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Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#41

Post by DSMan195276 »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28

It's been an hour, and a very clear trend is emerging: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bar+graph+13%2C+5%2C+10... Is there any reason why 4x more people would be banned within four days of a payout than any other part of the cycle? (This presupposes the poll results can be trusted, which seems dubious at best. But if this survey is trustworthy, then I wonder what it implies.)

IMO, even if it isn't true that Google has banned people for illegitimate reasons, it's entirely possible that when they do find a reason to ban you they sit on your account so they can take what you would have made and keep it along with their normal cut. It seems pretty iffy overall, but in their TOS for Adsense there is the line "If we terminate the Agreement due to your breach or due to invalid activity, we may withhold unpaid amounts or charge back your account."

I think it's also worth noting that it can be trivial to get an account banned if you just get a few people to keep clicking the same ads all day. So 'legitimate' bans could happen even when there was no foul play from the person showing the ads.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#42

Post by chillingeffect »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28

It's been an hour, and a very clear trend is emerging: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bar+graph+13%2C+5%2C+10... Is there any reason why 4x more people would be banned within four days of a payout than any other part of the cycle? (This presupposes the poll results can be trusted, which seems dubious at best. But if this survey is trustworthy, then I wonder what it implies.)

Yes, it seemed obvious to me that when I got banned, they run some kind of check on the account just before they pay it out. That much I believe is obvious.

Now, as to whether or not their check is valid - that's the real question.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#43

Post by kyrra »

aspidistra wrote: post #31
sensantisense wrote: post #19

I've not confirmed this at all but interesting it's a lead topic here... http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h

Lengthy previous discussion on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667976 Including Matt Cutts' response to the text in the pastebin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7669071

Thanks for the links. I was uncertain the context for this HN post. Also, Matt's reply is really helpful.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#44

Post by seacious »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #38
msvan wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a voluntary poll, hence not reliable. I would never trust an HN poll for something as significant as this. If the results were true it would be worrying, but we need much stronger evidence than this.

Hmm... possibly. It seems strange that this particular poll would attract so many trolls, though. Surely there are some troll results, but most of the results are showing that people are getting banned within 4 days of payout. As long as >75% of participants are honest voters, then it doesn't seem like the trolls could skew the results to the extent that we're seeing.

People who had their account banned in the last few days before payment may be more likely to feel victimized, and therefore more likely to answer a poll to express their grievance.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#45

Post by personZ »

sensantisense wrote: post #19

I've not confirmed this at all but interesting it's a lead topic here... http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h

That post reads like a complete fake, not least the absurd "don't be evil" nonsense. It reads like fan fiction, or rather hater fiction. Like someone got the ban hammer and is doing what they can to try to get some sort of amnesty.

A lot of people engage in click fraud. A lot of people completely break the advertising agreements (the ads that try to solicit accidental clicks, the apps and sites that implore you to click on ads to help support them, etc). These might seem fine in isolation -- Google makes lots of money and little guy just wants a bit of chump change -- but if it isn't controlled it seriously threatens the entire advertising model. One of the reasons Google has succeeded in a cutthroat industry is that they take measures to prevent and control this.

The people caught out will always claim innocence.

Google needs publishers. They aren't going to cut off their nose for a short-term gain. But for those scam sites and users, it is better to be rid of them.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#46

Post by iambateman »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #38
msvan wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a voluntary poll, hence not reliable. I would never trust an HN poll for something as significant as this. If the results were true it would be worrying, but we need much stronger evidence than this.

Hmm... possibly. It seems strange that this particular poll would attract so many trolls, though. Surely there are some troll results, but most of the results are showing that people are getting banned within 4 days of payout. As long as >75% of participants are honest voters, then it doesn't seem like the trolls could skew the results to the extent that we're seeing.

Outside of having actual proof of suspension, I'd view 80% of these as troll results. finding that users with suspended accounts in an hour is unlikely.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#47

Post by anthony_franco »

Tested out Adsense, saw it performed better. Switched all our ads to Adsense, big mistake. We got banned right before the payout date and ended-up making almost zero for the entire month. Big lesson learned.

Edit: To further clarify, we were expecting to receive a payment in the low five figures. Also, during that month I was invited to a special Google event where I spoke one on one with AdSense employees on how to optimize the site for revenue. Then two weeks later I received notice of our account suspension.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#48

Post by sillysaurus3 »

seacious wrote: post #44
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... possibly. It seems strange that this particular poll would attract so many trolls, though. Surely there are some troll results, but most of the results are showing that people are getting banned within 4 days of payout. As long as >75% of participants are honest voters, then it doesn't seem like the trolls could skew the results to the extent that we're seeing.

People who had their account banned in the last few days before payment may be more likely to feel victimized, and therefore more likely to answer a poll to express their grievance.

That's probably true, and in hindsight it's exactly why polls (and statistics in general) are so difficult. Thank you (and also robryk) for pointing that out!

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#49

Post by matthuggins »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #26
pja wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you don't agree with a particular site that's using adsense. You could (for instance) have you and all your friends click over and over again on the ads on that site, which Google will quickly flag as fraudulent. Any site that attracts a large number of fraudulent clicks is going to get their AdSense account banned. The site owner has no recourse if this happens to them: they agreed to it when they signed up in t…

Say you don't agree with a particular site that's using adsense. You could (for instance) have you and all your friends click over and over again on the ads on that site, which Google will quickly flag as fraudulent. Is it really that easy to put a gun to any random adsense user's head?

Yes, I had it happen to me about 5-6 years ago. Fortunately I had some evidence at the time, and after weeks of trying, I got my account reinstated. But it is very easy to do and probably happens more often than people realize.
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