Oh, Google AdSense, you crack me up sometimes...

Today's chuckle comes courtesy of Google's AdSense, which is supposed to match a blog's content with the featured advertisements:

Established men: Sugar daddy dating. Where beautiful girls & successful men meet. SEARCH NOW!

Uh. OK? It started appearing last night on this very blog. I haven't laughed this much since those National Organization for Marriage ads appeared on this and other gay-related blogs.

About those NOM ads on Blabbeando...

I would like to extend a hearty welcome to the National Organization for Marriage and their advertising on Blabbeando!

"Who are they?," you may ask yourself.

You know - NOM. The organization that brought us the infamous 'A Storm is Coming' ad and which stands against marriage equality, despite their pretty name.

Not that NOM specifically planned to run ads on blogs that counter their homophobic vile or that I, as a blogger, manually accepted their advertising.

Their ads, actually, come courtesy of Google's AdSense service which is supposed to automatically match advertisements on a specific topic with the most appropriate websites by analyzing which words are most frequently used on the site (in this case, Blabbeando contains a lot of words related to gay issues and since the NOM ads are all about the gays - in a negative way - it's an instant match!).

Other queer blogs currently running the ads include NGblog, The Bilerico Project, QUEERTY and GoodAsYou, among others.

Here is the thing: Every time you click on the ad, you will be redirected to the NOM website - which means that NOM has to pay Google for the click-through! Yes! By clicking on the ads, you will take money away from NOM!

So, click away and enjoy the ludicrous messages on the NOM site. Blabbeando will be thankful and you can rest assured that featuring the ads does not mean that we have, all of a sudden, switched sides to the Dark Force.

(UPDATE @ 7:00PM EST: The AdSense ads are gone a mere hours after they started to appear. Perhaps NOM caught wind that their ads were being queeryfied. Or perhaps they could only afford a few hours of AdSense exposure).

(UPDATE @12:01AM EST WED. MAY 6TH: They are baaaaaack!!! CLICK CLICK CLICK away!!!)

Related:

• Placing Anti-Hate Speech Banners on our LJ accounts (Low-Fat Muffin)

LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Convention - Day 2

Morning was rough. Didn't get to the Center for American Progress Action Fund on time for breakfast so the stomach is grumbling as I write.

Things began with a session on Media Presentation with Joel Silverman (left) and Cathy Renna of Renna Communications is currently leading a workshop on public relations.

While I sit back and listen, I wanted to highlight some blogs of other folk who are here for the LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Convention in alphabetical order (probably not a complete list):

• Bilerico Project
• Blabbeando
• BlogActive
• Boi From Troy
• Buffawhat
• Burnt Orange Report
• Calitics
• Coming Out in Mid-Life
  
• (en)gender
  
• Existential Punk
• Farmboiz
• Gay Agenda
  
• Gay Persons of Color
• Get Busy, Get Equal (ACLU LGBT Project Blog)
  
• Good as You
• Greta Cristina's Blog
• hunter of justice
• InterstateQ
• Jimbo
• Joe.My.God
• Knucklecrack
  
• The Mad Professah Lectures
• Mombian
• The New Gay
• Ninjatron
  
• PageOneQ
• Pam's House Blend
• Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
• Project Q Atlanta
• Rod2.0
• That Gay Girl Tamara
  
• UK Gay News
• Working Films
  

Je suis speechless

Pardon the hiatus

Bizarre: Blabbeando blocked for 24 hours

On August 10th it'll be three years since I began this blog. So far I haven't encountered any problems with Blogger (which is owned by Google) and - considering my time limitations - I haven't had the need for features available on other blog services other than the ones that Blogger offers.

I do remember when I first noticed that "FLAG BLOG" tab on the top of the page and wondering how Google would be able to determine if a "flagged" blog was indeed violating some of the content agreements or just being reported by people who simply did not like the content (which of course comes into play on issues such as LGBT rights which might draw the ire of a certain number of people).

This came to mind last night when I logged into my dashboard and - to my surprise - a message appeared on the editing page saying that I had been blocked from uploading additional posts because Blabbeando had been automatically identified by a Google bot as a "Spam" blog.

The message provided directions of how to click on a button and request that the blog be inspected for content and promised to investigate and solve the problem. Checking some online boards I discovered that some people had been waiting for more than 20 days for a response. Trouble is that the message also said the blog would be erased after 20 days if there was no action.

Today the warning message changed! It now said that the blog was being blocked for "possible content issues" which made me think it might be due to some trigger-happy people pressing that "FLAG BLOG" button. I mean, I talk about sexuality from time to time but so far I could see no reason why my previous posts might have violated content agreements.

I also discovered that while I wasn't able to do regular posts, I could still ad Page Elements to the right hand column which is why this afternoon I posted something that read:

SPECIAL ALERT TO READERS: BLABBEANDO ON STANDBY

Blogger has blocked my ability to post entries on this blog as of April 29, 2008, pending a content review. Apparently I can still post page elements on the side bar which makes it possible for me to post this notice.

Hopefully the issue will be resolved satisfactorily sooner than later. In the meantime thanks for visiting the blog!

Happily, the issue seems to have been resolved because I just regained access to the "New Post" area on my editing dashboard. Bizarre.

Santo Gay unmasked! Why Jesús Chairez has decided to leave the US for Mexico

One of the very few US-based Latino gay bloggers writing about LGBT issues and politics has decided to leave his Dallas home and move to Mexico.

Santo Gay, who we have featured on our blog roll - and long known to be Dallas LGBT activist Jesús Chairez - tells the Dallas Voice that it's become impossible to keep up with the increasing costs of living in Texas. In addition, the Texas-born 54 year old also says that he is drawn to Mexico City because it's more accepting of LGBT people than Dallas has ever been.

"What I see here by caring, loving GLBT people with each other in public is more than I ever see in Dallas or most Texas cities, and this is another reason I am moving — to be more liberated as a gay man,” he tells the Dallas Voice, “Though I will miss Dallas, especially my friends, I won’t miss the not-so-friendly Texas hospitality our GLBT community gets from Texas’ conservative community."

Chairez is often called the "godfather" of the Latino LGBT movement in Texas and the accolades are well deserved. It will be a loss to the United States LGBT rights movement and a gain to the Mexican LGBT rights movement, if Chairez decides to become as politically involved in Mexican LGBT issues as he was here in the United States. We wish him the best of luck as well as our admiration for the legacy he leaves behind in Texas.

For the full Dallas Voice article and to see Santo Gay unmasked go to:

• "Adios Santo Gay" (Dallas Voice, March 27, 2008).

Blabbeando in beta

So without much advance notice Google-owned Blogger decides to launch a nifty beta update on Monday with lots of juicy thingies (including the ability to ad labels to posts and to easily manipulate layout color and font changes as well as the ability to ad other third-party html and Java code without having to know much about either).

It's also a beta version which means that additional thingies will be added later (and issues resolved such as the fact that it apparently doesn't work well with Macintosh's Safari system).

Catch is: You have to be invited to convert your blog to the new Blogger in Beta and - guess what! - the invite popped up on my dashboard yesterday night! In one of those 'if you click here you can never go back to your old format' I decided to save the old html template just in case I lost some of the links I've built up and went ahead and did the crazy thing and hoped for the best. The switch also involved abandoning my old username and password (in Blogger in Beta you have to assign your blog to a gmail account).

Result: Minimal disruption (links survived as well as comments to older posts, third-party codes did not survive but can be added again, and been happy checking out some of the new editing options).

So bear with me through this week as I'll be playing with new colors, fonts and layouts. Yay! Nice way to celebrate the one year anniversary since I launched the blog!