Great Google Work On No Policy Violations With Other Nonsense

This week has seen a few things I've not seen before showing up in my email inbox.

The first one was from Google AdSense.

The subject line in that email was instantly disturbing...

Your AdSense Publisher Policy Violation Report for pub-7334641582664711 on Feb 17, 2019

That was just the subject line. The message in the email was a long one, and had me thinking I had committed some sort of egregious crime, well, violation.

It took some link clicking in the email message to figure out the "violation" was on a long ago blog post titled Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin.

I looked at that ancient blog post, and saw that the only thing which I thought might possibly be objected to was the selfie photo of myself minimally attired. But that seemed totally tasteful, to me.

So, I then clicked the option which allowed me to ask that this "violation" be reviewed, because I believed there to be no problem of the violation sort.

The response to that request told me the review could take up to ten days, and that ad serving to that page would continue whilst it was being reviewed.

In less than 24 hours, as in the next morning, I got another email from Google AdSense telling me that the review of my violation had been completed, and to click a link for more information.

I did so, clicked the link and came to a webpage on which all that was written was....

Keep up the great work

You have no policy violations

Oh my, putting me through this stressful nightmare, and then to be found innocent. What a relief.

And then there was the following email, which you see screen capped above, with the actual email including the partial screen cap of the blog post in question...

________________

Please Remove Post from 2012

Hi Durango,

While I do not find your post offensive the comments are not accurate and I have a career outside American Idol now so I would like it if you could please remove this from your site. 

Thanks, 

Johnny Keyser

Many Viewers Not Happy With The Unexplained Dismissal Of Johnny Keyser

________________

So, I clicked on the link to read the blog post which was written so long ago I had no memory of it, til reminded by re-reading it. Is Google still indexing this blog post? Does it show up if one Googles "Johnny Keyser"?

Just a second, I will go find out...

Well, I went many pages deep without the Many Viewers Not Happy With The Unexplained Dismissal Of Johnny Keyser showing up.

Reading the blog post and the comments I can see why Mr. Keyser did not find the post offensive. But, I don't see what is so inaccurate about any of the comments. And comments are just that, comments, as in someone's opinion. Not necessarily factual.

I can't fathom why someone would be motivated to go to the bother of emailing about this, let alone requesting someone go to the effort of removing a blog post.

Trouble is, I have not logged into the Google account from which that particular blog post sprang in several years. I would gladly delete this post if it took zero effort to do so, even if I do not see any reason to do so...

On The Tandy Hills At A Fork In The Trail Not Liking Google Changes & Other Things

This location on the Tandy Hills, with a fork in the trail, forcing a choice to be made as to which direction to go, was a perfect metaphor, today, for how I'm feeling.

As I get evermore elderly I find I don't like change. I also don't like to learn new things. I used to like change and learning new things.

Just a little thing changing can vex me these days. For instance Google has been "updating" what Google calls their products.

For a couple months now Google has been trying to get its AdSense users to switch to the new interface, telling users the new interface will be activated in mid-November. And so it was. On November 15. I don't like it. I was used to the old interface. I liked the old interface. The new interface faces you with way too much information.

Google is also updating the Google product I am using right now, the one Google calls Blogger. Right now I am looking at a message at the top of the screen that says, "Try the updated Blogger interface."

I tried the updated Blogger interface. It looks way different than the old Blogger interface. Eventually I was able to figure out the new Blogger interface, but I'm continuing to use the old Blogger interface til Google doesn't let me.

Changing the subject to my favorite one, the temperature.

I did not go swimming this morning. It is only 54 degrees, currently, at my location.

Changing the subject from the not hot temperature to Elsie Hotpepper, who has been being cryptic lately. For instance, minutes ago I got an email from Elsie Hotpeppr that said "I do not understand Lucy." Who is Lucy and why can't Elsie understand her, I sat here and wondered.

And then there is Beale who is unhappy with me because I said I thought his French girl friend was awful. In my defense I did not realize this was Beale's new girl friend when  I said I thought she was awful. I feel darn bad about this.

I have not heard from Betty Jo Bouvier at all this week. The last I heard from Betty Jo she told me she was heading to Seattle on, I think, Saturday. I do not know if Betty Jo made it back to the Skagit Valley from Seattle.

