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[Dazey]

So Google ads are back, Downzy seems to have played a blinder and this is somehow a bad thing?

[UK SUBS]

.... And like I say, that's why I probably come off like that; you've kinda answered your own question.

Yeah, but it's not entirely fair to get pissed at people when they start asking questions either. It's like demanding blind faith now. Yes, some are just complaining assholes. But I think most just ask questions because they're trying to help and think of things to help the situation. People don't know why you guys decided to do what you do and how you got to that. I'm not even criticizing you guys here, just saying that I understand both sides of it.

I'm being honest. As always.

I really can't spell it out any clearer - Downzy has already stated in a less dramatic way to me but it's still obvious - without google ads, the forum closes. With google ads, we had to compromise with deleting certain posts and threads; by doing so, the forum stays open.

Everyone else is completely entitled to their views -- as I am that I get frustrated when a minority miss the point and then worse, are critical/challenge the very people try should actually be thanking for keeping the forum open and alive. We can go back an forth but there's really no point. It's literally that simple. But like I say, my 'defensive' attitude was one reason I had to step down, too many people here were really frustrating me (as outlined in my comments above).

[RussTCB]

So Google ads are back, Downzy seems to have played a blinder and this is somehow a bad thing?

Downzy and a couple other mods (me not included unfortunately) worked hard to ensure the forum has a future is somehow an "outrage"

I gotta be honest and say I agree with Subs' thoughts on this. I don't think mods and Admins should be all woe is me about volunteering our time and energy here, but it does suck when people come along and make claims like "This is an outrage" before they even know or understand the whole story. Let alone the fact the they themselves never contribute anything to the forum.

In short; Downzy and a few mods have worked their asses off to ensure the forum has a future. If someone likes the forum at all, a simple "thank you" might go along way as opposed to throwing a fit without knowing what they're talking about.

[Damn_Smooth]

This is an outrage!!!

Not sure what yet, but give me a minute.

[Lio]

Thank you, Downzy and other mods that worked their asses off, for keeping the forum afloat

[alfierose]

Just to back up Subs, Russ and Downzy. There is no sinister agenda here, just getting the forum back on track. We all appreciate the value of old D&N discussion threads for the information and history they contain so no doubt we will be working in the new year to restore those of importance. However I can say as someone who has trawled through a lot of archived stuff, there is a lot of crap there too that no one will miss!

It's not a big deal and will make the forum easier to manage for existing and future staff.

[AtariLegend]

Subs sorry it came across that way, I was just making a comment.

As for russ, well very convenient you had everything you wrote on Evo down the years deleted including your thoughts on this forum it's members. Also convenient the whole thread where you basically tried to hold all the other moderators and Evo itself to ransom isn't there. Otherwise I truly would be outraged enough to post several long posts worth of quotes from you down the years on this forum and the end of your spell there.

That's the last I'll be commenting on this thread.

Edited December 26, 2014 by AtariLegend

[RussTCB]

^ once again, a perfect example of having no idea what you're talking about yet still commenting on the situation.

[Apollo]

Why in the world would people get mad because old topics on a rock forum get deleted? If that outrages you then you need to disconnect your internet for awhile and go outside and make some real life memories and friends.

Thank you Downzy and all the mods for keeping this ship afloat. You guys rock.

[ZoSoRose]

The threads are going to be archived, they will exist, people. If you want to see something, there's a way

And besides, isn't the forum's life the most important thing? I had a feeling something was up lately and I'm glad things seem to be improving. This place almost closed 3-4 years ago, we should be happy we are still here.

Thank you mod squad and admins (including Forsaken, ER, HV, and Subs), I'm glad you guys do what you can to keep us afloat.

[Coma16]

I don't get why Subs just didn't sell the forum to the porn guy if it's such a money-sucking headache. The juice doesn't seem to be worth the squeeze.

[downzy]

K... Didn't realize we'd have so much drama on Christmas but what would today be without a little family squabble.

The reason why I mentioned things would be cleared up eventually is that there are still things developing and I didn't want to speak prematurely. When I say soon, I'm speaking in a matter or a few weeks.

Furthermore Subs remains the owner of this forum and in terms of its business matters I didn't think I was in any position to speak. Russ and I try to administer this forum with the great help and assistance of the mod and media teams but at the same time, there are matters that only the owner of the forum should discuss with the forum should he feel the need to. So you can understand why with all that's going on that I might not be as forthcoming as some may like.

