Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Uh oh. Blogger have dropped the Prudehammer

Blogger have changed their Adult Content policy.  I (and many like me judging from the displeased mutterings on Twitter) received an email last night informing me of the changes.  Here they are . . .

https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/6170671?p=policy_update&hl=en&rd=1

. . . and yeah, they're not good, not good at all.  It looks like I'll have to pack my bags and find a new (online) home come March 23rd.

In theory I could comply, but it would mean deleting nearly every screenshot of every game I've written about and as I know a lot of you out there enjoy those posts, that's unacceptable to me.  Also in theory I could mark this blog as private going forward, but as the primary purpose of this blog is to publicise my books, it wouldn't be doing a good job of that if no bugger can find it.

With discussions like these it's impossible not to invoke the dreaded 'C' word.  Personally I think anyone using the hur derp, "It's only censorship if the government is involved," argument is a moron that isn't aware the world has moved on in the last century and a half.  I've argued before that if the end result is the same, people are going to use the closest word that fits.

Of course, against that we have to weigh up that Blogger is Google's platform and they are fully entitled to decide who or what goes on it.  It's disappointing that Google have taken this line, but it would also be churlish of me not to be grateful to them for giving me a nice set of tools to get my voice online essentially for free for the past five years.

I'd put this in the mild censorshit bracket - a damn nuisance, but not an oppressive gag as there are plenty of other alternatives.

Last night I purchased the manyeyedhydra.com domain.  It's about time.  I have a nice author page on Amazon, I might as well get a proper web address.  Currently it should redirect to this blog.  Next month I'll look at migrating to a new, more tolerant, online home.

I'd like to think we're moving to a future where companies will stop doing this as it will generate more bad publicity than good.  Sadly, until then, those of us working with adult material are a soft target and will have to continue to expect and work around arbitrary chilling effects.

9 comments:

  1. Damn this is not funny google can shove **** in there *** for all i care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't Yahoo try this too and have to revert after the backlash

    ReplyDelete
  3. So, uh, does this mean migrating the current content? Or just future content?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. google is letting people export their whole damn blog so they wont lose anything. Im sure Hydra will be taking the Fridge and the Kitchen Sink when he leaves

      Delete
  4. I feel like there should be a place where people can be who they want to be alongside small communities of people that share similar interests. This site has an adults only warning, like any Blogger site that has adult content. If someone chooses to ignore that then its on them. The owner shouldn't have to be punished because of it. Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  5. So you have to remove all sexual implicit content otherwise they are going to remove it for you. Really ? I wonder....which generation is going to step up and realize how ridiculous and on top of that how ''unresourceful'' this whole censorship business really is. Well, it is time for them to lose tons of support and bloggers. This is not the Middle Ages any more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you not explained to Google the significant contribution to science your blog involves? How else will I learn of H-Space and its horrors?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good news it seem google change there mind!http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/google-backtracks-adult-content-ban-blogger/story?id=29269034

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good news it seem google change there mind!http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/google-backtracks-adult-content-ban-blogger/story?id=29269034

    ReplyDelete