SEDO suspends TEEN domains

[Terminator]

I have reached a point to where I can no longer tolerate the incompetance and red tape at SEDO, not to mention my earnings completely s*ck.

This is my response to the email they sent today, keep in mind that I replied to both email addresses, 1 bounced back and the other at legal@sedo.com is a auto reply stating there too busy to respond.

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Sedo,


These domains have been parked at Sedo now for over 4 months, and now you decide the domains themselves or the keywords used are offensive?

It was YOU that approved the keywords in the first place!!! You have a approval process in place, if there was a violation, you share responsibility for violating your own policy. If anything was offensive, you had the discretion of changing it, but rather than do so, you suspend my domains and send this threatening letter?

If this is how you conduct business, I have no reason to park my domains with you, not to mention your payouts are not as impressive as you led me to believe, compared to other PPC providers, I can do much better.

Nicholas

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This is there email:

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Dear Mr. Savas,


We are writing to inform you that the domains listed below have been suspended from Sedo’s services due to a potential violation of our Offensive Domain Policy. While Sedo strives to protect our users’ rights to exercise free speech and maintain a marketplace with a vibrant and diverse collection of domain names, Sedo must also protect Internet users from domain names that contain illegal subject material or that promote hatred, child pornography, etc.



teenfriends.com / totalteens.com



Please review Sedo’s Offensive Domain Policy at the link below. As the domain owner, it is your sole responsibility to ensure your properties do not violate these standards. Users who continually attempt to list for sale or park domains in violation of this policy risk suspension or cancellation of their Sedo accounts. A copy of the policy may be found in the Policies section of the Sedo website or by clicking here: http://www.sedo.com/about/policy.php...cy&language=us



In the course of removing offensive domains from our system there is the possibility that otherwise legitimate domains were suspended due to their inclusion of offensive terms used in different contexts. If you have any questions about this decision please contact your account manager or the Sedo legal department at legal@sedo.com.



Sincerely,



Sedo Legal Dept.

Sedo.com LLC

One Broadway

Cambridge, MA 02142

Email: legal@sedo.com

[Dale Hubbard]

What keywords were you using?

[Terminator]

Keywords for teenfriends was "dating"

Totalteens was "sex"

just received another suspension notice for these domains:

schoolcuties.com / youngschoolgirls.com

schoolcuties used "dating"

youngschoolgirls used "kids"

Looking back at this, I wasnt the one that assigned these keywords in the first place!

Theres a shakeup at sedo and I'll bet I'm not the only one this happens to today.

[Dale Hubbard]

Well, that doesn't look too bad to me. It seems sedo are a total screw-up and very unpredictable these days. I agree that 'sex' shouldn't go with teens but the others look very reasonable and in good taste. Kudos to you for that. And then -- you didn't assign the keywords! What a shambles. This is not really my area, but I'm sure others will have sage advice.

[RatherGood]

As much as I'd like to blame sedo I think this is going to be a Google-influenced move and most other ppc companies will follow suit.

Any domain with "teen" or "girl" in it is pretty dicey these days.

I got into a TDNAM bidding war this summer on a former adult teen paysite only to have GoDaddy get it banned from google a couple days after the auction for showing mainstream ads to the adult traffic. That was pretty quick all things considered.


Anyhow, I guess this is a good sign that sedo has now made enough from collectively ripping everyone off that they can start being more selective.

[Terminator]

I have about 200 Adult domains at Sedopro now and I want to change the DNS on all of them today, Where are you guys parking your adult domains at? I'm looking for a provider that has attractive templates and decent earnings, .....Thanks!

[typist]

Most domains parked at sedo will do equally well at Namedrive - and Namedrive customer service is very helpful. The "Adult light" template works well for me at Namedrive.

I've been told that Skenzo works well for adult content, but haven't tried that myself yet.

[Terminator]

I moved some over to Namedrive, I'll see how they do.

Skenzo has some real nice tempates, where the best place to open an account? I only have 400 domains....Thanks!

[typist]

Congrats on the Namedrive move, I hope it'll work out for your domains!

email ed@namedrive.com if you have any questions - he's very responsive and one of the reasons why namedrive is so succesful.

I think you can use the skenzo feed through trafficclub or klickerz. Haven't tried though.



PS

I have reached a point to where I can no longer tolerate the incompetance and red tape at sedo, not to mention my earnings completely s*ck.

you're not the only one feeling this way. check out the profile picture here: http://www.dnforum.com/member-namestrands.html

[snicksnack]

AS the major players with google feed seem to start banning adult names, it might only be a matter of time till namedrive will follow. Just a guess.

[Wot]

My income continues to be decimated at sedo and barely a "dodgy" name, now down over 70% from a month ago - and it has been a steady decline!

[Raider]

Keywords for teenfriends was "dating" Totalteens was "sex"

just received another suspension notice for these domains: schoolcuties.com / youngschoolgirls.com

schoolcuties used "dating"
youngschoolgirls used "kids"

Looking back at this, I wasnt the one that assigned these keywords in the first place!

Let me get this straight, you parked these domains, sedo approved them + selected the keywords, 4 months later they suspend them and blame you for violating their Offensive Domain Policy?..What did you expect when you signed up? not be tortured while earning those nickels and dimes?

See you at Internext Nick!

[Mr. Deleted]

schoolcuties.com - now suspended at whatever parking place it is, youngschoolgirls.com has sex ads, which is NOT in good taste...

