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Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

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Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#281

Post by blacklight »

Time to go back to distributing direct apk files and setting up self-hosted stores to manage updates.

The Play Store was supposed to be only an interface for searching and installing packages, like aptitude or yum.

Then it started taking arbitrary decisions "for the benefit of the users" (of course, Google always knows what's best for its users, even more than the users themselves).

Then, like the guy who loves the smells of his own farts even when everybody around him disagrees, they decided that their process was indeed so good that it could have been completely automated, with almost no human touch and no possibility for developers and users to appeal.

And now it ended up being this Kafka novel where you're stuck in the gears of the process and you don't know why, nor when a real human will actually take a look at your case.

And, in the meantime, you lose traffic and users, but Google doesn't seem to care.

Time to start boycotting the Play Store. There's plenty of alternative stores, it's easy to set up one yourself for your apps, and you can always distribute your apk files through your website.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#282

Post by imaginenore »

blacklight wrote: post #281

Time to go back to distributing direct apk files and setting up self-hosted stores to manage updates. The Play Store was supposed to be only an interface for searching and installing packages, like aptitude or yum. Then it started taking arbitrary decisions "for the benefit of the users" (of course, Google always knows what's best for its users, even more than the users themselves). Then, like the guy who loves the s…

Or use an actually free (as in freedom) app store.

https://f-droid.org/

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#283

Post by SilasX »

astrange wrote: post #277
saurik wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "came out" at least 8 months ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23281564

And it wasn't true as stated (it didn't happen every time, the server didn't keep any logs, etc.)

>it didn't happen every time

True, but it didn't make much difference, since the reports from the thread showed it had a bizarrely short cache time.

>the server didn't keep any logs

Well, that's the rub isn't, it? Part of privacy-centric design is that you shouldn't have to risk such information being exposed or trust such reassurances; if they don't need the information, they shouldn't get it at all. There are privacy-respecting ways to do what they wanted to, which are also more efficient. For example, periodically update the machine's local revoked cert list, and check signatures against that (as several users recommended).

>etc

Was there anything substantively different from my characterization?

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#284

Post by saagarjha »

ttt0 wrote: post #219
handoflixue wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems disingenuous to bring up racial slurs in the context of profanity. They're two very different categories, even if they are both subsets of "words that can get you in trouble." As you acknowledge, the app in question was blocked for profanity, not slurs. As parent comment says, profanity seems to be mostly a religious issue. I can say "fuck" on TV, or in my novel, or even in my Hacker News comment. But I doub…

First of all, do you think that promoting LGBT would fly in a church? I'm pretty sure it's far more offensive to a religious person than saying "fuck". Second, before this issue got so big and everyone started talking about it, the official line was that they need to be "advertiser friendly". As stupid as I think it is, it seems far more likely than your explanation.

You seem far more sure than you should be; many churches are openly accepting of LGBT people.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#285

Post by saagarjha »

smartties wrote: post #154
heavyset_go wrote: post #139

Google and Apple have kept a stranglehold on the mobile application distribution market for over a decade now. It's time to break them up, or require them to allow other mobile app distributors on their platforms. Surely other companies can be more efficient with the 30% cut or less that Google takes, without forcing users to put up with the poor service that's exemplified by the article in the OP.

Apple now takes a 15% fee and has a really good review process (updates are reviewed by humans within a day or two)

This is a fairly rose-colored view. The 15% is recent and applies if you meet a list of conditions, and updates often get stuck just as they would on the Play Store.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#286

Post by saagarjha »

ttt0 wrote: post #46
ksec wrote: post #22

Well luckily this is Google. Which means there are no real human behind the suspension, most likely just an Automated response before some one steps in. ( Or not ) I would be furious if this was coming from Apple. And judging from the current Apple I would not be surprised if they will tell you to not use the "ASS" label in your support format.

Isn't their support service automated too? Isn't making a stink on the internet the only way to deal with issues like this, because it generates bad press for them?

Apple support is mostly humans. That being said, they usually have a script they will not stray from.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#287

Post by samatman »

jaspax wrote: post #167
bambax wrote: post #150

> Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Sexual Content and Profanity policy. What the fuck is "profanity"? Are we a religious society? Why shouldn't we able to say "ass" (!) or show nipples?? The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). But "profanity"? Come on.

Religion's got nothing to do with it. Racial slurs are a subset of "profanity", and I wager that you support Google's desire to not have apps in their store which prominently feature racial slurs. Every culture has its "bad words" which are forbidden to use in polite company. (Of course the actual app in question is still completely innocent, because Google's vetting process is a trash fire.)

The taboo against racial slurs is itself religious, by any clear-eyed concept of religion.

In the same sense that Thanksgiving is a holiday of the American civic religion, Martin Luther King, Jr. is a martyred saint of that religion. He has statues and a day of remembrance; any attempt to separate this from religious observance is going to have its work cut out for it.

I expect this will be interpreted as disrespecting the tenets of that religion, but I revere the Reverend Doctor and abstain from saying slurs out of piety, as well as ordinary fear.

I offer this as evidence: if the prohibition were part of a more general idea that we shouldn't insult other people, the use-mention distinction would still apply. Yet many lecturers have been dismissed for mentioning the n-slur, without directing it at anyone. The only conclusion which fits the facts is religious taboo.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#288

Post by duskwuff »

ffhhj wrote: post #98
alex_c wrote: post #39

It is infuriating that Google's default action for these automated takedowns is to remove the app and ask the developer to upload a new build with a new package name , which means not keeping any of the existing users. It's happened to two of my clients in the past 6 months based on small infractions in the app metadata, but no issue with the app itself. In both cases the app was taken down with no advance notice, an…

Google uses blacklists of words to demonetize Youtube channels. They have similar blacklists to ban Play apps. I found it the hard way when they removed my video recording app after I simply added "spy cam" in the list of features. Lesson of life learned, so I implemented ways to keep in contact with my users in case of sudden ban and ask them to move to a new app or another channel.

That's explicitly a violation of Google's Play Store Policies:

> Apps must not present themselves as a spying or secret surveillance solution.

If your application could be accurately described as a "spy cam", it's likely that you were already in violation of their stalkerware policies.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#289

Post by ttt0 »

saagarjha wrote: post #284
ttt0 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, do you think that promoting LGBT would fly in a church? I'm pretty sure it's far more offensive to a religious person than saying "fuck". Second, before this issue got so big and everyone started talking about it, the official line was that they need to be "advertiser friendly". As stupid as I think it is, it seems far more likely than your explanation.

You seem far more sure than you should be; many churches are openly accepting of LGBT people.

Hadn't that changed only very recently though? Not an American, so I forgot for a second that it's different there.
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