The Strange Case of the Missing Ads

Guys, I really don't see the point in blaming Google for having rules and enforcing them, much less calling them EVIL. I don't like what happened, and I personally think their rules are too strict considering the ads they sometimes serve, but that doesn't mean I'm going to demonize them for actually sticking to their rules when they realized we broke one.

They benefit by being able to assure the advertisers that their ads won't appear on pages that aren't "family friendly"?

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:46:23 PM by BrightBlueInk

↑ and ↑?: The point is that they most likely set up the whole thing. And it is not clear to me who exactly broke the TOS. As I said in my latest post, I don't recall the Google TOS being ever discussed for expression on trope pages.

↑↑: Most likely the benefit in that they won't have to go through the expenditure of being called on we having them as providers again.

Ironeye - I guess because Google has standards. They're probably accountable to someone too and if people complain about seeing their ads on pages with adult content, then they lose.

By accepting us in the first place, they said we already followed their terms. They then changed their mind because we got bigger, or because some jerk ratted us out.

It is not our fault that they couldn't do their jobs correctly, and it is not our fault that they are so immoral as to shut down without telling us. Those aren't pure niceties, those are moral requirements for anyone who is not a Randian. When you know that what you are about to do may hurt someone else, you have a moral requirement to do what you can to soften the blow.

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:48:08 PM by BigT

Why in the world would Google "set up" losing a website as an customer that gets a ton of page views?

We're a WIKI. Our content changes! They can't predict what people edit in or what new tropes we ad, dude.

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:48:52 PM by BrightBlueInk

Because they knew we would lay back naked to them and try to fix the site to their new pleasure so that we wouldn't lose them. It is called politics.

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:49:12 PM by SilentReverence

Because they know we can't be lost. It doesn't take a financial genius to know that no one else would be able to give us the rates they've been giving us. They knew we'd acquiesce.

There was 0 risk on their end.

The simple truth is this: the site owners agreed to Google's To S. We didn't adhere to it, so they pulled down the ads.

That is all there is to it. Please stop being horrible.

Or, possibly, it's not all about us? And they realized that we weren't following their TOS and cut us as a result, no more, no less? Seriously, stop acting like Google's out to shut down the site. We're not that important, and it was our own fault.

People, please bear in mind that AdSense is CRAZY BIG. Fast Eddie commented earlier today that the new, smaller ad firms are a refreshing change from Google because it's possible to actually speak with a human being about customer-service issues. If Google can't even spare an operator to talk to us about why they yanked our ads, I don't think they're going to send a full time Evil Schemes staffer to execute a two-year master plan to make us...eliminate anonymous editing! Bwahahahahahaha!.

Think of it like an Internet forum. You've got an assload of users and only a few moderators, so you don't have moderators read every post anybody makes - you trust the users and browsers to report problems to the proper authorities. The downside is that sometimes areas that would register as problems if anybody would notice them simply don't get noticed by anybody who actually knows the rules for a very long time.

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:53:27 PM by Shale

Precisely why it's bullshit. We were a wiki when we were established. We already had tons of prurient content. Eddie actually decreased that content since we've had the ads, removing NSFW pics and titles, and anything. They are now wanting us to somehow be in 100% control of content not produced by us.

And, again, they didn't tell us what content was the problem. Since they didn't, we have no reason to assume there actually was any that wasn't there before. It's on them to prove that they aren't just looking out for themselves, since they couldn't even give us a token gesture of goodwill by telling us even a day ahead of time.

They hurt us, without trying to not hurt us.

Oh no, someone said that they didn't do something they said they would agree to, and then the other person on the other end of the agreement decided to end it.

There's a reason for reading the Terms and Conditions, you know? Just because you don't do it doesn't mean you're above it. We might as well have a witchhunt for the person who reported us.

You guys don't get it. IF they just looked at us as nothing, that is in and of itself evil. That's a big company looking down at a little company without trying to do anything to help. That's evil.

The fact that we were personally reviewed means they had the time to send us a quick email. They didn't. Either they are specifically targetting us, or their practices are in and of themselves evil. This isn't complicated.

Again, you guys it's okay for Google to act like a jerk because we signed a contract. And that is bullshit. I don't care how big and powerful you are, acting like a jerk means you are a jerk.

If Google can't even spare an operator to talk to us about why they yanked our ads, I don't think they're going to send a full time Evil Planning staffer to execute a two-year master plan to make us...eliminate anonymous editing! Bwahahahahahaha!

You do realize that not having operators who can receive complaints from relatively/probably non-major sites is part of the overall plan to elliminate all culture which doesn't agree to them, right?

We very well should have a witch hunt. Said person is themselves more evil than Google, since there's pretty much no way to get around the idea that they did it out of spite or for their own gain while disregarding ours.

The only reason we can't is that the person is untraceable. One thing about Google being big is that they are a big target.

edited 2nd Nov '10 7:58:40 PM by BigT

What makes you so certain Google is now the World Culture Police rather than, say, someone who doesn't want to deal with Moral Guardians calling them up every five minutes to complain about where they put their ads?

No, I don't realize that, in the same way that I don't "realize" that there are alien spy satellites in my teeth. They're trying to make money, not work with the Illuminati to take over Western culture.

Because, as they've shown, they don't care what little sites think. And advertisers are little sites.

And, of course they aren't trying to hurt western culture. Their goal is to make it where they are as close to a monopoly as possible without going afoul of the law, because that gets them more money.They're goal is to make money. Which would be fine, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. which they did with what they did here.

I just refuse to believe it is our fault. It is either no one's fault, and just business, or it is Google's fault for not following human ethical standards when dealing with us. They are the ones who agreed to us using them.

For anything to be our fault, we'd have to be willingly trying to circumvent the contract. We weren't. They assumed bad faith, and shut us down instead of giving us a chance to fix it.

edited 2nd Nov '10 8:03:44 PM by BigT

You do realize that not having operators who can receive complaints from relatively/probably non-major sites is part of the overall plan to elliminate all culture which doesn't agree to them, right?

Suddenly, I'm really glad that I stopped reading this thread.

It's on them to prove that they aren't just looking out for themselves,

Why shouldn't they look out for themselves? Are they a charity? Are we doing anything but looking out for ourselves?

Do you use google? Do you any of your friends use google? Let's boycott google and shame the rest.

Also:

Google obviously provides "us" with money out of something than altruism. Why do we want to give advantage to what is obviously such a morally corrupt organization? Time to take out our pocketbooks

edited 2nd Nov '10 8:04:13 PM by chaosakita

Bah, I can't type fast enough to keep up, so I'll try to keep this short.

I'm amused that their evil master plan involves getting us by the balls, then giving us back almost everything we want even when they don't have to. If this is Google being evil, they clearly aren't very good at it.

I'm doing better than a boycott. All Google ads are blocked, but I'm still using all their services. And I'm going to pollute their search results like crazy for a while, so they don't get any valuable information from me.

No, I don't realize that, in the same way that I don't "realize" that there are alien spy satellites in my teeth. They're trying to make money, not work with the Illuminati to take over Western culture.

Key word(s), thank you.

Also, don't be dense. If there is anything in your teeth beyond breakfast, is the remainders of the toothpaste ID beacon chemical.

You know what, I'm not even sure why I chimed in back there. I'm just going to be way, way over there...