Gold ads appear on official Blizzard forums [updated]
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 22nd 2009 at 3:30PM
At the moment Blizzard forum moderators are apparently deleting all threads pertaining to the ads, which seems appropriate enough; they clearly know about the problem. Oh, and folks: don't buy gold.
Update: Blizzard has responded officially to the matter, stating: "Recently, there was a temporary error with our forum advertisements that caused a gold-selling ad to be displayed. At this time, we have resolved this error. Our stance... remains firmly against the buying or selling of gold, and we may take action against accounts that are involved in these activities."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Sun Jan 22nd 2009 3:33PM
hahahahaha
Macbook Jan 22nd 2009 4:56PM
Lol is right...
I have gold ads the majority of the time on my blog, there's not much I can do about it.
Google's code scans your site, and places ads it thinks are relevant to your site, based from their selection of advertisers.
I'd actually be curious to know how WoW Insider blocked all their gold selling ads...
Macbook, http://Moonkin.info
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jan 22nd 2009 5:04PM
You beat me to it. But.. I’ll add it in anyway:
Mwahahaha
Gormaggus Jan 22nd 2009 5:40PM
must add:
hahahahahHAHAHAHAhahahaha.
Cowy Jan 22nd 2009 7:05PM
Probably the most appropriate time ever for: /facepalm
aiggan Jan 22nd 2009 9:00PM
@MacBook -- I believe you can blacklist domains in ads in the filters of AdSense. The problem being if a new gold seller comes up you have to add the domain to your blacklist.
I don't think WOWInsider uses Google anymore they use Quigo which is owned by their parent company AOL.
dAnixx Jan 23rd 2009 8:04AM
the irony
Donnicus Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
HAHAHAHA......epic fail on the part of the guy thats supposed to filter that stuff........someone might not have a job in the morning.
Sythas Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
Lost of discussion going on about this, and alot of laughter, they can delete all the post, but ppl will always have their screenies!
Danny Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
I KNEW Blizzard was behind every single gold selling business.
Cadychan Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
Bwa ha ha! Advertising FAIL.
Amaxe Jan 22nd 2009 3:34PM
Does Blizzard just sell ad space in general and whatever comes up is out of their control? Or did someone sell ad space to them specifically?
I know on my blog, I paid to be ad free because I had no control over the ads and some were contrary to what I wanted to promote.
Yeng Jan 22nd 2009 3:40PM
Generally the way it works is they get one of the big ad agencies that pay them to place ads on their site. And then the ad agency has code that targets the ads to the content of the site. Then all the people running the ads pay the ad agency to have their ads in the rotation. So a gold seller paid the ad agency to put their ads into rotation and the agency's code determined that the WoW website was related to WoW gold selling :D
Amaxe Jan 22nd 2009 4:17PM
makes sense. I imagine someone will be getting an angry call soon.
Teo Jan 22nd 2009 5:04PM
Any big website such as Blizzard would have a marketing department that is supposed to screen such things. An example is Penny Arcade, that doesn't let a single ad go on the site without proper approval.
Most of the ads on the forums are Blizzard-sponsored, or even ads from Blizzard itself. Hence why this is such a major mess up.
cowy Jan 22nd 2009 7:11PM
Warcraft goldsellers have always been very invasive on getting the "word out". From shouts in popular cities to writing a message in the corpses of a thousand level 1 gnomes. They always seem to eventually be back and trying something else.
This may not be the last we see of the ads. :P
Moo Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
HAHAHAHAHA, man. I've been one of those "hey guys, chill out about the bugs, they'll work them out" people, but this is pretty hilarious...poor Blizz can't seem to get anything right right now.
my2cents Jan 22nd 2009 3:51PM
Yeah with all the problems of the patch and now this, I can't help but feel bad for Blizzard for once! I'm sure they'll be just fine, but it's been a bit of a damaging week. It's almost as if someone inside Blizzard is trying to sabotage them =P
Amaxe Jan 22nd 2009 4:18PM
OK, let's investigate the people from LOTRO and WAR ;-)
InsaneAssault Jan 22nd 2009 3:35PM
LOL wow! Its been ages since i've visited the official forums (who needs to when you have this place). I think I'll swing by to see if the ads are still up. :-)