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Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

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Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#391

Post by johnnyanmac »

philipov wrote: post #353
seanhunter wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been part of conversations with a corporate legal team about making clear policies available to explain these types of decisions, I’m sad to say it’s this and they sort of have a point. One of the problems is if you make a specific policy available and for whatever reason you can be shown not to follow that policy (like say you’re being an intelligent human being and exercising discretion) and someone is harme…

> None of which is intended to let Facebook off the hook. There are better ways of doing this that don’t involve banning people for life without explaining (clearly) but I at least do understand how we got to this ridiculous state of affairs. The conclusion people should draw from this is that companies as big as Facebook should not be allowed to exist. They can get away with this because they have too much leverage…

> companies as big as Facebook should not be allowed to exist

how would you solve that? A big problem is that the primary product isn't in and of itself that profitable. So it's hard to encourage competition there. And if you can't ask for money from the consumer you resort to ads.

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#392

Post by Terr_ »

unethical_ban wrote: post #339
lbriner wrote: post #47

The whole issue around not telling you what rule you broke "because then you might work around it" is total BS. It's like a company I complained to the other day because they didn't label one of the inputs on their password reset form because "it would help a hacker know what to type in it" (it was the password reset password they expected but you wouldn't know). How much quicker would this be resolved if the first A…

I've been banned from Reddit several times for absolute b**** reasons. Most recently I was banned for report abuse. But it has an incredibly huge problem with a particular style of spam account that reposts old content on certain subreddits. I was reporting those and also commenting on threads as to why I was reporting them so that others could see it. Without any discussion, comment, or initial warning to say " hey…

A while ago my Reddit account of over 10 years (zero prior issues, bajllions of comments and karma) was randomly killed via a Kafkaesque process I'm calling "Schrodinger's Ban":

1. With zero notification or reason, you are shadow-banned, and every post/comment you ever made vanishes from public view.

2. You use the "Appeals" page, and get a canned apology that it was a mistake withtheira spam-filter, and a message claiming your account has been restored.

3. Except they lied. You're still blocked, and now the Appeals page stops working because it falsely claims your account is already in good-standing!

4. All your messages through unofficial channels (modmail) are also blocked/filtered-to-uselessness so that you can't reach out to anybody.

5. If you load up another established account, like a job-search throwaway from 5 years ago... the exact shame shitty sequence of events kills it too.

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#393

Post by jstarfish »

isleyaardvark wrote: post #303
quickthrower2 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling pets should be fine?

There are many laws regarding pet ownership and for good reason, if not involving an invasive species there's also animal cruelty issues. Pandas and other exotic animals need specialized care which a typical vet will not be able to provide. And that's if they aren't dangerous. Then there's the puppy mills, which is a huge issue on its own.

The puppy mills aren't running ads, they're using Groups and doing their advertising on the comments sections of local animal shelters. It's grotesque.

A post will be like "Meet Billy, he's been here at the shelter for 2 years," get a few sympathy comments and be followed up with a "look, we have puppies for sale!"

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#394

Post by doubled112 »

vertis wrote: post #328
doubled112 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This concept scares me more than most.

The fact that is scares you has been noted. Someone will contact you shortly.

It's not that somebody might contact me shortly.

It is that somebody might contact me in 10 years, and at that point I'll have no idea about the context or how to "defend myself" because I won't know what they're talking about.

Maybe it's far fetched, I don't know, but it's a possibility. An interesting thought exercise if nothing else.

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#395

Post by johnnyanmac »

philpem wrote: post #379
LightHugger wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cute. With sufficient size and influence over your life, a private company is a form of government.

Bingo. Even a relatively tiny company can have a huge impact on your life. Say you're interested in a niche hobby, so niche there's only one company who organises meet-ups and events around that hobby. The best friend of the chairman runs the main online forum for that hobby. If you have a falling-out with either of those people, or their friends - you're going to lose all the social aspects of your hobby, and they'r…

>so niche there's only one company who organises meet-ups and events around that hobby.

If it's that niche that no one else forms groups around it, that sounds like an issue in and of itself.

>If you have a falling-out with either of those people, or their friends - you're going to lose all the social aspects of your hobby, and they're probably going to slander you to everyone they know.

sounds like your average small town experience. People can be cruel, they don't need a company to enable that.

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#396

Post by brookmg »

lbriner wrote: post #47

The whole issue around not telling you what rule you broke "because then you might work around it" is total BS. It's like a company I complained to the other day because they didn't label one of the inputs on their password reset form because "it would help a hacker know what to type in it" (it was the password reset password they expected but you wouldn't know). How much quicker would this be resolved if the first A…

They won't change this unless some huge government body forces them, unfortunately. The market just follows the big players and there is nothing we can do. Something like EU should step in.

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#397

Post by [deleted] »

lbriner wrote: post #47

The whole issue around not telling you what rule you broke "because then you might work around it" is total BS. It's like a company I complained to the other day because they didn't label one of the inputs on their password reset form because "it would help a hacker know what to type in it" (it was the password reset password they expected but you wouldn't know). How much quicker would this be resolved if the first A…

[deleted]

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#398

Post by noptd »

unethical_ban wrote: post #339
lbriner wrote: post #47

The whole issue around not telling you what rule you broke "because then you might work around it" is total BS. It's like a company I complained to the other day because they didn't label one of the inputs on their password reset form because "it would help a hacker know what to type in it" (it was the password reset password they expected but you wouldn't know). How much quicker would this be resolved if the first A…

I've been banned from Reddit several times for absolute b**** reasons. Most recently I was banned for report abuse. But it has an incredibly huge problem with a particular style of spam account that reposts old content on certain subreddits. I was reporting those and also commenting on threads as to why I was reporting them so that others could see it. Without any discussion, comment, or initial warning to say " hey…

>But it has an incredibly huge problem with a particular style of spam account that reposts old content on certain subreddits.

Well that's your problem right there. That type of spam boosts a number of activity and usage KPIs and increases engagement.

Reddit has even been caught using bots to artificially build out new subreddits by Google translating and reposting existing content from other subreddits to give the illusion of popularity in order to bootstrap new subs.

Why would they want to cut down on any of that when it would affect their bottom line?

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#399

Post by [deleted] »

pr337h4m wrote: post #57

>That’s right: I teach courses in Python and Pandas. Never mind that the first is a programming language and the second is a library for data analysis in Python. Meta’s AI system noticed that I was talking about Python and Pandas, assumed that I was talking about the animals (not the technology), and banned me. If this is true, that is insanely embarrassing for a company that purports to be a sophisticated programmat…

[deleted]

Re: Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas

#400

Post by dbg31415 »

Remember when Facebook just flat out deleted Native American's accounts because they thought their names weren't "real people names?" These guys are shitty, always have been shitty, always will be shitty. They don't have good product manages who research use-cases and examples, they don't have good QA or test data, and their customer support isn't empowered to fix the issues customers report. Just a shitty company through and through.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/facebooks-name-policy-...

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