Dylan, KTL, BBC World Service interview - Google responds at last

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
12,954
Location
Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I post this with some trepidation - and hope that I have not crossed the line

but I love the democracy of this forum - if a thread is dull it dies - if its of interest to sailors it thrives - and one way of another my sailing around Britain project appears to be of some minor interest to my fellow sailors.

I have had some emails from some unsettled sailing website owners who fear that the same could happen to them - and without any real means of appeal.

The story of the near sinking of KTL by a Google algorithm has produced a couple of long - and passionate - threads

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257509&highlight=google

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257353&highlight=google

The story spread from here to the Duckworks website

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/11/columns/guest/winter/index.htm

and from thence out across the web - normally KTL gets about ten fresh google hits a day - just before new year it was getting 700. The computer business blogosphere was pretty evenly divided between those who said I broke the rules and deserved to be taken off adsense - and those who said that this was a really rubbish way to deal with human beings.

In the end the story got picked up by the BBC world service who invited Google to comment.

I have lifted the interview and posted it on the bottom of my website

www.keepturningleft.co.uk

a nice man from Google called Ben Novick - who was 'unable' to meet me face to face in the studio eventually did come into Bush House to do an interview with the Worldservice. I have listened to what he said and it does seem to me that generally when Google decides to close down a business it is done by computers and not by people.

Just for those concerned about the future of KTL - the slug is still afloat in Wells and I am planning to film the north Norfolk coast, the wash and as far north as the Humber this summer. Scotland will have to wait for 2012.

Dylan
 
At least the youth from Google has given you the names of other businesses that you could approach to run ads on your site!

Pity the interviewer didn't ask him to justify the fact that Google is still placing ads on your site and, presumably, trousering the revenue.
 
Twister_Ken said:
At least the youth from Google has given you the names of other businesses that you could approach to run ads on your site!
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. Are these competitor websites also revenue-generating? Based on your existing web-presence, can you not move all your trucking and sailing videos to one of these without too much loss of your existing 'following'? Maybe the revenue-stream will be lower intially, but I'm sure Yahoo or other significant video-hosting websites would be more than big enough to allow your sales to rise over time.

One wonders whether, like private banking customers who still have bank managers rather than the rest of us hoi-paloi who have to deal with call-centres and algorythms, you'd be able to agree a deal with a person rather than a robot?

Anyway, good luck!

Babs
 
Hmm, just getting a response is something I guess.

Good luck & best wishes for the New Season. I'm still not a great video watcher, I prefer books, but I love what you are doing (especially HOW you are doing it) & enjoy your posts Dylan.
 
Dylan,

Not been on the Forum much recently but popped in today and found and read your initial thread on this. Really sorry to hear about the situation.

I've subscribed as I loved seeing the videos you posted and SWMBO needs to see the East Coast ones to inspire our journey there this season.

I know you have mentioned the problems with getting publicity about this - have you tried Rob Smith who presents on BBC South East - he sailed his Sadler 32 round Britain a couple of years ago for charity so might have an interest.

Best of luck,
 
dylanwinter said:
I post this with some trepidation - and hope that I have not crossed the line

but I love the democracy of this forum - if a thread is dull it dies - if its of interest to sailors it thrives - and one way of another my sailing around Britain project appears to be of some minor interest to my fellow sailors.

I have had some emails from some unsettled sailing website owners who fear that the same could happen to them - and without any real means of appeal.

The story of the near sinking of KTL by a Google algorithm has produced a couple of long - and passionate - threads

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257509&highlight=google

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257353&highlight=google

The story spread from here to the Duckworks website

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/11/columns/guest/winter/index.htm

and from thence out across the web - normally KTL gets about ten fresh google hits a day - just before new year it was getting 700. The computer business blogosphere was pretty evenly divided between those who said I broke the rules and deserved to be taken off adsense - and those who said that this was a really rubbish way to deal with human beings.

In the end the story got picked up by the BBC world service who invited Google to comment.

I have lifted the interview and posted it on the bottom of my website

www.keepturningleft.co.uk

a nice man from Google called Ben Novick - who was 'unable' to meet me face to face in the studio eventually did come into Bush House to do an interview with the Worldservice. I have listened to what he said and it does seem to me that generally when Google decides to close down a business it is done by computers and not by people.

