I appreciate the feedback. I'm not sure why tsp.gov is pushing us away. Since the gov't can't really provide investment advice to us, you would think an informative site would be embraced. Go figure. I guess we are making a little more work for them.

Thanks again!
Tom

 

[tsptalk]

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Rolo is the man. He got the links working again. Thanks Rolo!

 

[Rolo]

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np...my pleasure.

really.I have an ego to feed.



snkt.

 

[tsptalk]

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Did anybody notice that tsp.gov has blocked thenew links to their site again?

They sent me a letter also. They don't want me linking to pages within their site, but rather just the home page. Apparently they think I am confusing TSP participants if they bypass the home page. Do thelinks to tsp.gov confuse any of you? Of course my goal to to help and to make things easier. This will just make things more inconvenient for us if you ask me, but maybe I'm wrong.

It doesn't make much sense to me but I guess I'll have to justlink to the home page (assuming they let me).

Tom

 

[Rolo]

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The links still work for me.

If one is confused by your links, then they will be hopelessly confused by tsp.gov's site; it's a POS. It would be more fitting if tsp.gov were done in crayon.

As I alluded earlier, they should spend less time worrying about what other webmasters are doing and hire a real webmasterfor their own. Jerks.

 

[tsptalk]

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They are working for me again also. Hmm. But I did get that letter so I'm not completely paranoid. :*

And I won't complain about their site needing a real webmaster because mine needs one also. o

 

[Rolo]

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Yer doin' a fine job. Agree or not, yours is far more organised and visually appealing than tsp.gov.

Jerks.



To make your life easier, explore the various CMSes, such as PHP-Nuke, postnuke, etc. etc. There are many of them in varying complexities.

 

[tsptalk]

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The letter TSP.gov sent me basically said, stop linking to our site. People will think those are TSP Talk pages and not TSP.gov pages. That certainly was not my intention.

They did not ask very nicely either. I've gotten friendlier letters from the IRS. They basically said the links"must be discontinued"by June 28th.

They also said I need to ask in writing for permission to use the link to their home page. The funny thing is, I emailed them twice when I was creating the site to ask for their OK and they never replied.

I did take the links down except for the home page link, which was their request.

 

[zarth]

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tsptalk wrote:

The letter TSP.gov sent me basically said, stop linking to our site. People will think those are TSP Talk pages and not TSP.gov pages. That certainly was not my intention.

Sorry to hear about TSP issues with TSP Talk...

But as for their complaint....Considering your overall layout is completely different from theirs, I don't see how anyone could be mistaken as to which site they are on at any given moment. You've done a lot of work (good job :^)in trying to make things easier for all TSP'ers and it's a shame they are giving you such greif over it.

 

[Pete1]

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If one is confused by your links, then they will be hopelessly confused by tsp.gov's site; it's a POS. It would be more fitting if tsp.gov were done in crayon.


The crayon part has me LOL, HaHaHa.....Rolo strikes again! -

 

[Pete1]

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Does anyone recall the cluelessportrait of the woman vacuously staring at the chart? It was down right insulting but it showed what TSP thinks about TSP participants. Now the new and improved site has a bullhovering next tothe chart. Iguess this isone of the improvements. Thefund fact sheets were an improvement as they may help to educate participants. The TSP board should visit Vanguard's website for some ideas about educating participants.

 

[Rolo]

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hehe, Pete.

Yes, I know the graphic you are talking about. It took them a week to change it and they had horked it for a while...the bull graphic was distorted for days.


[line]


Tom, I would have left the links there for the principle of it. :dude: But that's just me.

A simple footnote stating that the links are not part of TSPTalk would solve the problem, in the event that someone so brain-dead could actually operate a computer in the first place, browse to the site, and actually confuse tsptalk.com with tsp.gov. I suppose such measures should be taken when dealing with a group of government employees. :u

haha, Hey!If I make a TSP.gov links page, would you link to it, Tom? muahaha

 

[Rod]

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Next thing you know, they will be complaining about "TSP Talk", because Tom is helping so many folks make $$$ with their TSPs!

You watch, they will place a disclaimer on their own site "disowning" TSP Talk.

"We do not endorse "TSP Talk" ... blah blah blah blah blah

I'm sure they have their "spies" on this site.

God Bless:^