

Why is Google's AdSense doing the bidding of Scientology? - newsio
http://blogs.computerworld.com/why_is_googles_adsense_doing_the_bidding_of_scientology

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mrkurt
We've had a hell of a time getting Scientology ads out of our backfill
adsense. They show on feeds, in content, on forums, etc. The competitive ad
filters don't seem to be working either (or we're total morons who can't
figure out ad domains).

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grandalf
do you also block ads that pertain to other religions? Or are you a sectarian
opposer of Scientology? :)

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jrockway
Scientology is not a religion, it's a scam. Do you delete 411 scams from your
email? Same thing.

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grandalf
Do you differentiate between Scientology and other mainstream religions like
Mormonism, Catholocism, Judaism, etc.?

I don't. You say Zenu I say tomato.

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jrockway
Personally, I think all religion is silly. But, mainstream Christianity is
rather harmless compared to Scientology. It doesn't require its members to
sink money into its lawsuit fund, for example. (But sure, there are crazy
Christian groups too.)

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grandalf
The Catholic church, for example, has had quite a head start, during which
time it's done things that make Scientology's worst alleged misdeeds look
quite harmless.

I don't think anyone is required to donate, though there are varying amounts
of pressure in various religions -- Catholicism focuses mostly on estates and
wills to amass its billions.

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icey
What does that have to do with adsense at all?

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grandalf
read the parent(s)...

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icey
So... absolutely nothing to do with adsense then. Gotcha.

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grandalf
uh, yeah... the story was about adsense and scientology, and the point of
nested comments is to zoom in...

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rubinelli
I must confess that, after a week seeing those horribly distracting ads, I
started clicking just to make sure they were at least paying for the
annoyance.

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ErrantX
The title is a bit misleading. Clearly Scientology have spent a lot of money
to make it to the top of the pile; Google have nothing to do with it.

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far33d
But wouldn't he be seeing a change in his CPM rates?

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jacquesm
pretty much since the start google adsense has offered a 'competitive ad
filter' which you can use to block unwanted ads.

Incidentally, this is also a great way to get your CPM up quite a bit if you
use it smartly.

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Tichy
I thought of that as well when I read the article. Surely the author must have
tried that?

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sfphotoarts
Why isn't everyone using AdBlock? Isn't this pretty standard these days? I
haven't seen a web ad for a long while and since I don't have TV the only ads
I see are in Hulu and on the street.

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tybris
because I don't care and hardly even notice them. I've gone banner blind in
the 90's during the animated gif pandemic.

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eli
I'm having a hard time mustering a whole lot of sympathy. If you want the
ability to individually approve each ad then Google is definitely the wrong
tool for the job.

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grandalf
Most of the anti-Scientology crusade is motivated by other sects who simply
don't like competition. It's pretty ironic that they make fun of Zenu, etc.,
when their own beliefs do no better in the absurdity department!

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jrockway
Atheism is a "sect" now?

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grandalf
You seem to have taken the bait of my comment -- you assume that anti-
Scientologists are atheists! I'd argue that they are Christians.

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Retric
Atheism is the largest religion.

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jrockway
Atheism is not a religion.

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Retric
As an Agnostic, I disagree. Atheism makes strong clames about "God(s)" without
any evedence.

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grandalf
Not at all, Atheists don't grant beliefs associated with religion special
status.

To an atheist, the statement "a small pink elephant named wilson created the
universe with a squeeky sneeze" and "God created the universe in 7 days" are
equally likely to be true...

An atheist may not assign a probability of 1 to the truth of each of his/her
beliefs, but he/she considers all absurd beliefs equally unlikely, and grants
that science has allowed humanity to make educated estimates about many such
probabilities.

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Retric
If you beleave there is a 99/100 or a 1 in 100 billion chance there is a god
of some sort you are an Agnostic. If you beleve there is zero chance there is
a god you are an Atheist.

Ok, an agnostic is more likely to say I have no idea what the odds of a god
are nor is there anyway to determine them.

PS: Let's say our universe was created by Ted. And you ask him, who created
your universe and he says "I have no idea".

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grandalf
Well, if you're rational then you believe that there is some chance that any
belief you consider "true" will turn out not to be.

I think of agnosticism as saying "I am not capable of knowing", whereas
atheists say "Sure none of my beliefs have a 100% probability of being true,
but as a human I need to use what provisional knowledge I have in a meaningful
way."

In other words, evidence is worth more to atheists than it is to agnostics,
who (in spite of evidence) still focus on their inability to know for sure.

I think we're having the "strong/weak atheism/agnosticism" debate... I happen
to consider myself an atheist b/c I act as though I believe there is no god
just as I act like my laptop is not on fire when I type this.... and it works.

