The following are extracts from some of my responses to a Thread on the Entrecard Forums. A member was very upset about a "paid advertisement" that was appearing on her blog:
"Although i know his button didn't say it but I do think his site is a porn, I mean, I check it myself and there's a poll of sexy girls".
A bit of background: Entrecard has started a paid advertising program:
"Entrecard offers a dynamic advertiser experience, create and manage multiple campaigns on the fly and track your results in realtime. Choose between CPC for products and services, and CPM for brand building.
Sign up today and leverage the power of the Entrecard network."
This is a $ 0.03'er: UCONN lost last night and I'm a little, a little ticked.
A couple of weeks ago I, partly in jest, raised the issue of how EC would prevent "advertising shock" from being inflicted, on the many, very conservative, bloggers in our community. I talked about one of these imaginary bloggers, waking up in the morning, logging on their computer, and sitting with their young children reading the comments on their (very tame -Chatty Cathy) blog which had accumulated over night. Voila, Jack's Mail Enhacement EC card is sitting on their widget. I was honored, humbled, tears did come to my eyes to see "male enhancement" is banned from the product list. Now, I'm not a customer (yet) or the chairman of a male enhancement company. But it wouldn't bother me. However, not to beat a dead horse, but I did a keyword search of the blog being discussed. Holy crap, you approved this for general distribution!!!! Who is reviewing and approving the ads? I'd be a little pissed, and I don't really care. I thought "general" all categories distribution ads had to be, at least, pretty non confrontational.
This is a slippery slope time for EC. I am pretty broad minded, but there are certain things that can rub me the wrong way. I worked as a consultant in health care. I'll die, hopefully, at home in my bed watching college basketball. Like my mother, who was a nurse, my recurring nightmare is the loss of control the US medical system forces on its customers. i may not accept DR John's card on my widget.
I think get rich salesmen/women should be tarred and feathered like the snake oil peddlers of old. Now, when I see a lineup of 15 widgets (times four for me) I confess, I'm not looking, but I'm starting to wonder, who is? Widgets are starting to flash across my brain as I fall to sleep. I ask, did I really approve the one that said: "sell those kids, who are just making you miserable, for cash". And right after it, the same widget, but with another line in small print: "we also accept pets".
If the system can be abused it will be. I've noticed that some bloggers have appeared in my queue five of six times (maybe not that many, but more than once) and today the same widget back to back). I just caught on, they are redirecting their widget to individual pages. So if yesterday I approved their card, today I need to look again. I know Tom's Cats (the cats, Tom and you, dear readers) would be really pissed if they knew I was supporting efforts to allow cats as collateral for bail loans. And my 80 year old aunt who follows my blogs religiously, may have a stroke if she clicks on a widget that I normally trusted, but has redirected to one of their profanity laced, women bashing posts. Actually she was a child of a Suffragette. She'd probably get in her car and drive up north to kick my butt. The fifty cars she'd cut off the highway would have the real problems.
The system has been acting up tonight, so I can't double check, but I believe that, no matter what you indicate during the set up of an ad, ads are showing in all categories by default. I tried to place one in pets, but it showed up in all my blogs. I was very careful, because the first two ads I ran did the same thing (but I might have been confused at first). The setup screen can be confusing. I was very careful the last time.
A huge deal was made about the care that would be taken by EC so as not to "offend". By allowing cheap, broad spectrum advertising, EC is guaranteeing X% of the tens of thousand of bloggers are going to be offended. EC bloggers are seeing this as a way to cheaply cut down on dropping time and earn credits. I'll be honest, I have four "paid" ads myself running. I've earned more credits than I have in a long, long time, and I haven't been able to drop most of the evening. However, in knowing that I have not checked the quality of the sites I have approved I (1) know I have myself to blame and (2) feel I need to take a shower.
Real Paypal dollars are coming in to EC. They didn't go out and solicit outside advertisers. If they did, that person should be fired. EC's (the bloggers) are generating a solid cash stream for EC, the entity. I have made a new pot of coffee, and will try to write more about how I feel about that. But a monster has been set loose. Remember PacMan? Our widgets a being gobbled up! The get rich quick blogs, the "a little sex, just a little, the woman have some clothes on", the beer farts and fat jokes widgets will be living on our site for a long time.
I used to drink, I've been a recovering alcoholic for twenty years, I don't buy or seek out porn, but I'll always take a look. I'm no better or worse that the average person. The thing that is starting to upset me (besides the fact that Entrecard Wants Me To Support Graham Langdon's Cigarette Habit) is that never, in my wildest dreams did I ever believe EC was a venue that I needed to apply filters. The category system worked. i had choices as to what I wanted to see. By exercising absolutely no common sense in the review process, and allowing easy access to all category advertising, by allowing potential deception- never should the same widget image be allowed to have more that one ad running- EC- has put the total quality review on us, the members.
I have no desire to sit and open twenty, thirty sites a day to make sure that crap is not is appearing on my site. I'm talking crap, not sites I think are weak or worthless. I don't feel I am endorsing anyone. My blogs live in the Art, photography, lifestyle and pets categories. That's kinda who I am. I rarely rejected anyone in the past. Maybe 2 out of hundreds. I kinda think I just remembered their widget from a forum post. Their actual blog may have been fantastic, but I can be petty. I was also kinda expensive. Why waste credits on Comics Legends and Lore or Epicurean Health to advertise "goodold boy blog"?
But now the floodgates are opened. I feel like every dog in the neighborhood is sniffing around, ready to take a dump on my lawn! If I am not diligent. I work damn hard on my blogs. Even on my best days, I rarely if ever had more than one or two normal EC ads to approval. Most I knew, ones I didn't recognize I would check; go to the site, out of curiosity, and to potentially bookmark. Do I trust people, no, I honestly don't. Should I trust the EC review process. No. Will I be much, much more selective in approving paid ads. You betcha.
The creature, called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland mutating into a vegetable-like creature, a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, with Holland's memory and personality intact. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland."
My first few seeds of broccoli are sprouting! Tonight is warm enough to leave the windows open a crack!!! I know we will have a few last blows of winter, but I am looking forward to the days when I won't have to scrounge through rubble to find nature's colors.
You may enjoy reading: We spend time with those we love
You may also enjoy reading: One too many donuts
Please use the search bar below to look for content and photos across all of my blogs. Give it a whirl Enjoy:
Stumble It!
website: Time-less-image
web blog: Comics Legends and Lore
web blog: Epicurean Health
web blog: Time Less Images
web store: Time-Less-Image Ebay Store
Technorati Tags: pets
Blogs are ranked in various ways, and one of the more significant ones (besides linking or subscribing) happens via Technorati. In brief, Technorati tracks millions of blogs and lets users search them, tag them, and rank them. If you own a blog, or if you read them, I recommend signing up with Technorati (it's free and takes a couple minutes). And if you enjoy this blog, I encourage you, please, to "favorite" it. 