[whitebark]

I have about 200 Adult domains at Sedopro now and I want to change the DNS on all of them today, Where are you guys parking your adult domains at? I'm looking for a provider that has attractive templates and decent earnings, .....Thanks!

Fabulous.com is not bad for adult.

[Gerry]

What keywords were you using?

This has been going on for well over a month now. It appears which keywords are used has no bearing on sedo's decision.

It would seem that it is the domain name itself. sedo has removed one of my domains that contained the word teen also. Apparently it is designed to be a campaign against promoting the exploitation of teens. So it has basically been a blanket sweep covering all domains with certain words in them, regardless of keywords.

I have domains that do not contain the word teen in them but some keywords used are teen, teens, chat, blog and these have not been touched.

They, Sedo, have taken it upon themselves to police the internet. Not that this is entirely a bad thing, but Sedo has gotten a little extreme and is crossing the line in some cases regarding what is and is not appropriate...censorship.

Sedo, being an international entity, should be keenly aware of the simple fact that, being that your letter and my letter originated out of Cambridge, MA, not all countries abide by the same standards regarding the age of consensual sex, if that is their motive behind such a sweep. If this is the case, I think it is a veiled attempt to stop the exploitation of teens from child predators.

I believe this is a problem and certainly do not want to downplay the seriousness of it. But simply removing a domain name with the word TEEN from parked domain names that are not developed is not the solution. These are names, a combination of letters to create a word. The harm is not in the word. Where is the word TEEN in popular sites such as MySpace.com?

I hardly think that it is Sedo's place to determine the ultimate intent on a parked domain name. It will be the less obvious to the internet user that will perhaps be the most at risk. Lets face it, a domain name like UnderageTeensHavingHotSteamySex is blatant, forthright, and says it all. Avoid it!

Now if Sedo wants to give the boot to a developed site being sold on Sedo that contains the word teen and that site is devoted to the exploitation of minors and teens, then by all means give them the heave-ho!

I just wonder where and when it will stop. Could any domain containing baby, babes, babies, kids, kid, child, children be next?

Oddly enough, the ones that contain the blatantly adult oriented themes are being excluded. Perhaps it is because those can be catagorized as adult whereas teen or teens just simply fall into too many categories.

Sedo, I think a blanket sweep and a blanket statement in your rationale is going a little too far and extreme. It is a pity that anyone with the intent of teen education and public service or public health would be banned.

[wolfis.com]

i got this email a few days ago from a unrelated parking company ( which i do not name ):
Because of upcoming changes in Google for Domains feed system aimed to
separate adult domains from other (non-adult) domains we need you
to pay attention to a new field in your domain management interface
called "Adult". This field identifies domains of an adult related
nature which would receive only adult related sponsored ads.

At this time, we ask you to review all your domains and change the
'adult' state for your domains if required.

Please note that you need to ensure all your adult domains have
been marked appropriately as 'adult' and vice versa. Failure to
do so could result in ads not being displayed on your domains.

Notice: We've gone ahead and automatically filtered your domains
into 'adult' and 'non-adult' using a standard word list. Please
review these changes and make the appropriate adjustments.
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so this is not just sedo - this will impact all ppc services using the google feed.

secondly , i personally think it is very bad taste to have dating or sex links on any domain containing the word teen.

as i can see from this post linkguy owns for example: youngschoolgirls.com parkes it at sedo - gets an email that it is banned - moves it to namedrive and puts sex ads on it - and posts before at sedo the keywords was kids .

this smells !!!

sorry to sell you ,but something doesn't sound right here - i do not think that sedo would ban the domain if there are no adult ads on the choosen keyword.

and

after you got banned ,you move it to namedrive and choose sex keyword for the very same domain ??

( please don't tell me that you are so innocent and namedrive put the keywors on this domain - i know better )

[Terminator]

schoolcuties.com - now suspended at whatever parking place it is, youngschoolgirls.com has sex ads, which is NOT in good taste...

I moved youngchoolgirls.com to namedrive and I'm testing different keywords, moved 5 total. I dont need anyone to police me, I know what is questionable and what is not, I have a 6 year old daughter and I dont want her finding smut, just as much as anyone else.

i do not think that sedo would ban the domain if there are no adult ads on the choosen keyword.

You need to change your way of thinking my friend, because they DID!!!

teenfriends.com banned, keyword used: "dating"
schoolcuties.com banned, keyword used: "dating"
youngschoolgirls.com banned, keyword used: "kids"

If the domains were pulling innapropriate results with those keywords, then sedo or Google is the blame, I honestly dont know what results they were pulling, I dont visit my own pages, but the keywords used ARE 100% FACT, if you want to call Jom Tompkins my manager into this discussion to confirm, go right ahead!

[MinionDH]

I've tried SedoPro, Fabulous, Namedrive, and TrafficClub for adult domains. TrafficClub (Skenzo feed) wins by a landslide.

[RatherGood]

I've tried SedoPro, Fabulous, Namedrive, and TrafficClub for adult domains. TrafficClub (Skenzo feed) wins by a landslide.

When Trafficclub/Skenzo actually hits the right keyword and category, definately.

[Focus]

I had MANY really good type-in "teen" and "youngteen" .com domains that used to get hundreds of hits per day, I let them all drop. A big headache you don't want is these types of domains..it's just not worth it.