Now that Subs has broached he subject, I'll give my own account concerning what has transpired. Awhile ago, long before I became a mod or an admin, this forum was reported by a former disgruntled member to Google for hosting content that violated its terms and conditions relating to advertising. The forum's Adsense account was suspended until it was scrubbed of all violating content. It wasn't enough just to delete the one example that was reported, Google now scanned the entire forum that was filled with content that made compliance with Adsense policies impossible. This meant that admins and mods had to search the entire forum looking for content that could trip up an appeal. Before I was asked to join the mod team in late August, the Adsense account had been suspended for quite some time. This meant that besides all the generous donations made by some our regular members, Subs had been paying out of pocket for quite some time to keep this place afloat. So appreciate the fact that Subs has spent a considerable amount of his own money to keep this place going.

Soon after I joined the team, ER, myself and others set upon the task of trying to get the forum back in compliance with Adsense policies. We first tried using google's site search function to ferret out all violating content. Every time we thought we had scrubbed it all, our appeals came back saying that we had missed something. After a couple of months (this process started in September), we soon realized that we were never going to find it all. This forum has over three million posts. Before we archived the older threads in the GNR D&N section, there were over 1100 pages of threads, with each page consisting of 30 threads or so. It would have taken six months or more to search that section alone, and we simply did not have the time.

Once Russ and I took over as admins, my primary focus was to figure out a way to get the forum back in Adsense's good graces. The first thing I did was move the Use Your Illusion section to the archived area. It was so inundated with explicit content that it would have been impossible to clean up in the time limit given to us. We then spot another three to four weeks scrubbing the forum. Our next appeal was rejected - there was still a lot of content in Anything Goes and D&N sections that needed to be pruned. I quickly realized that the only way we were going to save the forum was to amputate the foot to save the leg. We needed to greatly reduce the number of threads we were going to manually search if we were going to succeed. The only way to do that was to archive threads that were a couple of years or older.

The reality is that almost nobody reads the old threads. The forum rules prohibit thread bumping so we didn't see much point in keeping these old threads accessible, at least until we were able to restore the forum's Adsense account. So most of December I've spent tens of hours moving page after page of old threads into an archived section of the forum that isn't accessible to anyone but admins. So nothing has been deleted. We finally trimmed the forum to a point where we felt we had balanced the most relevant content to today's visitor with a manageable amount of content that we could finally root out any content that could possibly trip up our appeal efforts. After another week of searching and scrubbing, we finally had our appeal accepted and Google restored our Adsense account.

We do plan on restoring some of, if not most, of the old threads over time, but we will not jeopardize our good standing with Adsense since it, along with the generous donations by members, keep this place alive. If there are particular threads you want restore, let me know and I will restore them asap. However, considering myself and others spent the past couple months wading through threads, I thought I'd take some time away from all of this during the Christmas holidays before I get back at it.

I hope this clears the air as to what has been going on. Again, not trying to be coy or superior to anyone here, but there are reasons some times why myself and other on the admin/mod/media team can't give clear answers as soon as you would like them to be. In the end our interest is in the preservation and security of this forum.

[ZoSoRose]

K... Didn't realize we'd have so much drama on Christmas but what would today be without a little family squabble.

The reason why I mentioned things would be cleared up eventually is that there are still things developing and I didn't want to speak prematurely. When I say soon, I'm speaking in a matter or a few weeks.

Furthermore Subs remains the owner of this forum and in terms of its business matters I didn't think I was in any position to speak. Russ and I try to administer this forum with the great help and assistance of the mod and media teams but at the same time, there are matters that only the owner of the forum should discuss with the forum should he feel the need to. So you can understand why with all that's going on that I might not be as forthcoming as some may like.

Now that Subs has broached he subject, I'll give my own account concerning what has transpired. Awhile ago, long before I became a mod or an admin, this forum was reported by a former disgruntled member to Google for hosting content that violated its terms and conditions relating to advertising. The forum's Adsense account was suspended until it was scrubbed of all violating content. It wasn't enough just to delete the one example that was reported, Google now scanned the entire forum that was filled with content that made compliance with Adsense policies impossible. This meant that admins and mods had to search the entire forum looking for content that could trip up an appeal. Before I was asked to join the mod team in late August, the Adsense account had been suspended for quite some time. This meant that besides all the generous donations made by some our regular members, Subs had been paying out of pocket for quite some time to keep this place afloat. So appreciate the fact that Subs has spent a considerable amount of his own money to keep this place going.

Soon after I joined the team, ER, myself and others set upon the task of trying to get the forum back in compliance with Adsense policies. We first tried using google's site search function to ferret out all violating content. Every time we thought we had scrubbed it all, our appeals came back saying that we had missed something. After a couple of months (this process started in September), we soon realized that we were never going to find it all. This forum has over three million posts. Before we archived the older threads in the GNR D&N section, there were over 1100 pages of threads, with each page consisting of 30 threads or so. It would have taken six months or more to search that section alone, and we simply did not have the time.

