31

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 25, 2019, 12:47:56 PM »

Hopefully all of you realize that your attacks (which we've given up trying to manage) are being interpreted by the bots as policy violations.

Those policy violations result in reduced ad revenue for the site.  Reduced revenue can impact our ability to keep the site functioning.

We aren't the only outlet suffering from reduced ad revenue (see the latest development regarding HBCU Digest)

You can either support the site financially or not.  Everything else is noise.

32

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 23, 2019, 10:18:43 PM »

Cap,

"What's good for the rat is even better for the cat." 

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...we all know why suddenly there is a problem. All I will say is I have sent in a donation and hope others will do the same. 

And we thank you and the others who have donated very much

33

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 22, 2019, 10:39:12 PM »

Just wanted you to see what we are facing.

34

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 22, 2019, 08:24:33 AM »

UPDATE: We just got two "policy violation" notifications. one for a post dated TWO YEARS AGO and ironically for this post (pointing out the policy violations notification we were facing)

This post was tagged as having "Dangerous or derogatory content"  and subject to Restricted ad serving

35

General Discussion Forum / Re: A curious question for the people on board?

« on: July 12, 2019, 11:37:11 PM »

Historically, the church has been a powerful institution in the Black community and the leader of the church has an implied connection to God.

Therefore pastors have an assumed authority and some folk will follow them anywhere.

36

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 09, 2019, 10:38:46 PM »

We are familiar with Vimeo  but don't have a problem directing visitors to HBCU sports/culture related content even if it isn't hosted on our site.  Hopefully it puts money in a colleague's pocket.

Glad you appreciate the lack of malware in our ads.  We are very picky about what ad networks we use and are quick to drop  those that spread viruses.

=OW=

37

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 09, 2019, 12:33:06 PM »

One of our primary ad networks is Google Adsense and this is the policy violation notification that we received on July 6, 2019.

In the last 24 hours:

New violations were detected. As a result, ad serving has been restricted or disabled on pages where these violations of the AdSense Program Policies were found. To resolve the issues, you can either remove the violating content and request a review, or remove the ad code from the violating pages.

When I checked the link to the offending page, I got a message that "No violations were found".

Once we were warned about "sexual content"  on a page that had a photo of Serena Williams in her cat suit.

Thus our reference to "cultural conflict".

It has been suggested that the algorithms of the AI bots are biased, resulting in an inconsistency in interpretation.

We need to develop an alternative source of revenue.

The conflict between warnings and notifications that "no violations were found" can be very frustrating.

Figured it was adsense because they have had a lot more pressure on them to be more family friendly.

What do you have in mind for different revenue streams boss?

If I might interject I notice you have 4 ads in constant rotation. I suggest you double that by adding in video hosting which we could also put ads on. This allows for diversification of ad and potential ad revenue.

Thanks for your suggestion.  We already have the capability of running video on this site.  Just past in the URL and the video should appear.

We've learned that more ads does not equate to more revenue and we try to limit the number of ads so as not to overwhelm our visitors.

We've been hosting this forum since the late 1980s and we'll keep trying to serve as best we can under the circumstances and would rather solidify what we have (despite the lack of donations) as opposed to striking out on another venture.

I guess we are stuck in our ways.

38

General Discussion Forum / Re: What kind of threads are being penalized?

« on: July 09, 2019, 01:40:37 AM »

One of our primary ad networks is Google Adsense and this is the policy violation notification that we received on July 6, 2019.

In the last 24 hours:

New violations were detected. As a result, ad serving has been restricted or disabled on pages where these violations of the AdSense Program Policies were found. To resolve the issues, you can either remove the violating content and request a review, or remove the ad code from the violating pages.

When I checked the link to the offending page, I got a message that "No violations were found".

Once we were warned about "sexual content"  on a page that had a photo of Serena Williams in her cat suit.

Thus our reference to "cultural conflict".

It has been suggested that the algorithms of the AI bots are biased, resulting in an inconsistency in interpretation.

We need to develop an alternative source of revenue.

The conflict between warnings and notifications that "no violations were found" can be very frustrating.

39

Sports Forum / Re: 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs

« on: May 03, 2019, 10:06:17 PM »

Canes swept the Islanders and await the winner of Columbus vs. Boston for the Eastern Conference title.

40

Sports Forum / Re: 2019 Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship

« on: April 03, 2019, 12:55:10 AM »

The competition starts this weekend.  Here are the squad lists for the SWAC and MEAC participants.

41

Sports Forum / Re: Congrats are in Order

« on: March 06, 2019, 08:12:22 PM »

Thank you for the congratulatory posts.  We appreciate your expressions and we are humbled by the honor

42

Sports Forum / Re: OW what happened to "Hal Lamar "s Blog and your podcast?

« on: October 20, 2018, 09:42:41 PM »

B4.

Hal Lamar was dealing with some health issues that prevented him from doing his blog earlier this season.  We talked a few weeks ago and he plans to get back in the swing soon.

The podcast was cancelled due to creative differences.

=OW=

43

Sports Forum / Re: Can Somebody Explain This To Me?

« on: September 17, 2018, 12:43:21 AM »

Can't speak for the SIAC, but it looks like each team has six conference games.  Some schools have scheduled more than six conference opponents and It looks like the last six games against conference opponents become designated conference games.

This probably gives schools more flexibility in scheduling

44

Sports Forum / Re: Please Post Today's Scores and Highlights Here 15 September 2018

« on: September 15, 2018, 06:12:02 PM »

Notre Dame (OH) 33
West Virginia State 31
Final
   
Lincoln (MO) 7
Wisconsin-Oshkosh 17
Final
   
Clarion (PA) 44
Lincoln (PA) 7
Final

More scores available here

45

Sports Forum / Re: Virginia Universlty-Lynchburg vs Newberry Live Stream

« on: September 13, 2018, 04:29:24 PM »

FINAL: Newberry 27, Virginia University-Lynchburg 14