Back at the academy, they always used to say: "You can tell when a certain day's going to be trouble." Gray like a shirt that hasn't been washed in a decade, wet as a face fresh off the latest Pixar flick, and smells like the Earth itself was sighin' over a lost love. Well, that's bull, I can tell you now. This particular day was glaring, odorless, and dryer that the Devil's micturiations. But that was the day a mystery came to me nonetheless.

Usually, when you're sittin' alone in your office (or, in my case, dorm room), it's a dame in a bit of red who comes bringin' the case. But it was my keen eyes that did it today. Me and my old friends, TV Tropes and Mr. Pepper, PHD, were havin' a little private party when I realized that TV Tropes was in a bad way. Something about him wasn't normal. Something was... missing.

"The ads! My God, the ads are all gone!"

TV Tropes had been hoping nobody would notice. But my words cracked his facade. I had a problem on my hands.

Of course, whever old Teevee had a problem, there was only one place to go: Wiki Talk, the seedest forum on this side of the page. My only hope? To find the man known as Fast Eddie, and... "coerce" a few words out of him.

Huh, first post looks like swiss cheese due to the missing ad.

edited 27th Oct '10 11:12:18 AM by Marioguy128

This is under frantic investigation. The very life of the wiki hangs in the balance.

I wish that were hyperbole, but deep down I know it's not.

edited 27th Oct '10 11:28:21 AM by CentralAvenue

...Well, that sucks.

Considering how ads are how any website survives, I know that's true. So how long before the wiki has to go down if this doesn't get fixed?

Sorry all, that was panic kicking in.

edited 27th Oct '10 12:36:13 PM by SpainSun

Take up collection and ask for donations?

We don't yet know why The Advertisement Server decided to go wonky on us, so it's premature to debate survival strategies. If the wiki does get forced to move off of an ad-funded model, then donations/subscriptions are the only way it could survive, and likely at a fraction of its current membership and capacity. But let's not even debate that yet until the core issue is resolved.

The ads appear to be back, is anyone else seeing them?

EDIT: Hang on...they were there, and now they're gone again...???

edited 27th Oct '10 1:01:28 PM by Willbyr

"Not I" said the Sun.

edited 27th Oct '10 1:04:36 PM by SpainSun

They're coming and going, and not all of them are showing up on a page at the same time when they do come back. Someone put The Advertisement Server in the sun, he's got gremlins.

Maybe he's sick?

Methinks he's been kidnapped.

Quick! Somebody check on Trope-tan!

edited 27th Oct '10 1:36:29 PM by AlirozTheConfused

On a quick glance, the ads seem to be back for me, though just on the wiki. Forum ads are still a no-go.

Those are Amazon associate ads on the wiki. I've put them in to see if we can get any money at all during the time it takes Google to respond.

Not much chance they will be enough to support the wiki.

edited 27th Oct '10 1:51:35 PM by FastEddie

Yes, that would explain why they all look the same and say "Amazon.com". I should pay more attention.

^^ Too bad, It would be a lot more fitting for the site's profile to advertise fiction, and the Kindle, and similar works, than scientology.

Maybe if you would put up a lot more of them, everywhere where the google ads were used to be?

So, are we getting shut down...?

It hasn't come to that yet. Don't panic, it's probably a bug or something.

edited 27th Oct '10 2:26:35 PM by Marioguy128

I hope it doesn't.

Does anyone have any idea what's causing this? Is it the people the ads are coming from? Is it us?

At what point should we start exchanging email addresses?

I posted mine already and removed the post....

I'll make a thread for it in YF if no one objects.

Oh boy, it's like shit-down-shutting all over again!

If I had to guess, Google noticed the lack of privacy policy here, which contradicted some Google directive. Eddie fixed this, and now is waiting for Google to notice his message explaining this.

(This is a hypothesis, I have no information either.)

That explains the privacy policy that suddenly showed up at the bottom of the page.