# TV Tropes is in trouble

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 31, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943 "2010-10-31T01:03:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/121 "2010-11-03T20:26:10Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> That was a Google search. I wonder why it’s not there.

It’s because Google Custom Searches are part of the AdSense toolkit.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/122 "2010-11-03T20:28:11Z")

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> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> Secondly, server bills don’t normally come every month. Most hosting companies require a once-a-year or twice-a-year payment.

Not sure about that. Some do indeed bill on a monthly cycle. Some charge the basic costs on a 6 or 12 month basis, but charge for bandwidth usage monthly.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/123 "2010-11-03T20:30:33Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> That was a Google search. I wonder why it’s not there.
> 
> And I give up on people recognizing that pulling this shit is wrong. It’s like you guys have gotten this mindset that it’s okay to do whatever you want if you have money. It’s not. I have always been for basic human decency in businesses. What you or I would do for each other, I expect businesses to do for one another.

People aren’t saying Google can do what it wants. They’re saying Google is not wrong to do what it said in advance it would do, and was agreed by the webmaster on signing up.

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**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/124 "2010-11-09T20:08:13Z")

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[The situation](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Administrivia/TheSituation) seems to be resolved:

> [@](#):
>
> It has come to our attention that ad serving was disabled to your site without proper notification. We have investigated the issue and it appears that a technical error in our back-end caused the notification failure. In addition, generally similar cases like yours will receive a notification requesting publishers to resolve the issue before ad serving is disabled. In this instance, again, a back-end error caused ad serving to be disabled immediately.
> 
> **We’ve reviewed your site and it appears to be in compliance with our policies at this time. We have now re-enabled ad serving to your site.** Please note that because ad serving to your site was temporarily disabled, there may be a delay of up to 48 hours or more before ads begin appearing on your site again.
> 
> We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> {xxxxxx} The Google Ad Sense Team

(emphasis in original)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/125 "2010-11-09T20:16:35Z")

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So it was entirely a mistake. That’s kinda funny.

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**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/126 "2010-11-09T20:25:28Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> So it was entirely a mistake. That’s kinda funny.

I’d bet it wasn’t a mistake, but the changes they’ve done (moving anything questionable behind a click-through) put them back in compliance.

Personally I donated.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/127 "2010-11-09T20:28:14Z")

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> [@Silver Tyger Girl](#):
>
> I’d bet it wasn’t a mistake, but the changes they’ve done (moving anything questionable behind a click-through) put them back in compliance.

The message admits a mistake in cutting off the ads without giving a warning and opportunity to fix any compliance issues. That’s independent of the question of whether or not they had compliance issues in the first place.

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**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-tropes-is-in-trouble/558943/128 "2010-11-09T20:42:55Z")

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After reading it more closely, yeah, they were noncompliant. They just didn’t get advance warning requesting that they comply before AdSense got shut off.

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