4 ms·

Even if the "personal site" is kinkybattledungeonsandfoodfights.com, any account holder has the right to know what they did wrong.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
JoachimSchipper 15y ago
That policy is not compatible with keeping the seedier side of the internet in the dark about the algorithms used, which is why Google doesn't do that. (You can disagree with this, obviously, but Google does have its reasons.)
- mladenkovacevic 15y ago
  Sorry, can you explain a little more about this? How would e-mailing the account holder and telling them what they did wrong reveal the structure of the algorithm?
  - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
    If you're trying to scam Google (e.g. via click fraud), being told exactly how you were detected is rather useful if you want to be more successful next time.
    - mladenkovacevic 15y ago
      But the user here is not asking for their detection methods. Just a notice that something was detected at all would suffice I think. Then the user can at least say "Ops, busted!" or "Damn somebody is sabotaging my Adsense" and either do something to fix it or deactivate his/her account. It's especially curious that no such notice was given considering that he was in pretty regular contact with an account representative.
paulhauggis 15y ago
The problem is that they don't have any rights. Google makes the rules for Adsense and you need to follow them. You could try to sue them in court, but do you really want to spend thousands of dollars and waste all kinds of time? Something similar happened to me with Amazon. They kicked me off, never gave me a real reason, had automated responses, and now just ignore me. They also held $5000 for 3 months. I guess with 100% feedback and no complaints, they need to worry about me scamming them. You never think that if you are following all the rules that something like this will happen to you, but it will. I now will not base any income off of third-parties. It might be nice for some secondary income, but the risk is too high that they will destroy your revenue stream. It's sick that so many people make these companies thousands and thousands of dollars/month and they can't even give them the common courtesy of a real person to talk to when problems like this arise. The only reason they can get away with it is because they are a de facto monopoly.
- jack-r-abbit 15y ago
  Perhaps having a "right" is too strong of word. But I think anyone that has been told their account is banned because of some generic "risk" would want to know exactly what rule they violated... particularly if $40k is at stake. And while Google may be well within their right to just ban the account and never speak to the account holder again, then EVERYBODY needs to know that this can happen without warning and without recourse. I would imagine that the more people this happens to and the more people that know it, the fewer people would even start down that path. The real shame is that it is more likely to scare off more legit accounts than fraudsters. People with fraud (or gaming the system) in mind are just going to keep creating accounts and collecting as fast as they can before it gets shut down... and then move on and do it again.
shabble 15y ago
The cynical side of me suspects that it's easier to reject appeals if you don't ever tell the person what you actually suspect them of.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

JoachimSchipper 15y ago

That policy is not compatible with keeping the seedier side of the internet in the dark about the algorithms used, which is why Google doesn't do that. (You can disagree with this, obviously, but Google does have its reasons.)

mladenkovacevic 15y ago
Sorry, can you explain a little more about this? How would e-mailing the account holder and telling them what they did wrong reveal the structure of the algorithm?
- JoachimSchipper 15y ago
  If you're trying to scam Google (e.g. via click fraud), being told exactly how you were detected is rather useful if you want to be more successful next time.
  - mladenkovacevic 15y ago
    But the user here is not asking for their detection methods. Just a notice that something was detected at all would suffice I think. Then the user can at least say "Ops, busted!" or "Damn somebody is sabotaging my Adsense" and either do something to fix it or deactivate his/her account. It's especially curious that no such notice was given considering that he was in pretty regular contact with an account representative.

paulhauggis 15y ago

The problem is that they don't have any rights. Google makes the rules for Adsense and you need to follow them. You could try to sue them in court, but do you really want to spend thousands of dollars and waste all kinds of time? Something similar happened to me with Amazon. They kicked me off, never gave me a real reason, had automated responses, and now just ignore me. They also held $5000 for 3 months. I guess with 100% feedback and no complaints, they need to worry about me scamming them. You never think that if you are following all the rules that something like this will happen to you, but it will. I now will not base any income off of third-parties. It might be nice for some secondary income, but the risk is too high that they will destroy your revenue stream. It's sick that so many people make these companies thousands and thousands of dollars/month and they can't even give them the common courtesy of a real person to talk to when problems like this arise. The only reason they can get away with it is because they are a de facto monopoly.

jack-r-abbit 15y ago
Perhaps having a "right" is too strong of word. But I think anyone that has been told their account is banned because of some generic "risk" would want to know exactly what rule they violated... particularly if $40k is at stake. And while Google may be well within their right to just ban the account and never speak to the account holder again, then EVERYBODY needs to know that this can happen without warning and without recourse. I would imagine that the more people this happens to and the more people that know it, the fewer people would even start down that path. The real shame is that it is more likely to scare off more legit accounts than fraudsters. People with fraud (or gaming the system) in mind are just going to keep creating accounts and collecting as fast as they can before it gets shut down... and then move on and do it again.

shabble 15y ago

The cynical side of me suspects that it's easier to reject appeals if you don't ever tell the person what you actually suspect them of.