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I'm not sure what specifically caused it, but a representative from the Play policy team just reached out to us and has given a thorough review of our developer

I'm not sure what specifically caused it, but a representative from the Play policy team just reached out to us and has given a thorough review of our developer account and reinstated it. We are extremely grateful to anyone in this community that may have played a hand in having a real person at the Play policy team reach out, as well as the ongoing conversation here to improve overall relations between the Play store and it's developers.

opportune 8y ago
More proof google support only works if you manage to get publicity... otherwise you are SOL
- Razengan 8y ago
  Many companies are like that. What happens when your outlets for complaints are blocked as well? What if HN, Twitter, Reddit mods, etc. were asked by the company to stifle any dissent against it, and obliged, where would you go?
  - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
    The difference is I give zero shits about twitter, reddit, HN , facebook. Google has absolute monopoly on mail, maps, android, play store, apps, dev, drive. Is being banned by twitter the same as being banned by google?
  - comex 8y ago
    > What if HN, Twitter, Reddit mods, etc. were asked by the company to stifle any dissent against it, and obliged, where would you go? Huh? Why would you expect any of those entities to oblige such a request? Other than perhaps some Reddit mods, depending on the subreddit.
    - shakna 8y ago
      An automated DMCA system could be abused to stifle dissent. Like JetBrains recent DMCA to shutdown the /r/piracy subreddit [0], not for all the probably illegal stuff, but for "Asking about JetBrains Licensing". [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/b2xslo/reddit_legal_sends_a_dmca_shutdown_warning_to_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/b2xslo/reddit_legal...
mark-r 8y ago
This has happened often enough in the past that they probably have a procedure in place. It keeps the internet from blowing up in their face but it doesn't solve the underlying problem.
- binarymax 8y ago
  They probably have a bot that monitors Reddit and HN and flags to a human if the story gets enough upvotes
  - maccard 8y ago
    Or they have humans who work there who see these threads and message a friend saying "hey what's going with this?"
comboy 8y ago
I was just rationalizing in my head that I only hear one side of the story, that surely there were some good reasons they were banned. Google has a lot of users, and I only hear about those worst cases and so on. But no, get to the frontpage and poof, it's solved. It really sucks for all those startups who didn't have luck getting their post viral.
- yeldarb 8y ago
  Even if you do go viral there's no guarantee :-/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 It's 7 years later and my company is still banned from Adsense and to this day they've never told us why. On the bright side, I should be seeing some of the class action settlement money any day now.. http://www.adsensepublishersettlement.com http://www.adsensepublishersettlement.com
  - philliphaydon 8y ago
    I had about 30 domains at one point so I set them all up on Adsense as I wasn’t using them. I spent about 3 days setting it up. On the last day I went and checked all 30 domains to make sure I setup all of them. 2 days later I got banned. So I was on Adsense for 5 days total. But I’ve never cared to contest it cos I don’t care. But I don’t understand how Google can’t ignore my views to Adsense.
    - cableshaft 8y ago
      Exactly, they can definitely detect your own views, why they can't just toss them out, I don't know. One time I got curious what the ads on my site were for and checked a few of the links out. I was banned permanently shortly after.
      - Rogger 8y ago
        Hello
- SiVal 8y ago
mehrdadn 8y ago
Since you have a point of contact, it might not be a bad idea to ask them what you are supposed to do if it happens again? Surely they don't want you to post on HN every time?
technics256 8y ago
I run a Healthcare company and we got banned. No reason, nothing. The only thing I can think of is not updating the expo SMS api in time; we hadn't even published anything before. You may have gotten lucky but there are countless others who didn't.
ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
The exact same ban happened to the startup I was working before but unfortunately we didn't post to hackernews or Reddit and they never got their account back. Banned for the entire life of all the devs that ever worked in the startup because one dev had multiple sign-in enabled
- freedomben 8y ago
  That is positively insane policy. I love Google but this completely violates the "Don't Be Evil" motto.
  - SallySwanSmith 8y ago
    Scarlet letter....
  - ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
    We all love Google until we get their boots on our face with absolute no customer support whatsoever.

