parislemon: Dear Google+Earlier today I noticed something funny. My Google profile picture -- the picture associated with my Gmail account, my GChat account, my Google+ account, etc -- had vanished. A bug? Nope.
It turns out, Google -- without telling me -- went into my account and deleted my profile picture. Why? Because I am giving the middle finger in it. See: above.
While ridiculous prudish, I figured this was probably the case so I uploaded the picture again to make sure. Sure enough, gone. At least this time, Googler Alex Joseph left a comment as to why:
As the first point of interaction with a user's profile, all profile photos on Google+ are reviewed to make sure they are in line with our User Content and Conduct Policy. Our policy page states, "Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content." Your profile photo was taken down as a violation of this policy. If you have further questions about the policies on Google+ you can [ go fuck yourself ].[...] Anyway, I've fixed my attitude and uploaded a picture (below) which should hopefully be in line with the terms of service no one actually reads anyway:
Ugh. Horrible. You wouldn't think "be less shitty than Facebook" would be a real high bar to meet.
Interesting. My G+ profile pic vanished sometime in the past month (haven't logged in much, I wonder why) and it was nothing more than a picture of my face. FAIL.
Maybe they could tell what you were thinking.
"Maybe"?
An excuse to close my Google+ account. Not like I was using it anyway.
How long until they just merge Google+ and standard Google accounts and make it impossible to not have one if you use email, calendar, etc?
How long until they just merge Google+ and standard Google accounts and make it impossible to not have one if you use email, calendar, etc?
I'm sure that Larry and Vic would like for that to happen yesterday. Thankfully, due to [probable NDA violation], [semi-informed extrapolation], [certain NDA violation] and [wild-ass speculation], I think it'll be at least (totally finger in the wind here) 18-24 months before they can throw the switch. At which point there will probably be some pushback from pitchfork-wielding mobs of their paying Apps customers...
...and they'll do it anyway. Make some popcorn, this one's gonna be epic.
I'm surprised to learn that it's not like that already... but I already have all of the above, so I probably won't notice when that switch is flipped.
I was once banned from TinyChat by the invisible moderator brigade. It turns that a painting behind me with non sexual breasts in it was the culprit.
After I changed my IP, I taped an envelope with big block letters "FUCK YOU" on it over the breasts.
I was never banned again.
Right. I could totally be a profile evaluator for Google.
It should come as no shock that gets a 404 now.
I'm amazed that the same sort of pr0n in its circlees is still there.
Somewhat taking the Devil's advocate position on this: user signs up for service, blithely disregards (surprisingly readable) content policy, rants when policy is silently enforced (the "silently" seems to be the key issue, but it's a single datapoint, immediately contradicted by the second deletion). For bonus points, service in question has a whole range of publicly complained-about issues already, and this feels like it's close to being the bottom of the pile.
I'm not feeling the rage, somehow. On the other hand, I suppose "not feeling the rage" is what causes things like this to go from odious to acceptable to expected.
Curiously, Diaspora lacks all of this "acceptable use" nonsense. Because we can just run our own nodes. So, that'd be the entry point for gov't intervention, around which the Internet will happily route as if it were damage.