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Some of the adverts I'm getting on MacRumors today seem just a little too Nazi...
- Thread starter Spanky Deluxe
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This does beg the inevitable question: What control (or choice) - if any - does the site have over what ads are displayed there?
MacRumors does have a choice of which ad networks they engage with, so they can certainly discontinue using an ad network that serves up the neo-Nazi trash above.
Yeah, that's obviously not something we want on the site. We don't individually vet the ads before they appear (certain categories of ads are excluded), but we can also individually block bad ones. Usually sending arn the URL the ad leads to at arn@normalkid.com is helpful.
Those google adverts are based on a combination of the site content and users' browsing profiles. The algorithms try to work out what will interest the users, based on what the other users visiting the site also visit.
So, I guess both MR and you have a bit of soul searching to do, unless you do not give google all of your browsing data.
So, I guess both MR and you have a bit of soul searching to do, unless you do not give google all of your browsing data.
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Something like that could likely just come about from reading up on what the Nazi's did during WWII. Really reading anything about Nazi history.
I'm not a big swastika fan but if I get one of those shirts unadorned will it make my body look like that?
Sure. It could also be because there is a significant number of posts on this forum with the word "nazi" in them, such as this.
Targeted ads = worth more to an ad network because the advertiser has to pay more. The algorithms need to be a bit more advanced than "Joe read about Nazi history" and they generally are. Unless Google Skynet has lost the plot completely in recent times.
I had wondered about that.
What specific, or precise, or particular, algorithms could possibly suggest - or recommend - that such an ad appear on this site?
Why was Macrumors selected for this ad?
Who do they think it would appeal or, or be attractive to?
Is this something that the advertisers think, believe, would be wel received here?
And if so, why?
Agreed.
Seriously?
I was a university teacher of 20th century European history for years - which means that I taught, not just Adolf and his friends, enablers, facilitators and victims, but was actually a specialist in Russian and Soviet history - which meant that the world of Stalin loomed large in my classroom.
And I can state that - despite devouring (and teaching) an almost embarrassing - and certainly nauseating - amount of material on both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia - I have never, ever, ever, had anything "like that" come up on my screen.
Are you saying the ops browsing habits contributed in-part to the ads that were received…due to ops browsing habits?
So a parody such as discussing the now famous Seinfeld episode “the soup nazi” would trigger such an ad?
In general, the advertiser chooses the targeting attributes when buying impressions or views from ad networks. The ad network then does its best to match the attributes to the actual placement. But an advertiser might be willing to accept untargeted or minimally targeted impressions in exchange for a low price. Or a primary tier ad network, such as Google or Facebook, will have sold a placement to a second or third tier ad network with the primary tier network's only involvement as providing the ad space.
So it is often hard to tell from a user perspective, other than one's own behaviors (unfortunately in these days of surveillance capitalism, both online and offline), what led to a particular ad being served in a particular place at a particular time.
Now having said all that, I don't think it excuses MR from doing everything it can to block ads of the type mentioned by the OP. If MR becomes a site that benefits from hate speech and conspiracy theories, I will stop using it.
So it is often hard to tell from a user perspective, other than one's own behaviors (unfortunately in these days of surveillance capitalism, both online and offline), what led to a particular ad being served in a particular place at a particular time.
Now having said all that, I don't think it excuses MR from doing everything it can to block ads of the type mentioned by the OP. If MR becomes a site that benefits from hate speech and conspiracy theories, I will stop using it.
For what it's worth, I don't hold MR accountable for those ads as I know they're just Google ones but I thought the mods and arn would like to be aware in case there's anything they can do to stop it. I was just very surprised to see a swastika while checking for Apple news!!
Thanks. We’ll send to our ad network to block it.
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