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:

1. You have or had one or more parents who identify as LGBT/ queer.
2. Your blog has feeds like Atom or RSS.
3. You are at least 18 years of age.
4. While Oversampled will not censor individual posts, blogs with
   extreme tones that are violent or threatening will not be included.
5. 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.
6. 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 the old one again.)
7. 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 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.