397476579 4f052c76cf Burning the bridge (to nowhere)
Some of you came here looking for my Dark theme for Google’s new browser, and you may be surprised to find that I have removed it. I have done this for 2 reasons:

  • Chrome is insecure, collects your data, and offers no real benefit over firefox.
  • Google decided to disable my AdSense account and “Gave back” a substantial amount of revenue 6 days before payday without explaining why.
  • Adsense support will not reply to any email or forms that I submit. They ignore me like they do so many others.

    • Their canned “Content related” Disabled Account email:

    Hello Me,

    While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense
    account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since
    keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage
    our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

    Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the
    interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We
    realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in
    advance for your understanding and cooperation.

    - Adsense

    My response (I didn’t save it):

    Dear Google,

    (~2 pages of me whining)

    Sincerely,

    Me

    Here’s their canned response to my appeal:

    Thanks for providing us with additional information. However, after
    thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into
    consideration, we’ve re-confirmed that your account poses a significant
    risk to our advertisers. For this reason, we’re unable to reinstate your
    account. Thank you for your understanding.

    As a reminder, if you have any questions about your account or the actions
    we’ve taken, please do not reply to this email.

    This may not sound like a big deal, I mean it happens all the time right? My main issue is that they don’t want you to create multiple accounts for separate websites. They tell you to create channels for each site, then when you hit $200 or so, they go through each one with a white fucking glove. Then they don’t have the common courtesy to tell me why, or which content violated their TOS. I sent another letter back to them explaining that my sites contain 3rd party and user generated content, and that I work hard to keep it clean, but cannot always remove shit instantly.

    Hello,

    I recently received a response to my first appeal to get more information regarding the actions taken against my account. I would appreciate your feedback so that I may troubleshoot this issue. Due to the nature of dynamic/user generated content (IE: forum posts, comments, etc), my sites may temporarily contain content that is not suitable, though it is often removed within a matter of minutes or at least the first opportunity I have. I work very diligently to maintain a clean and friendly environment for my users, but as with any website offering user access and posting privileges, I often have to deal with negative users and content posted by them.
    Again, I use one account to manage ads via channels for multiple sites and I require specific instances wherein damages were incurred. Instances should include dates, times, and links to the pages containing said damaging content. in order to narrow down the possible violation. This information may also be vital in determining whether or not my account was the victim of so called “Adsense bombing” by a disgruntled user or malicious person.
    Also, according to your FAQ, “… publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed any further participation in AdSense. For this reason, these publishers may not open new accounts.” If you are unable to reinstate my account, can you confirm that I will be able to create a new account as this one was not disabled for invalid click activity?

    Thank you for your time,
    Me.

    No response. I sent it again a few days ago. Today, I sent it to adsense-support-aff@google.com (ads for feeds, in desperation). Maybe their customer service sweatshop got hit by a typhoon… Or maybe they just don’t care about their users who generate ~$6 billion per year (though their payout is 85%).

    science 300x65 Burning the bridge (to nowhere)

    So, I’ve been to a few other blogs and read about how their accounts were disabled for what ever reason (they seriously never tell you why, but most likely Scientology related). The story is always the same. Ads do well, Google’s “advertiser” doesn’t like your content (or they found “suspicious activity”), Goodbye money.

    So, long story short. I don’t support Google in any way. If you are a publisher looking for an advertising system that lets the advertiser choose whether or not they like your content PRIOR to it appearing, I suggest Project Wonderful. These are the guys that Enturbulation turned to after PedoGoogle stole their candy and gave it to Tom Cruise.

    Use Firefox (it costs Google money), install Scroogle SSL in your searchbar, and click every Adsense you see five thousand times. Once enough accounts start getting disabled, and enough high traffic sites go down, maybe they will start paying better attention to their users and revise their mafia policies. Or not, who cares.

    Firefox 3

    Prior to putting AdSense ads on my site whoring myself out to AdSense for free, I removed a bunch of old posts that may have been deemed inappropriate. I’d just like to let you know that I have re-published all the old content. You can check em out in the archives!

    Note, I am not affiliated with any of the companies/projects mentioned above, they didn’t pay me a dime. Google, however, may be asking themselves what the price of bad PR is. At what point do they lose more money by stealing from honest publishers than losing customers with their Scientological practices? Let’s help them find out.