The Strange Case of the Missing Ads

Good luck, Fast Eddie. Do what you've gotta do.

For what it's worth, I'm behind you 100% on this one.

Same. It's sad to see this, but it has to be done, right?

Godspeed Eddie, you do good work. Would that I had something set up to donate, but I'm sort of hopeless at the entire on-line transaction thing.

will we need to make new accounts to post on the forum?

Yeah, Ed. If it means the continued survival of TV Tropes, and all who sail under her banner, then some purging will be accepted (and as you've said, the pages themselves won't be annihilated, but relocated).

Just wondering, though, if the Project Wonderful adverts provide a comparable level of funding?

...And to be fair, I'm quite pleased with the association of accounts with e-mail addresses. I don't know what effect it will have on things like sockpuppeting, etc; but it'll certainly make persistent identities easier to use.

Yeah. Even if we DID have to make new accounts, it would be a small price to pay.

Although I'm rather worried about a lot of gray-area tropes and works. Will we be forbidden from discussing, say, the Watchmen movie because of a sex scene? Will we have to not mention said scene? What about things like Pettanko and, as I mentioned before, Gag Boobs? Or Gag Penis? Makes me concerned.

Agreeing with Freezair, here.

Maybe it would be a good idea to first figure out exactly what is google's limit of mature content, before needlessly moving for example the Villainous Incest or Covert Pervert pages. It's possible that it was just one unfortunate page image, or breaching a certain limit of swear word count, that triggered this.

The last step: edit accounts will be hardened. No anons. Email requirement for edit account.

You are serious, right? About time.

I like the idea (it's for edit accounts, which implies they are the kind of people we want to stay in contact with) but makes me sad, I was quick to sign up to the wiki as that I didn't need to set up Yet Another Thrash Mail Account for it. However one of the things that I like more of the site is the attention to interaction, and this is a very good chance to bring e-mail on it as well.

As for all of the above in terms of the solution going to be implemented, not much problem with it, except considering what is going to happen with sex, porn, politics and religious tropes (hey, you never know what will offend Google next, maybe Apple mentions?) plus what Freezair For A Limited Time mentions, I'd like to ask: how much of a (stable) revenue does the site need to get from adverstisers in order for them to be considered "reliable". Google may be everywhere but we are a site about everything so I'd say that an ad provider, any ad provider, whose policy is "you can not talk about X, Y and Z" is essentially unusable for the purposes of the site unless ads are somehow namespaced... or the content is thrown across domains. Gotta love them figuring that out and asspulling a "no links to questionable content" policy though, so reread my point above.

All in all, as much as I despise Google for trying to dominate the world, this time it may bring pretty good consequences for the site. Let's hope the site lasts until next year — then I may have landed a job and be able to donate, at the very least.

Goodspeed to those who will be cacking their heads against the walls trying to produce the requires features in a whim.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:40:39 PM by SilentReverence

We tried Project Wonderful for two months. It generated in that time a sum equal to our average hour with the Google ads.

The operating budget is thousands per month.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:42:13 PM by FastEddie

That's.....sad.

I wonder how many other sites are affected by this. Shame we're not like Homestar Runner and can live without ads.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:43:13 PM by Marioguy128

Maybe it would be a good idea to first figure out exactly what is google's limit of mature content, before needlessly moving for example the Villainous Incest or Covert Pervert pages. It's possible that it was just one unfortunate page image, or breaching a certain limit of swear word count, that triggered this.

We could also investigate the use of automatic word filters. There is probably no Google guy constantly checking the site and deciding how offensive we are, so as long as certain words don't lighten up the radar, we should get under it.

When was this time? TVT is certainly bigger than it once was.

Also, agreeing with Silent that, as a wide-ranged site, an advertiser with a restrictive policy about what they'll avertise on is not very helpful.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:45:12 PM by FreezairForALimitedTime

Let's see, I'm still a bit unclear as to what content, precisely, needs to be taken out. Let's take an example like Flipside, a NSFW webcomic that's nonetheless not even close to hentai. Does the fact that there is nudity of any sort referred to automatically make this page a no-go for Google? Does the existence of a link to such a site trigger this? Do we have to remove any references to sex, or just explicit content?

Are we talking Hentai levels of censorship, Biggus Dickus levels, or Bluenose Bowdlerizer levels?

Is it legal to have multiple advertisers? We could just have a bunch, and while plastering the site with ads everywhere would make it less visually appealing, it would require a lot less work, I imagine. And probably induce significantly less amounts of They Changed It, Now It Sucks!.

Keep in mind I am utterly clueless about these kinds of things, I'm just spitballing.

Erm. Googling around, I found this (source):

The Ad Sense network is considered family-safe, which means that publishers aren't permitted to place Google ads on sites which contain adult content. In addition to photos and videos which contain nudity or sexual activities, here are some other examples of unacceptable content:

• Lewd or provocative images
• Crude or indecent language, including adult stories
• Sexual tips or advice
• Sexual fetish sites (e.g. foot fetish content)
• Adult toys or products
• Ads or links to external sites containing adult content

If your site has content which you wouldn't be comfortable viewing at work or with family members around, then it probably isn't an appropriate site to place Google ads upon.

That's... that's pretty strict.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:49:08 PM by EthZee

... I think we might want to get a different ad host instead. That seems way too restrictive. Especially the 2nd point.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:50:07 PM by Marioguy128

Man....

I...I hate this....okay, I'm done with this for today. Nothing is happening today, right?

I'll try helping again tomorrow.

Yeah, that would practically mean banning any work that has sex scenes in it, or at least forbidding to discuss these scenes.

If these pages would all be moved to ad-less server, it would still mean a huge income loss.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:52:38 PM by EternalSeptember

The response that Eddie quoted used the term "adult or mature content". And while I don't pretend to speak for Google Gag Boobs do not seem like mature or adult content to me. H Games and pron does.

Edit to add: I got beat to the punch.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:54:12 PM by blackcat

Wouldn't the last one prevent moving the restricted stuff and linking to it where necessary? >.>

-Shrug-

I just want to know if everyone who wants an edit account will have to re-register again, this time using an email to register. I do not mind, but I just want to know.

I don't think the second point is too bad, though it does do away with erotic content and stuff. Hopefully, it'll allow things being spoken of on a scientific level.