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Timeline for answer to Update to our Advertising Guidelines by Thomas Owens

Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0

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Jan 10, 2024 at 22:23 comment added Travis J @Sasha - While this might not seem like much of a change from a technical perspective, as it is simply allowing a behavior instead of implementing one, that does not mean it is not a stark departure from a promise long held here at Stack Overflow.
Jan 4, 2024 at 19:33 comment added Sasha StaffMod @ThomasOwens I posted a response to the request that we have a community discussion about what constitutes a "major change to the platform" as an answer here.
Dec 18, 2023 at 20:59 comment added Kryomaani @Sasha Hiding all this behind a single, tiny link titled " Update to our Advertising Guidelines" is hardly doing anything to reach out to your user base. We can see this post has now been viewed ~4k times, whereas SO alone currently has 22 million users. Do you genuinely consider reaching at most 0.02% of your users "doing your best to notify" them?
Dec 14, 2023 at 23:09 comment added Thomas Owens @Sasha I don't know if this is the best that can be done. A single post on the Moderator team with no orange diamond? Making this change in holiday season, where people who primarily use the network at work may miss it by the time they return? Not giving a public notice in advance to let people adjust their settings before the changes go live?
Dec 14, 2023 at 15:03 comment added Sasha StaffMod @Andy this post is featured, so it shows up in the right side bar on every site across the network. There is a heading about opting out, intended to make those directions easy to find even for someone who just skims the post briefly. We are doing our best to notify users about this change and their options.
Dec 14, 2023 at 4:50 comment added Andy @Sasha "The ads shown to opted-in users based..." - They haven't opt'd in. They have been forced to accept this by default. You have buried directions on how to opt out in this meta post. It's already negative so it's not showing on the Meta Front Page. Meta is used by a small percentage of the overall community. And most importantly, the cookie settings don't load for a very common use case: Users with adblockers..
Dec 13, 2023 at 18:28 comment added Thomas Owens @zcoop98 I fully agree. If two or three people are looking at "major change to the platform" and we can't agree on what is or isn't a major change that other parts of the agreement rely on, we have a problem. There may be similar points of contention around concepts like "foundational system of the platform", "timely manner", and "substantively impact the user experience", to name a few.
Dec 13, 2023 at 17:33 comment added zcoop98 I disagree that this should fall under the "major change to the platform" label, but I completely agree that some sort of consensus needs to be reached around what that label actually means in practice. With how comprehensive the agreement was, it's a bit amazing to me that this terminology wasn't clearly defined– it's going to continue to be a cause of significant friction if parties disagree on the meaning.
Dec 13, 2023 at 16:58 comment added Dan Mašek @Sasha If the company really respected users' privacy (as opposed to just talking about it), this "feature" would be off by default, and those that want to be spied on would opt in, not vice versa.
Dec 12, 2023 at 22:53 comment added Thomas Owens @Sasha It's worth investing time in having a community discussion around "major change to the platform", because a major change doesn't have to "substantively impact the user experience". Even if feedback isn't considered, there is a commitment to being transparent about updates and proposed changes to give people enough time to react - in this case, understand the change, the implications, and adjust their settings appropriately before the changes are live. Users who opted in may want an opportunity to opt out because of these changes, for example.
Dec 12, 2023 at 22:27 comment added Sasha StaffMod We do respect that many users do not want to engage with retargeting pixels, which is why we have highlighted how to opt out.
Dec 12, 2023 at 22:26 comment added Sasha StaffMod 1. The ads shown to opted-in users based on retargeting pixels will follow all our other advertising guidelines, so the look and content will not be significantly different from the ads users are already shown across the Network. 2. Only a limited number of advertising partners that Stack Overflow has relationships with will be allowed to implement retargeting pixels, and only users who are opted in to cookie tracking will be affected.
Dec 12, 2023 at 22:26 comment added Sasha StaffMod We felt that the concrete impact on users’ experience on the platform would be relatively modest, and not a change which would “substantively impact the user experience” warranting wider community feedback per the agreement, for several reasons.
Dec 12, 2023 at 19:16 history edited Thomas Owens CC BY-SA 4.0
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Dec 12, 2023 at 18:57 history edited Thomas Owens CC BY-SA 4.0
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Dec 12, 2023 at 18:39 history edited Thomas Owens CC BY-SA 4.0
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Dec 12, 2023 at 18:35 history answered Thomas Owens CC BY-SA 4.0