4 ms·

Whenever I ban a user from one of my sites for an infraction, he invariably points to several other infracting users and says "well why do they get to post porn

by pud 14y ago

Whenever I ban a user from one of my sites for an infraction, he invariably points to several other infracting users and says "well why do they get to post porn (or ads for weapons or whatever) and I don't?" The reason is because I didn't catch the other users. Or their infraction isn't as bad. While I feel bad for the knife company, I also know dealing with user-generated content (like these ads) is hard.

ScottWhigham 14y ago
I think so much of these types of actions stem from growing pains. It all stars with defining a policy (no assisted open knife ads!). You then have managers telling their employees to enforce it, but the TOS hasn't been updated and the front-line employees do not have the tools to really identify who is actively infringing. Once the front-line employees come back with dozens of complaints (or users complain), the management realizes the mistakes and things get righted. I'm sure it's no different for you - once you create the policy, you experience the problems implementing the policy that then force/cause you to create the tools/etc.
kybernetyk 14y ago
> dealing with user-generated content (like these ads) is hard. That's not really an excuse because no one forces Google to be in the user generated ad business. They want money from advertisers so they should do all they can to offer the best service possible.
- kkowalczyk 14y ago
  If the advertiser is not happy with Google's service, they are free to use another service. "no one forces you to do X" argument cuts both ways?
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    Google has such a large percentage of search traffic that your competitors who are not flagged will have a huge advantage over you.
  - robryan 14y ago
    Unfortunately that other service doesn't exist. Sure there are other places to advertise but for a lot of businesses it won't come close to replacing Adwords.
josefresco 14y ago
"The reason is because I didn't catch the other users. Or their infraction isn't as bad." That's your reason, not Google's. Google knows full well who is bidding on what keyword. Are you suggesting they are under-staffed, under budgeted or overwhelmed in their task of keeping AdWords clean? I'm not buying it. Google has the resources to evenly apply guidelines, they're not a one-man show who's too busy to squash out violators.
- kkowalczyk 14y ago
  The famous last words. Of course they are overwhelmed by the taks of keeping AdWords clean, just like Apple is overwhelmed by the task of timely approving apps for App Store, despite having more money than god and the number of AdWord ads submitted to Google is several orders of magnitude greater than number of Apps submitted to Apple. Processes that involve humans are inherently non-scalable and determining whether an ad crosses the line of acceptable usage is a human task. And humans have different opinions so there will never be "evenly applying guidelines", not for google ads, not for App Store apps. The only time 3 people have exactly the same opinion is when 2 of them are dead.
  - paborden 14y ago
    Reminds me of the time an Apple staffer called me to discuss an app I had submitted. "We'd rather discuss this on the phone," he said. "What's up?" "We can approve your app, but can you please remove all references to midgets touching themselves, first?" Would've paid to have seen that in writing.
    - fnayr 14y ago
      I need to download that app NOW
- mgrabowski 14y ago
  > While I feel bad for the knife company, I also know dealing with user-generated content (like these ads) is hard. Uh, what? Where does it state that the ads are user generated?
dhimes 14y ago
It is hard to do it right. But that's the problem- they don't do it right. Doing it wrong is unacceptable.
xenophanes 14y ago
The reason Amazon and Walmart get to do stuff is not because Google didn't notice them. If there was some small company that got away with it, you might be right. But the issue here isn't Walmart's actions going unnoticed.

by pud 14y ago

ScottWhigham 14y ago

I think so much of these types of actions stem from growing pains. It all stars with defining a policy (no assisted open knife ads!). You then have managers telling their employees to enforce it, but the TOS hasn't been updated and the front-line employees do not have the tools to really identify who is actively infringing. Once the front-line employees come back with dozens of complaints (or users complain), the management realizes the mistakes and things get righted. I'm sure it's no different for you - once you create the policy, you experience the problems implementing the policy that then force/cause you to create the tools/etc.

kybernetyk 14y ago

> dealing with user-generated content (like these ads) is hard. That's not really an excuse because no one forces Google to be in the user generated ad business. They want money from advertisers so they should do all they can to offer the best service possible.

kkowalczyk 14y ago
If the advertiser is not happy with Google's service, they are free to use another service. "no one forces you to do X" argument cuts both ways?
- cooldeal 14y ago
  Google has such a large percentage of search traffic that your competitors who are not flagged will have a huge advantage over you.
- robryan 14y ago
  Unfortunately that other service doesn't exist. Sure there are other places to advertise but for a lot of businesses it won't come close to replacing Adwords.

josefresco 14y ago

"The reason is because I didn't catch the other users. Or their infraction isn't as bad." That's your reason, not Google's. Google knows full well who is bidding on what keyword. Are you suggesting they are under-staffed, under budgeted or overwhelmed in their task of keeping AdWords clean? I'm not buying it. Google has the resources to evenly apply guidelines, they're not a one-man show who's too busy to squash out violators.

kkowalczyk 14y ago
The famous last words. Of course they are overwhelmed by the taks of keeping AdWords clean, just like Apple is overwhelmed by the task of timely approving apps for App Store, despite having more money than god and the number of AdWord ads submitted to Google is several orders of magnitude greater than number of Apps submitted to Apple. Processes that involve humans are inherently non-scalable and determining whether an ad crosses the line of acceptable usage is a human task. And humans have different opinions so there will never be "evenly applying guidelines", not for google ads, not for App Store apps. The only time 3 people have exactly the same opinion is when 2 of them are dead.
- paborden 14y ago
  Reminds me of the time an Apple staffer called me to discuss an app I had submitted. "We'd rather discuss this on the phone," he said. "What's up?" "We can approve your app, but can you please remove all references to midgets touching themselves, first?" Would've paid to have seen that in writing.
  - fnayr 14y ago
    I need to download that app NOW
mgrabowski 14y ago
> While I feel bad for the knife company, I also know dealing with user-generated content (like these ads) is hard. Uh, what? Where does it state that the ads are user generated?

dhimes 14y ago

It is hard to do it right. But that's the problem- they don't do it right. Doing it wrong is unacceptable.

xenophanes 14y ago

The reason Amazon and Walmart get to do stuff is not because Google didn't notice them. If there was some small company that got away with it, you might be right. But the issue here isn't Walmart's actions going unnoticed.