read that? http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h
Yes. That is what prompted this discussion.
Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
141–150 of 168 posts
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#142Earlier 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.
People who were banned are probably pissed off and chose 4days.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#143Honestly, this kind of automated banning with no appeals process is a huge problem. I don't usually opt for the government to step in - but giving Google the power to essentially take away hard-earned money with no recourse is reprehensible. Banning an individual from a service without clear proof that they committed or colluded to do fraud or otherwise malicious behavior -should- be illegal. And when you ban that in…
> Banning an individual from a service without clear proof that they committed or colluded to do fraud or otherwise malicious behavior -should- be illegal.
I disagree. It's Google's service, Google has a right to decide who gets to use the service. They are under no obligation to make their banning process transparent. It's not illegal to kick someone out of a store you own (unless you're systematically refusing to serve certain types of people), so the same should be true here.
Also, making the automated banning system transparent essentially teaches people how to circumvent the system. This is why games companies so jealously defend their anti-cheat systems, if word got out on how they worked they would be done for.
I do agree that it's unacceptable to withhold earned or paid money as a result of the ban. If you're an advertiser, you should get a refund, if you're a site/app administrator, you should be paid any non-fraudulent earnings up to the time of the ban.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#144It's common knowledge among SEOs that AdSense tends to be disabled a few days before the supposed payout. I haven't lost any big sum - only $2000 but I know one person that lost $40,000. It was all legitimate traffic coming straight from Google themselves, no click fraud no bought traffic etc. PS: I was using AdSense from 2008 to 2013 - over 5 years so it's not like only new users got banned.
So you lost $2,000 because of Google. Would you do more about it if the sum suddenly disappeared from your bank account or the cell company overcharged you? I find most are afraid to stand up to Google because they're so omnipresent.
You'd have recourse if those things happened, whereas you don't have recourse if Google terminates your account. You enter into a contract where you agreed that they had this right and that payments would be forfeit. If a cell company overcharges you, you have a legal case for recovering that money. If Google terminates you, you have none, and going to court to fight a contract you agreed to is likely going to result in further losses.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#145I was making $1-3k monthly. I logged in at the end of November (*edit: 2012) to see what my Xmas bonus was going to be. Turns out it would be a big, fat zero. Account suspended/canceled. I submitted a claim and they said: sorry, no - you're done. There was zero reason to do it. No ToS violations, no fraudulent clicks. Just $30k less in my bank account for the next year. The second most frustrating part, aside from th…
You didn't try switching to other ad networks?
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
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!
It's why voluntary polls are meaningless. A true random poll would not have this bias.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that advertisers don't want their brands associated with that kind of content. In order to keep advertisers happy, Google needs to police for content wrt to ads. It's a different set of rules than things like search results or YouTube.
The thing is, it's not appropriate to tell a website to check its user generated content in 72 hours because some of it contains spam words. I had a huuuge amount of user generated content posted every day and I def. couldn't check all of that. If they provided all the bad links it might have been possible. I had the same problem with another site and I was scared to get in more troubles since I had another one banne…
If you have lots of UGC, then AdSense is probably not for you. A lot of companies shy away from UGC specifically because it can risk advertising revenue from higher end brands that will pay more.
Fortunately, there are many different ad networks for many different publishers. Reddit is using Adzerk ... maybe they will work for you. There's also a bunch of ad networks that specialize in different areas, including porn, gambling, etc -- stuff that Google won't ever touch. You may still be able to use AdSense if you segment where the ad is shown in places where you're less likely to have negative UGC, such as non-UGC portions of your site or forum topics that are more moderated.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#148I use AdMob for a mobile game I made. After successfully using it for years I got a notice that Google had bought the company and that my account would now be an AdSense account. I started earning money there and when I reached the 100usd amount, with no explanation at all I got banned. I filled up contact forms but not reason was given to me. They just said that I was not going to have my money since it was going to…
You are the product, sorry to hear your story. I think situation would be better if there was a competition.
Wow, that's cliche (and wrong). Webhosts are not the product in this situation. This is a supplier-distributor relationship, where Google is the supplier (of ads) and you are the distributor (to end consumers).
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#149It's common knowledge among SEOs that AdSense tends to be disabled a few days before the supposed payout. I haven't lost any big sum - only $2000 but I know one person that lost $40,000. It was all legitimate traffic coming straight from Google themselves, no click fraud no bought traffic etc. PS: I was using AdSense from 2008 to 2013 - over 5 years so it's not like only new users got banned.
Sue them in small claims court. The filing fee is usually low so you're not risking much. Just because the contract says "Google can fuck you in the ass" doesn't mean that will actually hold up in court.
I hope the person who lost $40,000 consulted an attorney as well, as that easily passes the "worth paying for an hour of one's time" threshold.
Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you lost $2,000 because of Google. Would you do more about it if the sum suddenly disappeared from your bank account or the cell company overcharged you? I find most are afraid to stand up to Google because they're so omnipresent.
You'd have recourse if those things happened, whereas you don't have recourse if Google terminates your account. You enter into a contract where you agreed that they had this right and that payments would be forfeit. If a cell company overcharges you, you have a legal case for recovering that money. If Google terminates you, you have none, and going to court to fight a contract you agreed to is likely going to result…
Why can't you challenge the legitimacy of the contract? Not every contract stands up to court scrutiny.