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Matrix

Matrix

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This new underground forum is used to store problematic threads, usually because they violated Google ad content policy. Google are very sensitive to topics about sex, tobacco and guns/explosives. When a thread violated Google's content policy, I have two options:

- Delete the thread.
- Remove ads, it needs code changes in several places, troublesome.

With this new ad-free forum we will simply move the thread here - easy for mods and no interruptions for the members.

New threads can't be started directly in this forum.
 
Matrix said:
This new underground forum is used to store problematic threads, usually because they violated Google ad content policy.

With this new ad-free forum we will simply move the thread here - easy for mods and no interruptions for the members.
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@Matrix : so this section of the forum cannot be 'seen' by Goggle's webcrawlers? Does Google sanction the forum for policy violations because of topics about sex, tobacco and guns/explosives ?
 
Nathan said:
@Matrix : so this section of the forum cannot be 'seen' by Goggle's webcrawlers? Does Google sanction the forum for policy violations because of topics about sex, tobacco and guns/explosives ?
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I don't place ads in this forum, so I don't have to follow their content policy.

Please understand though, this doesn't mean we will allow sexual content. Google can be very unreasonable sometimes, for example, a family friendly discussion will be treated as sexual content if the word "rape" appeared once.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Why not just delete the threads instead of going into stealth mode.
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In many cases the threads are perfectly OK. At the moment, all threads in this forum violated their policies, but if I request a human review, there is a big chance that the violations will be removed. I don't want to remove the threads only because Google's bot made a wrong judgement.

Moving them to a new ad-free forum seems to be an easy solution.
 
Matrix said:
In many cases the threads are perfectly OK. At the moment, all threads in this forum violated their policies, but if I request a human review, there is a big chance that the violations will be removed. I don't want to remove the threads only because Google's bot made a wrong judgement.

Moving them to a new ad-free forum seems to be an easy solution.
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I still don’t get it but when in Rome ....😊

Thanks, Matrix.
 
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Aunt Bea said:
I still don’t get it but when in Rome ....😊
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Maybe I should change the name, "underground" makes it sound like we're doing something sneaky.

Basically, Google told me to remove their ads from some thread because they don't like it for whatever reasons, they didn't ask me to remove the thread.

If it's not a bad thread, I choose to remove the ads by moving it here.
 
iu
 
Matrix said:
Maybe I should change the name, "underground" makes it sound like we're doing something sneaky.

Basically, Google told me to remove their ads from some thread because they don't like it for whatever reasons, they didn't ask me to remove the thread.

If it's not a bad thread, I choose to remove the ads by moving it here.
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Another option to prevent Google from crawling a forum is to make it accessible only to people logged in. Users would need to be logged in to read a forum or post in it. Bots wouldn't be able to enter the forum at all.

I don't know what the ad policy is for threads like that, but it definitely prevents it from being crawled.
 
Matrix said:
Maybe I should change the name, "underground" makes it sound like we're doing something sneaky.

Basically, Google told me to remove their ads from some thread because they don't like it for whatever reasons, they didn't ask me to remove the thread.

If it's not a bad thread, I choose to remove the ads by moving it here.
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I support keeping it "underground"...sounds so sneaky and old school l33t h4x0r-ish. ;) ;) ;)
 
Victor said:
I don't understand why forums must follow Google rules. It is not the only search engine. There are forums that mention sexual stuff all the time
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Those forums probaby don't run Google ads, which support the forum. While i use a couple of other search engines as much, Google is likely the most commonly used, particularly among the young like K-12 school.

If you think about it, Matrix's solution is quite good. Since forum Administrator can control where the ads are placed having an ad-free sub-forum where anything they complain aboutin rest of forum can be put is quite sensible.

As a bonus anyone that wishes to avoid such conversations, whether entirely or perhaps just sometimes for whatever reasons can.
 
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