Disturbing news with no consequence

[Blizzard]

I don't know if any of you noticed, but the Google ads on top of the page are not being displayed for some time. Due to the change of Google's policies, they have disabled the ads for CP. Why exactly? CP is filled with links to content of various natures that are either protected by copyright or for which CP does not explicitly have permission to link to. In other words, if you post a link to a youtube video, Google has the right to disable ads.

As an example for the violation of their policy they have given me a link to this topic: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php?topic=4578.0
As you can see, this is the Tileset Creator program, created by game_guy. Regardless of the fact that game_guy posted the links to the video and his program all by himself, CP as an entity was not given explicit permission to be allowed to link to them.

What will happen now? Nothing. I will remove the Google ads. The first and most important reason being that I will not limit your freedom of speech and expression by disabling links (especially stuff that you actually created YOURSELF). The secondary reason is obviously that it's not really possible to go through all 150k+ posts and delete links. If they don't want an potential audience for their ads and thus making money over some stupid links, with all due respect they can go fuck themselves.

What does this mean for CP? So far CP's hosting has been basically paid out of the revenue of the ads. Now I will have to pay it myself. And this is basically it. I will simply pay the bills and CP will continue to live without any change (except that there will be no more ads on top).
Of course you are all welcome to donate money *points to the bottom right of the page* if you want to help paying the bills. It is not necessary, but if you wish to contribute in such a way to the community, I am sure that everybody will appreciate your contribution. Contributions are anonymous as always. That means that I will know who donated, but I will not reveal any information regarding that. Of course the person is allowed to reveal that information themselves and I will confirm if necessary for whatever reason.

[MarkHest]

Wait... what the hell?! Isn't this exactly what ACTA is? Did they randomly write a new law that is much like the thing we(the people) fought agains and won?!
Still, they go on and make laws despite the fact that we denied them it? Is this world fucking retarded or something?!

[Calintz]

retarded. thank you for keeping CP open. what does it cost to keep CP open per month?

[Blizzard]

chaos-project.com costs 10€/year and the hosting is 72€/year (6€/month). I'm paying in € because CP's server is located in Germany. ICD Soft (our host) offers a plan for $72/year on a server in the US, but the space and traffic is literally 10 times smaller. So I picked a European server. Here's a link if anybody is interested: http://www.icdsoft.com/hosting.php?eu
There is another plan for $10 or 10€ with much more space and traffic (again 10 times more), but CP doesn't need that much. If it ever does, upgrading is no problem.
So effectively CP currently costs almost $10/month.

@Mark: I had the same thought when I realized why CP violates their rules. Effectively they are forcing censoring.

[Subsonic_Noise]

Wait... what the hell?! Isn't this exactly what ACTA is? Did they randomly write a new law that is much like the thing we(the people) fought agains and won?!
Still, they go on and make laws despite the fact that we denied them it? Is this world fucking retarded or something?!

It's google. They can just put that in their contract without having a law to back it up and go by it.

[Blizzard]

Xintekk has suggested that we try a different ad service. I have added the ads of adBrite. Let's see how things work out.

[G_G]

I assume you switching over caused that "googleads template not found" error?

[Blizzard]

Yeah, I was switching out files. xD Now everything is fine.

[Vell]

I think it's just Google protecting their own asses, because people in congress are REALLY intent on passing SOME form of internet censorship law.

[ForeverZer0]

I think it's just Google protecting their own asses, because people in congress are REALLY intent on passing SOME form of internet censorship law.

I agree. This is not some law, its just Google taking some preemptive measures, same as TPB.

[Blizzard]

I agree. Well, they will lose a lot of customers and users that way. That's just what WAZZUB needs to get kickstarted. :X

[Spaceman McConaughey]

Eh, if people decide to leave Google and its services over this, good for them. I personally wouldn't, as WAZZUB doesn't look good to me(not good in the least bit).

[Blizzard]

I agree. WAZZUB still looks ruggish. But hey, you never know how things can turn out.

[Spaceman McConaughey]

But hey, you never know how things can turn out.

Very good point.

[Ryex]

Not a fan of this kind of thing, REALLY not a fan.

Spoiler: ShowHide

they have been here for at least that last few hours and haven't gone away. I make a point of not running adblock on CP in case I ever feel like clicking that rare ad. but this is annoying.

[Blizzard]

I have disabled adBrite now. Let me know if this still appears. If we can't setup adBrite to omit these annoying links, Xintekk and me will try to find another ad service.

EDIT: Xintekk regenerated the ad code. Now there should be no links in the content. Let me know if they appear again.

[Blizzard]

Alright, this didn't really work out. We've earned $2 in over a year which is ridiculous. I guess their ad service is just crap.

Either way, I have removed the ads completely. CP is now ad-free.

[Ryex]

here have 20$, that should help with the next month at lesat.

[Blizzard]

Lol, thanks. CP shall prevail! HURRR!