And then there is Carlotta Camano who has also gone missing. Usually Carlotta checks in with me regarding the Reality TV Shows we both watch. This week's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was particularly comment worthy, as was Top Chef, with no commentary from Carlotta Camano.

I wish I was constitutionally able to take a nap and momentarily not think about anything vexing me. Sleep really is the only peace I get. And I get very little of it.

Google Adsense Not Making Sense Or Cents

I think I've mentioned my frustration with Google AdSense and Feedburner. Feedburner's monetize option has never worked right. And then they got bought by Google.

When I'd log into Google AdSense I'd get reminders that I could monetize my blog. When I first tried, nothing happened. Then last week there was a change. I was able to burn my blog. Whatever that means.

At first the burned blog just showed up as a blank page. And then a few days later it showed up as a burned blog.

I'd gone through the steps to puts ads on the feed burned blog. But no ads showed up in the feed version of my blog.

And then yesterday the ads showed up in the blog feed. One of my emailers emailed me telling me something was screwy with the ads on my blog feed. I guess she managed to somehow subscribe to the new feed in the short time it was working.

So, if you click on an ad you get this message....

"We’re sorry.The advertiser link you clicked on is no longer available.

What happened?

This publisher features feed advertising links provided by Google AdSense.Occasionally, if an advertisement has been left open in a web page or feed reader for too long, the campaign has ended and the link to the advertiser’s page no longer works. This happened to you just now. We apologize for the inconvenience and salute your unlikely timing!"

You get the above message whatever ad gets clicked on. My AdSense stats are telling me that there have been 100s of ad impressions from the feed. And not a single click. By comparison my regular non-feed blog gets many clicks per 100s of impressions. So, something is clearly amok. I'm assuming it will eventually be fixed, just like all the previous annoynances.

In the meantime, click here to see my newly burned blog feed. But don't bother clicking an ad, no matter how intriguing it looks, because all you'll get is the above error message saluting you for your unlikely timing.

But. If you can, please explain to me why a feed is preferable to just going to a blog the usual way? I don't get it.

Google Feedburner Burning Me

Some of this blog stuff I really don't get. Like why does one want to burn a feed? And then subscribe to a blog feed? Why not just read the blog like you would any ol' website?

Even though I don't quite get the point, long ago I used Feedburner to burn a feed of this very blog you are looking at right now. I soon found I had subscribers. The number of subscribers goes up and down.

When I log into my Feedburner account there is a tab you can click on called 'Monetize.' I tried to monetize my Feedburner feed a long time ago, because I'd noticed that the Feedburner feed of my blog did not have the Google ads.

So, the Feedburner account supposedly ties in with the Google AdSense account. When you monetize and choose your ad style, Feedburner then generates some code that you have to insert into your blog's layout code.

I did so. And what did I find happened? No ads appeared in the Feedburner feed of my blog. But new ads were placed under each of my blogging posts in my regular ol' non-feed blog, thus screwing up the rule that you can place no more than 3 add units per page.

So, I de-monitized my Feedburner feed.

And then, about a month or so ago, when I'd log into my AdSense account, there was an option to add AdSense ads to my blog feed. So, yesterday I did so, thinking, once more, that ads would show up in the feed thing. Google had me burn a new feed, even though my Feedburner feed was part of my Google Account, since Feedburner is part of Google.

The Google AdSense thing burned a feed of my blog and gave me it's URL and told me it'd be active in about 10 minutes. Now a day later this is what you see if you go to my new Google AdSense feed where ads are supposed to appear. That's right. It's a blank page.

I thought maybe the ads show up if you subscribe to my feed, which is something I'd not done before. So, for the first time I clicked on 'subscribe to this feed.' I then chose Google Reader as my feed reader. My blog then opened up in Google Reader. With no ads.

I've no clue what to do. Google is not the best at getting back to you with answers to questions. As in they never do.

Maybe I should delete these feed things. Why would I want people reading my blog ad-free? I want them to click on ads. It's as if they are subscribing to a TV Feed and then getting to watch TV shows with no commercials.

Very vexing.