Außen- und Innenwirkung unseriöser Werbung

Katrin Hollberg wrote:
Diese blöde Werbung grassiert momentan wohl auf allen Seiten, die mit Google einen Werbevertrag in Art und Weise von proz.com abgeschlossen haben. Allerdings handelt es sich hierbei m. E. um Seiten, deren Nutzung kostenfrei ist. Daher... grumpf...;-(((

[Bearbeitet am 2010-01-19 16:37 GMT]

Just to clarify this issue, as Drew explained here a year ago, Google provided filters to prevent inappropriate ads to be displayed. Also, a cookie and other processes were instituted to prevent this as well.

However, later it was discovered that category filtering works mostly with ads in English and that some non-English ads may slip through. For this reason, and after checking other possibilities, it has been decided to remove Google ads from forums.

I will let you all know once this has been done.

I appreciate your patience.

One step in the right direction, but not a satisfactory solution: where else will we see ads that have nothing whatsoever to do with our sector?

Ansgar Knirim wrote:


As Ralf said, this is a step in the right direction (apparently, one should be happy to see some response at all). To remove the inappropriate ads from the forums only is no solution to the problem: particularly if potential customers trying to contact members by [profile] mail are still at risk of being 'rewarded' with a weight-loss scam or worse.

Lucia Leszinsky wrote:
However, later it was discovered that category filtering works mostly with ads in English and that some non-English ads may slip through. For this reason, and after checking other possibilities, it has been decided to remove Google ads from forums. I will let you all know once this has been done.

Aniello Scognamiglio wrote:
Wenn es vergleichbare Werbung in englischer Sprache gibt, würde ich die Sache auf jeden Fall auch ins englischsprachige Forum tragen, Michele. Von nichts kommt nichts.

Ralf Lemster wrote:
Quite obviously, these filters, cookies and "other processes" do not work.

Steffen Walter wrote:
(We're paying members and wish to be treated as such - one word to keep in mind in this respect: customer satisfaction.)

Henry D wrote:


I would ask for the same respect in turn, Steffen. Your characterization of the response you got to your support ticket is misleading, to say the least, and your quoting out of context is disingenuous. If you want to comment on the support ticket, the honest thing to do would have been to quote it in its entirety, and to also point out that you got a response in about 4 hours.

To suggest that this is an issue that is not of concern to site staff members is false on its face.

Henry D wrote:


That is not quite right. The filters that Google provides do work, and have helped. They do not work perfectly, however, and this information has uncovered the fact that the filters are not as effective outside of English.

To speak for the site staff, I can say that no one wants the sort of ad featured in this thread to appear on ProZ.com. Least of all those of us on the site staff, as you can easily imagine. (Who would want "trim your belly" ads on their site for professionals?)

At the same time, it is our view that advertising as a business model is not intrinsically bad. Google itself -- a useful service, I think many here would agree -- is supported by advertising, for example. (The same ads shown here.)

At ProZ.com, the advertising model makes it possible to provide free terminology services, including KudoZ and the KudoZ term search, to over 150,000 people per day. It takes dozens of servers in two data centers, lots of bandwidth, and a full-time systems administrator to deliver that. I am proud that we have been able to do that on advertising income alone, with the result that for over 10 years, all terminology services have been completely free to use, and an archive of millions of terms in translation has been created for the use and benefit of the entire planet.

Note that when I talk about an advertising business model, I am talking about a sort of parallel "ecosystem", separate from our normal business, which as most of you know is supported by your memberships. Google ads appear only to non-logged-in visitors, and even then, only when there are no search terms or pages visited that would suggest that the visitor may be a translator or a translation client. So we try to keep the ecosystems separate.

Even so, there are benefits in the advertising model to professional translators, too. Last year's virtual conference, for example, cost about EUR 60,000 to produce. Yet we were able to offer it entirely free for translators. Sponsors paid for the cost of the technology -- thank you! -- but the cost of overseeing the conference (three months of several people's salaries) was paid by, yes, advertising.

So when it comes to advertising, I hope you will all understand the interest in not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

The challenge, as I see it, is to rid the site of "trim your belly"-type ads, while continuing to pursue an advertising business model for non-logged-in-visitors.

Thanks to the latest filters, the overwhelming majority of Google ads shown on this site are professional and relevant. We have made adjustments that have improved the situation, even when it means significantly decreasing advertising income. We will continue to make adjustments as necessary to ensure professionalism at this site. But we are not going to give up on serving relevant, useful and professional ads, which make some very good services possible.

Henry D wrote:


That is not quite right. The filters that Google provides do work, and have helped. They do not work perfectly, however, and this information has uncovered the fact that the filters are not as effective outside of English.

Steffen Walter wrote:

Back on topic (i.e. the types of ads shown on ProZ.com), whilst I do see that advertising is a necessity within the ProZ.com business model, all this thread is about is how to reliably exclude unprofessional/scam ads of the type that had originally triggered this thread (in other words, only allow advertising that is in some way related to our business as translators and interpreters).

For this reason I suggested that the moderators (the "other processes"?) should have an eye and a say on it, too.