Brethren, I seek advice.
As many of you may know, I run KingSolomonsLodge.org. In order to help support the site, I have advertising on the site in the form of Google AdSense. Usually these advertisements are for things such as Masonic regalia, jewelry, or books, and many of them are actually helpful to visitors since they are on-topic. Today I went online to see what articles were listed, and I was confronted with a political advertisement for a presidential candidate. This was not an innocuous three line text ad, either, but a full block animated graphical advertisement. It doesn't matter to me which candidate or party, but rather the fact that a political advertisement is being propagated onto the website at all, when I view our brotherhood as a great place of unity between members of various political parties and religions. I am distressed, and I don't know what to do. Part of me says it is free speech, and if they pay for an ad, they should be able to show it there. Part of me says its a conflict of interest, or it may drive away certain visitors. It probably won't be there forever. Must I resort to turning off advertisements during election years? On the other hand, maybe my Brethren have enough understanding and tolerance to "put up with" the ad, even if it doesn't suit their fancy. I seek advice, my Brethren. If you were in this situation, what would you do?
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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3 comments:
Jeff, if it makes you feel any better, I don't care. Seriously, you don't have much control over what ads they display, and since I realize that, I ignore them. Hell, I'm so internet jaded that I even ignore the sex ads.
Also, I should mention that I check KSL via RSS in Google Reader, so I don't see your ads at all.
I get the e-mail digest so I never get to see the ads.
My loss I suppose, right?
I believe that you can tell Google not to show certain categories of advertisement. In a Masonic case like this, I would ask that they not show political or religious ads. Try taking it up with Google. If they aren't responsibe, make this public.
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