Just for those concerned about the future of KTL - the slug is still afloat in Wells and I am planning to film the north Norfolk coast, the wash and as far north as the Humber this summer. Scotland will have to wait for 2012.

Dylan
Click to expand...



THIS IS A COMPUTER GENERATED MESSAGE FROM SAILORMAN :cool:


Well done Dylan, pleased to hear that something might be happening to resolve KTL,in this Faceless world run by Giant companies who bully the Little Man.
Roger
 
On the radio prog, the suit just went through some standard phrases.. I should think they will avoid making adjustments in individual cases at all costs, they would most probably get inundated by ex-adsensers..
 
still no contact from Google

I am amazed that still no human at Google has allowed me to communicate with them - and that they ducked out of meeting me in the studio at the World service

I would love to know if they really gave the £3,700 back to the advertisers and if a human ever looked at my case before they closed me down.

However, one of the people from the BBC radio financial unit has forwarded my story to Newsnight

so with any luck I might get into the studio with Paxo and a Google bod - which will be great fun

so - if they do ask me to come in

can anyone loan me a blue ensign, a pair of Dubarrys, a nice blazer with a yacht squadron badge on it and cravatte.

and what sort of anchor would you recommend?

Dylan
 
Surely Paxman is the anchor?

And look poor. No cravat but maybe one of those red dog-bandanas thingies around your neck, and a weeping child on your knee.

PS - I'll post that Mariner's Mirror when the queues at the PO stop coming out into the street.
 
Last edited:
dylanwinter said:
I am amazed that still no human at Google has allowed me to communicate with them - and that they ducked out of meeting me in the studio at the World service

I would love to know if they really gave the £3,700 back to the advertisers and if a human ever looked at my case before they closed me down.

However, one of the people from the BBC radio financial unit has forwarded my story to Newsnight

so with any luck I might get into the studio with Paxo and a Google bod - which will be great fun

so - if they do ask me to come in

can anyone loan me a blue ensign, a pair of Dubarrys, a nice blazer with a yacht squadron badge on it and cravatte.

and what sort of anchor would you recommend?

Dylan
Click to expand...

if you could get a contact with yahoo pr who realize's that google's position in public
regard could be hurt, thus giving yahoo an advantage by promoting the fact that google is treating the man in the street badly. you might be able to get a good deal from yahoo.. I doubt it but big co's can be hurt badly by when the masses realise that they are been taken for fools
 
management by algorithm

fergie_mac66 said:
if you could get a contact with yahoo pr who realize's that google's position in public
regard could be hurt, thus giving yahoo an advantage by promoting the fact that google is treating the man in the street badly. you might be able to get a good deal from yahoo.. I doubt it but big co's can be hurt badly by when the masses realise that they are been taken for fools
Click to expand...

I think I am coming up against a fundamental here in that google does not do the people stuff.

In the interview Ben Novick was kind enough to point out that there are other companies that deal with website adverts

sadly he failed to add that the only people who can place adverts on the google owned youtube are the google owned adsense - from whom I appear to be enjoying a life time ban

in the old days this was called a monopoly

now its called economies of scale and cross selling

I think that if they were going to let me back in they would have done so by now

if you look at this article


http://filmmakeriq.com/2011/01/how-google-can-ban-filmmakers-for-life-without-reason/

the bloke who wrote it has raised some of the more interesting clauses in the google contract

Don’t bother fighting Google.

Let’s take a closer look at Google’s Adsense terms:

Google reserves the right to refuse participation to any applicant or participant at any time in its sole discretion.

You may not create a new account to use the Program after Google has terminated this Agreement with You as a result of your breach of this Agreement

Engage in any action or practice that reflects poorly on Google or otherwise disparages or devalues Google’s reputation or goodwill.

Google reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back Your account due to any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You.

Every company has the right to set their own rules, including not allowing you to use their service. I’ve always hated it when someone goes on about how some private company censored them. I would always think, it’s only censorship if it’s the government. If you don’t like their service don’t use it. After all, there are other video hosts that pay content creators, such as Revver and Blip.tv (stop laughing).

But….

Has Google become more powerful than governments? They surely are on the internet.



that said if Google came along to me and offered to sponsor KTL and asked me to rename the slug....



D
 
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