someproteinguy wrote:
Also, a more serious question. Did Fishy find
"the list" or something akin to it?
Also also, does linking to a link to a list of bad words require a NSFW tag?
Thats quite a bit more inclusive than the list that will be implemented, but along the same lines. I don't care if you link to such a list, though it probably should have a nws tag if it is particularily graphic since one of the main reasons I require a NWS tag is for the people that can still access the site here but have something like websense in place at work that can trigger and send employers a nastygram if their employees visit sites with certain text in their pages. Link content that would require a NWS tag has not changed from what it has always been, The only change to links today would be you can't use a link that contains a word from the new filter because it would break the link.
This is a mechanical requirement rule change rather than one due to any particular ethical or moral standpoint on our part. If you can craft a replacement word that looks similar to one that is filtered in here, and the filter doesn't block it, I don't particularily care. If google adsense decides they care, we'll add that to the filter as we go.
This situation is not unique to our site, and you are going to see similar restrictions on larger forums across the board in the next few months, depending on how open the admins of those various forums are with their users. I fully expect there to come a tipping point where there is a free speech backlash against google adsense of some sort. Until then, I fully expect these requirements to kill some forums dead and buried, and I am not happy about it in the slightest. I would have preferred that we instead pull all ads from all forum content and stick the forum in it's own separate namespace, but that is not happening. There is definitly an argument for that approach though. no ads, and the forum population would grow, which in turn translates to more people using the ad saturated main site sections. No one wants to test that theory though.
The only good thing I see to come out of this is that adsense is essentially killling itself off too http://www.zdnet.com/googles-earnings-what-future-for-plunging-adsense-business-7000025764/ by piuling more restrictions on in an attempt to clean up their own generated ad content, they are going to eventually **** off more large companies that will find less restrictive solutions. I fully expect to see a quiet change in policy from them at some point. The question will be is it going to be in time to do any good for us. People leave forums when things ignore them. I don't see a way around this one though for now, and that makes me sad. It feels like we have this big massive steel forum construct built, and now we're taking a hacksaw to one of the legs holding it up.