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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
Okay, so I'm sure we all know how fancy-pants targeted advertising works on services like Facebook/Gmail, etc. The service "reads" some of your personal data and attempts to serve you with appropriate advertising. It makes sense, and it means that (for the most part) you should be seeing advertising that's at least a bit relevant to your interests.
That's all well and good unless you're talking about something that you'd never, ever want to see ads about, like horrific tragedies, or a death the family.
![[image loading]](http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/8687/gmailads.jpg)
What's nice is that Gmail automatically filters for a bunch of words that might end up causing offense, so they save you from it by not showing ads in situations where you might be in a sensitive position.
Facebook appears not to have any such service, so if you should happen to make a comment about something like, oh, say for example a church massacre, this happens:
![[image loading]](http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/528/facebookbits.png)
Great stuff, now I can join the group for churches and massacres :/
 
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is awesome32274 Posts
And play farmville with them, where everyone is a sheep :3
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Why does this worry you? It seems like the system is working as intended.
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On April 29 2011 08:09 elmizzt wrote:
Why does this worry you? It seems like the system is working as intended.
I personally agree with this. However that being said, I haven't been in a emotional position where an ad could potentially cause me distress
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Talking about death in your family in your email; get an ad for funeral services.
What's so insensitive about that?
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"Yeah my dad got his finger cut off using a buzzsaw last week"
*Ads for buzzsaws*
lol
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Recommended pages aren't advertisements. It is things you may be interested in based on what you are viewing, but they aren't paid promotions. Paid ads show up under a Sponsored heading. There are no ads in your facebook screenshot.
Potentially the recommendations could be very good, like linking support groups or charities when you're reading a conversation about something tragic.
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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
On April 29 2011 08:33 mucker wrote:
Recommended pages aren't advertisements. It is things you may be interested in based on what you are viewing, but they aren't paid promotions. Paid ads show up under a Sponsored heading. There are no ads in your facebook screenshot.
Potentially the recommendations could be very good, like linking support groups or charities when you're reading a conversation about something tragic.
I hadn't actually considered that, I'm not sure why my Facebook doesn't have ads... I know it used to.
I still dread something like:
"My parents were murdered by secret nazis! I am the saddest orphan  "
Groups you may wish to join:
Nazis
Orphans
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On April 29 2011 08:04 IntoTheWow wrote:
And play farmville with them, where everyone is a sheep :3
You, sir, are the winner.
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haha! is that you in the FB status pic? thats really funny
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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
Thanks Kurtis, I can only hope that wasn't sarcasm :D
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the only one that bothers me somewhat is when looking up porn and it shows your city
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I remember that there was an update that said "you havent connected with John Doe for a while, do you want to send him a message?", and many people complained that it sometimes recommended people who were dead but still had the FB page as a memorial. Good thing they got rid of that.
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On April 29 2011 08:49 SirJolt wrote:
Thanks Kurtis, I can only hope that wasn't sarcasm :D
no. I know exactly what you're talking about
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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
I'm glad someone does!
It's a shame Oblivion's main storyline goes downhill so fast after you escape from Picard's dungeon. I'd hoped he'd be a main character
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I don't know how many of you have experienced this but the moment you change your Facebook status to "Engaged" it's all wedding advertisements all the time, regardless of what shit you're talking about.
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I don't see why anyone would ever want to browse the internet without AdBlock. This is just one of many reasons.
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On April 29 2011 23:59 Khenra wrote:
I don't see why anyone would ever want to browse the internet without AdBlock. This is just one of many reasons.
Because then we ultimately have to pay for a lot of things that are currently free. You may think the ads are annoying but for a lot of sites offering services to you (like TL) they are the sole source of revenue they've got.
So either accept the ad or be prepared to pay a couple cents for every time you visit your favorite sites.
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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
I believe Google posted a lovely response when AdBlock first appeared for Chrome, saying that they saw AdBlock as generally positive.
Essentially, they said some percentage of people would always use AdBlock, but that they were a tiny minority. If more and more people took the time to learn how to set it up or even look it up, it becomes an indication that advertising has gone too far/become too intrusive.
In that respect, the number of people using AdBlock becomes a valuable metric to track 
Still, for sitea like TL everyone should be setting their AdBlock to show the ada; they're non-intrusive and basically just a solid example of ads well served.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img146.imageshack.us/i/gmailads.jpg/)
![[image loading]](http://img607.imageshack.us/i/facebookbits.png/)