Once Russ and I took over as admins, my primary focus was to figure out a way to get the forum back in Adsense's good graces. The first thing I did was move the Use Your Illusion section to the archived area. It was so inundated with explicit content that it would have been impossible to clean up in the time limit given to us. We then spot another three to four weeks scrubbing the forum. Our next appeal was rejected - there was still a lot of content in Anything Goes and D&N sections that needed to be pruned. I quickly realized that the only way we were going to save the forum was to amputate the foot to save the leg. We needed to greatly reduce the number of threads we were going to manually search if we were going to succeed. The only way to do that was to archive threads that were a couple of years or older.

The reality is that almost that almost nobody reads the old threads. The forum rules prohibit thread bumping so we didn't see much point in keeping these old threads accessible, at least until we were able to restore the forum's Adsense account. So most of December I've spent tens of hours moving page after page of old threads into an archived section of the forum that isn't accessible to anyone but admins. So nothing has been deleted. We finally trimmed the forum to a point where we felt we had balanced the most relevant content to today's visitor with a manageable amount of content that we could finally root out any content that would possibly trip up our appeal efforts. After another week of searching and scrubbing, we finally had our appeal accepted and Google restored our Adsense account.

We do plan on restoring some of, if not most, of the old threads over time, but we will not jeopardize our good standing with Adsense since it, along with the generous donations by members, keep this place alive. If there are particular threads you want restore, let me know and I will restore them asap. However, considering myself and others spent the past couple months wading through threads, I thought I'd take some time away from all of this during the Christmas holidays.

I hope this clears the air as to what has been going on. Again, not trying to be coy or superior to anyone here, but there are reasons some times why myself and other on the admin/mod/medi team can't give clear answers as sons as you would like them to be. In the end our interest is in the preservation and security of this forum.

Holy fuckin shit

Thanks a ton, guys. Thats just insane.

[Apollo]

How sad and pathetic one's life must be to actually hate strangers on a music forum. And to go out of your way to try and get a forum shut down? Talk about people that must truly have sad and pathetic lives. I actually feel sorry for them.

Thank you subsy and all the mods for all the hard work you do. Most of us here really appreciate it.

[UK SUBS]

I don't get why Subs just didn't sell the forum to the porn guy if it's such a money-sucking headache. The juice doesn't seem to be worth the squeeze.

Without google ads the forum is pretty much worthless (give or take).

[Padme]

Thanks a lot mods/administrators for the hard work This can only be good news. The important thing is to keep the forum alive and Subsy as the owner.

There is no need of some 2011 thread that only 2 or 3 people care about

[magisme]

Subs sorry it came across that way, I was just making a comment.

As for russ, well very convenient you had everything you wrote on Evo down the years deleted including your thoughts on this forum it's members. Also convenient the whole thread where you basically tried to hold all the other moderators and Evo itself to ransom isn't there. Otherwise I truly would be outraged enough to post several long posts worth of quotes from you down the years on this forum and the end of your spell there.

That's the last I'll be commenting on this thread.

No one fucks with Russ on my watch. Consider yourself citizen warned¹.

1. The development of the concept of the citizen's mod action, such as the citizen's ban, the citizen's lock and the citizen's warning, must be attributed to the young Broskirose, the semi-mythical figure of mygnr lore long since banned to the hinterlands.

[John Bonham]

Thank you Downzy by take care forum

[maynard]

DOWNZY is better than the OLD ONE.

[WFA]

where did attitude go.

[Damn_Smooth]

where did attitude go.

They quarantined it a long time ago. Where have you been?

NuAttitude is where it's always been though.

[WFA]

where did attitude go.

They quarantined it a long time ago. Where have you been?

NuAttitude is where it's always been though.

did butthurt people get nu attitude closed too?

[Damn_Smooth]

where did attitude go.

They quarantined it a long time ago. Where have you been?

NuAttitude is where it's always been though.

did butthurt people get nu attitude closed too?

No, it's still there. What are you talking about?

[WFA]

where did attitude go.

They quarantined it a long time ago. Where have you been?

NuAttitude is where it's always been though.

did butthurt people get nu attitude closed too?

No, it's still there. What are you talking about?

i can't see it. this is an outrage

[Damn_Smooth]

where did attitude go.

They quarantined it a long time ago. Where have you been?

NuAttitude is where it's always been though.

did butthurt people get nu attitude closed too?

No, it's still there. What are you talking about?

i can't see it. this is an outrage

I'll go post something in it. See if you can see it under new content.

Done.