Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
1–10 of 158 posts
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#2Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. At least Microsoft had better customer support than Google.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#3> Sometimes it was "dangerous and derogatory content." Sometimes it was "shocking content."
So Google turned the filter sensitivity up to 11 just now huh? I don't get why techdirt insists that that is not about ideology.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#4It's refreshing to see an assumption of incompetence rather than malice, since I seem to have come across the idea that Google is questionably motivated by ideology rather a lot recently.
One thing I don't understand is why Google continues to try to use algorithmic solutions for content moderation. Surely the frequent false positives ends up hurting potential revenue? And would it not be able to hire people to at least oversee the algorithms and respond to erratic behaviour as described in this article?
It seems one could even argue that Google's focus on algorithmic rather than human solutions is a kind of harmful ideology, albeit not the kind that probably hasn't hurt Techdirt in this case.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#5It's refreshing to see an assumption of incompetence rather than malice, since I seem to have come across the idea that Google is questionably motivated by ideology rather a lot recently. One thing I don't understand is why Google continues to try to use algorithmic solutions for content moderation. Surely the frequent false positives ends up hurting potential revenue? And would it not be able to hire people to at le…
Who knows? They had decided long ago that genuine tech support is not in their business model, and that's the end of things.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#6I think the more correct answer to "Why Are Currently No Ads on Techdirt?" is "Because we put all of our eggs in one basket."
Don't build a single point of failure into your revenue stream.
There are plenty of alternatives to Google that they should have been using in a smaller way that they could then move into prime position. That way, Techdirt's revenue might have been diminished, but not eliminated.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#7For some reason I read the comments...
"Someone who hates you is doing this on purpose" reads one.
While I have NO IDEA what that's about, it does make me wonder, can people cause trouble for their competition through ad sense by doing things to cause the site to be dropped like this? That comment says it's because someone is leaving bad comments on the site, which seems unlikely, but I've read other stories about DMCA abuse or something like that to bring down competing sites or videos or whatever.
Can someone abuse some kind of adsense reporting system and cause this to happen?
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#8It's refreshing to see an assumption of incompetence rather than malice, since I seem to have come across the idea that Google is questionably motivated by ideology rather a lot recently. One thing I don't understand is why Google continues to try to use algorithmic solutions for content moderation. Surely the frequent false positives ends up hurting potential revenue? And would it not be able to hire people to at le…
>It seems one could even argue that Google's focus on algorithmic rather than human solutions is a kind of harmful ideology
It's the kind of ideology that you often find in people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#9I play this game with Google every month or so when the webmaster console reports some mobile experience issues, but when I do a manual scan, there are no issues. So I mark them as resolved and then there are no issues for the next month or so.
Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
#10It's refreshing to see an assumption of incompetence rather than malice, since I seem to have come across the idea that Google is questionably motivated by ideology rather a lot recently. One thing I don't understand is why Google continues to try to use algorithmic solutions for content moderation. Surely the frequent false positives ends up hurting potential revenue? And would it not be able to hire people to at le…
It's a hard problem, because the alternative to algorithmic solutions is human solutions, which people are quite unhappy with as well. Facebook for example has gotten a ton of negative press over the years for their human content moderators.