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Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

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Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

As someone who is in a similar domain / company, no one knows how to do this at planet scale unless you narrow it down to a very short list (which is typically very large sums of money). My back of napkin math from another comment: I work in a similar space and it is significantly complex and expensive to do this. Back of the napkin math - * Lets say on average customers contact Google support once a year for each pr…

A possible solution would be to charge for support for people who get paid by you, although it probably creates a whole host of other problems too that would be difficult to balance. Also competition so those same people have someone else to go to.

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#82

A few months ago, I tried experimenting with Google ads to drive some traffic to a side project of mine which was basically a chess-over-videochat website. A little more than 40 impressions later, it was taken down for being "in violation of our Google ad policies". There was never any indication what the violation actually was. I replied and asked several times hoping to get a human to tell me what I had actually do…

I don't know much about adding ads to a website like this. Is there really no alternative to Google?

For a small site, Amazon Associates is probably the most reliable and non-shady opportunity besides Google. If the site get's a few million pageviews a month, options improve.

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#83
While I do think TechDirt is rather scummy as a self-proclaimed rumor-monger site (one step away from clickbait), Google is an actual problem actor. This is not the first company to suffer their cruel indifference and nonsensical automated moderation. grits teeth I hope this story reaches more eyeballs.

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#84

A few months ago, I tried experimenting with Google ads to drive some traffic to a side project of mine which was basically a chess-over-videochat website. A little more than 40 impressions later, it was taken down for being "in violation of our Google ad policies". There was never any indication what the violation actually was. I replied and asked several times hoping to get a human to tell me what I had actually do…

How does one ever start a business after such a ban? Does this require a co-founder who runs the marketing?

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#86
post #4

It'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…

My guess is that it's pretty simple. There are ML models predicting the ad quality score; when the predicted outcomes for a site/account don't match reality it is a strong signal that something is wrong. Other inference models determine what is likely being violated on the site or by the account. A human has no chance of digging through the model to figure out exactly what causes the flagged outcome. The only solutio…

> I am sure there are whitelists (and blocklists).

Off topic, but why is whitelist acceptable but not blacklist?

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#87
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> videochat Big red flag. If you are connecting random people via video chat you open yourself to all sorts of abuse. I'm not saying that it is happening on your service, just that advertizers (and therefore google) are wary of videochat.

If that's the reason, it would be nice for Google to come out and say so.

Blame chatroulette. When people like google hear "videochat" they immediately think of that ridiculous image-recognition software that chatroulette rolled out in a feeble attempt to reduce abuse.

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#88
post #67
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you done this? I've run remnant alternatives and quite honestly the RPMs almost make it pointless. I'm talking $0.01 - $0.05 CPM when Adsense was averaging ~ $3

You're saying you only made 5 cents after generating a thousand clicks on an ad?

In this situation, CPM is likely based on impressions, not clicks.

Re: Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous

#89
post #61
post #4

It'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…

At some level though incompetence has to transition to malice. Do we really believe Google does not have the resources to hire and retain competent people? or are they willfully incompetent as a shield or cover for their malice How many times can they play "oops our bad it was just a mistake"

An organisation the size of Google's probably fucks up thousands of times daily. I reckon <1% of issues are actually complained about, so yeah, I'd believe it's a mistake.
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