Political discussion is not allowed, but I'm seeing a lot of political advertising

[Infidel]

Specifically, the ads are from lobby/interest groups, criticizing the policies of the governor of my state. Whether I agree or disagree with the message from the advertisers is immaterial. I think this policy of forbidding political discussion, while allowing political advertising sends a mixed message to the TPF user community.

I ask that the TPF administration consider revising their policy regarding advertising of a political nature, so that this type of advertising is prohibited, which would be in accordance with existing policy regarding political discussion on the forums.

 

[MichiganFarts]

People look at the advertisements?

 

[Infidel]

Big banner at the top of every page. When I see the name of my state's governor at the top of the page, it's hard to miss....it's rather out of context on a photography discussion board.

 

[Big Mike]

Those ads are 'by Google' and they use your browsing history, location etc. to target the ads to people they think might be interested.

So the ads that you are seeing, are not the same ads than everyone else is seeing.

 

[Canon AE-1]

I dont see any ads. Prolly my ad block disables them.

 

[Infidel]

Duly noted...I more or less understand how it works. Not everyone sees the same regional advertising that I do, but they could certainly see something equivalent. FWIW, I haven't done any politically-oriented web browsing lately...this ad must have been targeted solely on the basis of my location. Thus, my position remains the same. TPF regulates the nature of the content we post, but not the content from the advertisers (in this case, targeted google ads). We can't post political or religious content, presumably so we don't alienate or offend other members, yet advertisers can. TPF is the final authority on what is displayed on their website, google ads or otherwise. Just sayin'.

 

[o hey tyler]

Do you have Chrome or Firefox? Adblock plus seems to hide them just fine on nearly every web page. For example, facebook is now doing this survey thing "Which ad would you like to seem more?" A. Top ad B. Bottom ad. Too bad for facebook, because I can't see either of them.

Stick it to the man!

 

[MichiganFarts]

I don't think TPF controls it to the extent you think they do. I don't know why anyone would want to advertise with ads by Google, if Google allowed your ads to be snuffed out because someone didn't like them.

 

[Infidel]

It's not so much that I'm bothered by the content of the ads...I know I can largely block or disable them, and I might as well start now. Rather, it's the notion that paying advertisers are held to a different set of standards than the user community.

I also want to make clear that I understand that my participation on TPF is voluntary and that TPF is not a democracy. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to voice my opinion. Maybe someone even cares.

Funny, now I'm getting ads for Google AdWords...and yes, I appreciate the irony.

 

[MichiganFarts]

You're looking at this all wrong, because if the advertisers for the ads you're seeing, make a TPF forum account, then I don't think they would be allowed to post threads that were politically related.

Furthermore, if you paid for a google ads political advertisement, I think TPF would have no problem displaying it.

We're all under the same rules here, imo.

 

[Overread]

I think its important to realise that TFP's policy on no political discussions is not based on any bias to any one or any many select political groups or against politics itself. The rule is in place only because every time one of those discussions comes up it runs a very high risk of actively disrupting the normal smooth flow of the forum.

People get insulted - tantrums are had - insults are made and at the end the thread is locked- someone is probably warned - someone else banned and several others flounce out of the site. All very negative and disruptive when before the discussion most of the people who take part would get on just fine with each other.