opportune 8y ago

More proof google support only works if you manage to get publicity... otherwise you are SOL

Razengan 8y ago
Many companies are like that. What happens when your outlets for complaints are blocked as well? What if HN, Twitter, Reddit mods, etc. were asked by the company to stifle any dissent against it, and obliged, where would you go?
- ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
  The difference is I give zero shits about twitter, reddit, HN , facebook. Google has absolute monopoly on mail, maps, android, play store, apps, dev, drive. Is being banned by twitter the same as being banned by google?
- comex 8y ago
  > What if HN, Twitter, Reddit mods, etc. were asked by the company to stifle any dissent against it, and obliged, where would you go? Huh? Why would you expect any of those entities to oblige such a request? Other than perhaps some Reddit mods, depending on the subreddit.
  - shakna 8y ago
    An automated DMCA system could be abused to stifle dissent. Like JetBrains recent DMCA to shutdown the /r/piracy subreddit [0], not for all the probably illegal stuff, but for "Asking about JetBrains Licensing". [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/b2xslo/reddit_legal_sends_a_dmca_shutdown_warning_to_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/b2xslo/reddit_legal...

mark-r 8y ago

This has happened often enough in the past that they probably have a procedure in place. It keeps the internet from blowing up in their face but it doesn't solve the underlying problem.

binarymax 8y ago
They probably have a bot that monitors Reddit and HN and flags to a human if the story gets enough upvotes
- maccard 8y ago
  Or they have humans who work there who see these threads and message a friend saying "hey what's going with this?"

comboy 8y ago

I was just rationalizing in my head that I only hear one side of the story, that surely there were some good reasons they were banned. Google has a lot of users, and I only hear about those worst cases and so on. But no, get to the frontpage and poof, it's solved. It really sucks for all those startups who didn't have luck getting their post viral.

yeldarb 8y ago
Even if you do go viral there's no guarantee :-/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 It's 7 years later and my company is still banned from Adsense and to this day they've never told us why. On the bright side, I should be seeing some of the class action settlement money any day now.. http://www.adsensepublishersettlement.com http://www.adsensepublishersettlement.com
- philliphaydon 8y ago
  I had about 30 domains at one point so I set them all up on Adsense as I wasn’t using them. I spent about 3 days setting it up. On the last day I went and checked all 30 domains to make sure I setup all of them. 2 days later I got banned. So I was on Adsense for 5 days total. But I’ve never cared to contest it cos I don’t care. But I don’t understand how Google can’t ignore my views to Adsense.
  - cableshaft 8y ago
    Exactly, they can definitely detect your own views, why they can't just toss them out, I don't know. One time I got curious what the ads on my site were for and checked a few of the links out. I was banned permanently shortly after.
    - Rogger 8y ago
      Hello
SiVal 8y ago

mehrdadn 8y ago

Since you have a point of contact, it might not be a bad idea to ask them what you are supposed to do if it happens again? Surely they don't want you to post on HN every time?

technics256 8y ago

I run a Healthcare company and we got banned. No reason, nothing. The only thing I can think of is not updating the expo SMS api in time; we hadn't even published anything before. You may have gotten lucky but there are countless others who didn't.

ganeshkrishnan 8y ago

The exact same ban happened to the startup I was working before but unfortunately we didn't post to hackernews or Reddit and they never got their account back. Banned for the entire life of all the devs that ever worked in the startup because one dev had multiple sign-in enabled

freedomben 8y ago
That is positively insane policy. I love Google but this completely violates the "Don't Be Evil" motto.
- SallySwanSmith 8y ago
  Scarlet letter....
- ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
  We all love Google until we get their boots on our face with absolute no customer support whatsoever.