[In]Appropriate advertising

Sep 27, 2010 at 4:55pm
Firstly - thank you for maintaining the "goto" website for all my c++ library reference needs.

We have a workplace policy that covers imagery that some might consider offensive or harassing. I am sure we are not the only such workplace. All Canadian government workplaces are required by law to uphold certain standards. While I recognize that different people interpret "inappropriate" differently, it is clear to me that lingerie ads are more likely to appear inappropriate than typical software ads.

This comment is prompted by the fact that I would feel awkward if our HR chief (female) were to wander by when I have a typical c++ library documentation page open, which coincidentally carries an ad for lingerie from "Next TAG" prominently at the top and bottom of the page.
Sep 27, 2010 at 5:21pm
Well, the advertising here is served by Google, which uses your IP's history in Google Analytics to serve what it thinks you'll be interested in (most of the picture adverts are going to be from sites your IP/IP range has actually visited recently, or things related to such). So, perhaps someone else in your workplace has been viewing inappropriate materials in the workplace (maybe even your HR chief?)
Sep 27, 2010 at 5:45pm
Hmm - it is not impossible, but it seems unlikely that anyone in the company has been spending any noticeable time on a lingerie site. Is it not more likely that they consider programmers (people who spend a lot of time on technical sites) as good candidates for lingerie?

Sep 27, 2010 at 5:46pm
I have no idea what you are talking about. Try Firefox and its Adblock Plus extension.
Sep 27, 2010 at 5:49pm
I don't see a correlation between programmers and lingerie, but twicker (the admin) doesn't control what ads appear, as Pax said, that's down to the advertising company (Google).
Sep 27, 2010 at 7:12pm
Additionally - I recognize that your site would not of course be the only "offender", and that if other "essential service" type sites also promote such material, that of course, my IP will have been tracked as visiting those sites as well - although I only "visited" those sites by virtue of the pages I was actually asking for sending them gratuitously.

On the subject of "someone in the company", I can actually check our logs and find out, although I suspect that the previous paragraph would go most if not all the way to explaining why there would be /some/ hits on lingerie sites.
Sep 27, 2010 at 7:12pm
Well, when I visit the site from work, all I get is strictly programming-related adds (because I don't visit any non-work stuff in work), and when I visit from my laptop at home I get a mixture of programming and things that directly related to other websites I've recently visited (at the moment I'm seeing Jessop's cameras fairly often). I've not once seen an advert on this site that I would consider inappropriate.
Sep 27, 2010 at 7:16pm
Good for you. Thanks for the barely concealed accusations. Sorry for having mentioned it.
Sep 27, 2010 at 7:18pm
I recommend PM'ing twicker about it if the logs come up negative.

I'm not saying anything suggesting you have been "naughty", but if you haven't been checking out lingerie and nobody else has and a discussion on the forum doesn't have the word "lingerie" in it, only then is something phony, and it's really phony, I daresay. He may take several days to respond, but you should get something back if there really is a problem with inappropriate advertising that he can verify. ;)

Oh, and ad blockers ftw.

EDIT: Were any of us accusatory? If we seemed like it I'm sure we didn't mean to be. Sorry.

-Albatross
Last edited on Sep 27, 2010 at 7:20pm
Sep 27, 2010 at 7:23pm
Errm... ok. I'm not making any accusations, just pointing out how the Google Adwords seems to work from 4+ years observing it. Don't be so defensive / take things so personally.

I'm sure there are other things that go into it, like location. Perhaps the lingerie site in question is local to you or running some promotion? My access from work is based on an academic network, so it's also possible that Google has some agreement with JANET (the UK Academic ISP hub) to not serve certain categories of adverts.

I was just trying to point out that the adverts shown aren't chosen in any way by the site administration and are, at least in some part, based on what Google feels the visitor will be interested in. Obviously Adwords, being a software system, is going to make assumptions and sometimes get things wrong. I'd suggest letting your HR chief look at the site for five seconds would verify for her that it isn't some soft porn but in fact one of the most valuable resources on the internet for C++ monkeys.

Edit to add: In irony, looking at the "Females" topic further down in this forum shows me an advert for online dating.
Last edited on Sep 27, 2010 at 7:31pm
Sep 27, 2010 at 9:28pm
I think it should be a given that an adblocker is used in a working environment.
Personally, I was unaware that this site had any ads at all.
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