Most of you have noticed that we often have Church of Scientology ads running on our site. We use Google AdSense, which picks ads based on the text of a given page. Advertisers purchase keywords, and the more frequently those words are used, the more likely their ads will run. This means we have no control over what ads appear. Of course, the irony of Scientology ads appearing on Enturbulation is not lost on us.
This morning, we received an email from Google AdSense:
Quote:
Hello {Admin},
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.
If you have any questions about your account or the actions we've
taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information
by visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...57153&hl=en_US.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
|
It is safe to assume that the Church of Scientology did not like paying for ads which effectively supported our site, and contacted Google about this. However, as we have no control over the ads, the situation is rather frustrating.
Imagine if Pepsi ads began appearing on Coke's website. Would Pepsi be able to have Coke's adsense account disabled? It is not implausible to imagine the Church of Scientology buying keywords such as "Anonymous" and "Enturbulation" (ensuring that their ads would appear on our site) with the sole purpose of disabling our account.
Financially, this is an inconvenience, but not a threat. We have a cash buffer, allowing us to continue for several months at our current usage. In addition, the admins and mods feel strongly enough about the success of Chanology that we will personally ensure the continued operation of Enturbulation.org.
All we ask of you, the users, is to spread the word of this new development. Contact Google (we'll find the proper email addresses) and let them know what you think. In the event of a hostile entity purchasing ads with the specific purpose of disabling the site's adsense account, what options or recourse does the site have? Ask them, ask digg, ask anyone who might listen.
-----------------
DIGG THIS: Digg - Google kills Anonymous AdSense account
-----------------
(This post will be updated as we learn more, and if we are able to contact a live person at Google. In the mean time, we are looking for alternate advertising systems.)