Shred Hood readers may have noticed a proliferation of random and highly annoying ads stuffed artlessly into the articles of shredhood.org. Sorry! We had no idea it was going to be so ugly! And so tasteless. Come on, Google!

Here is the note I sent to Google AdSense on January 4, 2019, while canceling the shredhood.org account. Actually, it is like the third or fourth note I sent as I tried desperately to keep AdSense from cluttering the site beyond recognition. I quote this final note because unlike the others it is not laced with curses and sarcasm:

My experience with Google AdSense has been terrible.

I publish a small community website for people who love skiing and snowboarding on Mount Hood, shredhood.org. I signed up for Google AdSense to bring in a little revenue, believing I would be able to control the look of my site and block the more egregious forms of online advertising that compromise a community site’s integrity, such as large, tacky ads shoved in the middle of stories, flashing lights distracting from sensitive topics, ads stuffed where the lead paragraph should go, and on and on. This was not the case.

Google AdSense ignored my setting preferences and cluttered my website with garbage. That is why I am canceling my account and recommending that other small niche publishers cancel their accounts as well. It isn’t worth it!

Ben Jacklet, Editor and Publisher, Shred Hood

I followed up that note a short while later with a simple request:

ok, I canceled my account.

Now kindly remove your crap from my website.

Last modified: January 4, 2019