Dear Google,
We had a nice blog on the "blogger" service for many years, but it is time we break up. We took the beatings long enough, without consent.
Reason 1: Google adsense is disallowed on adult sites
The terms and conditions for "Adsense", one of the most well-paying advertising platforms, prohibits it being used on our blogs. This cuts us out of a major income opportunity.
Reason 2: Blocking advertising on "adult blogs"
In 2013, Google prohibited our blogs from having advertisers. Adsense was already blocked, and this made sure we were not getting paid any other way.
Reason 3: De-ranking adult content from search results
Also in 2013, the search algorithms were changed to decrease visibility of pages having any sort of adult content (in word or in picture). This made it even harder for us to be found.
Reason 4: Google killed all the "erotic" apps in the play store.
In 2014, we released our own podcast-app, in the Google play store. It contained not a single picture, not a single dirty word. However, we still got banned, because it played our podcasts. The fact that there are a multitude of podcast applications out there that do the exact same thing didn't dissuade them.
Further irony: I built the Life On the Swingset app as well, using the exact same code, and it is still being sold.
Our application can now be found on the Amazon app store.
Reason 5: Blogs are made "private"
This is the latest:
Dear Blogger User,
We're writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger Content Policy that may affect your account.
In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.
After this policy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content we've made private.
Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policy change. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate this policy. Also, we ask that you make any necessary changes to your existing blog to comply as soon as possible, so that you won't experience any interruptions in service.
Our SFCuties blog did not contain any nudity, but is still affected.
What does this mean?
Once a blog is made "private", it means that it basically has "fallen off the internet". Only people who we manually invite will be to view it, if they try hard enough. In other words: No more visitors.
Furthermore, those who running a podcast from their blog will have even more issues: If iTunes cannot access the site, the RSS feed becomes broken, and the music dies.
What are we going to do about this? We have moved all the content from the other blogs into this one, so that it may live on, and will be killing off the Google properties.
We (and most in the sex positive community) got the message loud and clear, and are packing our bags and heading out of the Google apartment.
For further reading on the subject, I recommend the write up "Google's sex censorhip timeline" from the ever magnificent (and not mention incredibly sexy) Violet Blue.
