by alexanderscott on 4/10/14, 5:57 PM with 65 comments
by matthewmacleod on 4/10/14, 6:42 PM
I have to admit, it does look pretty spammy.
by DEinspanjer on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM
If he says 1 or 2 dozen, I hear at least 13, and probably close to 24. Listing 20 popular artist names in your music app's description specifically to increase the chances of people seeing your app when doing a search for one of those artist names does sound like excessive keyword usage to me. I could see naming around three just to point out that music from well known artists is available as well as indies.
I do still sympathize somewhat because the Play Store process is horrible, and at the very least, it seems reasonable he should be informed, "Hey, you are spamming artist names, cut it down to five or less please" then get his app reinstated rather than the vague "you done bad now you shall PAY".
EDIT: I saw the cache copy of the description made by another commenter. Now I am MUCH less sympathetic. Maybe he meant 1 or 2 gross instead of dozen? There are 167 artist names crammed in at the bottom. I doubt many people would feel that is reasonable.
by chavesn on 4/10/14, 6:56 PM
The appeal says "We don't profit from it, and thus have no incentive to spam." So change the description!
by AznHisoka on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM
"Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket and build a SEO-based startup. 1 algorithm change can flunk your business"
"Don't build your platform on the Apple Store or Play Store. Google can decide to take away your app anytime"
"Don't base your business on Adsense. They can ban your account anytime"
..what's left?
by dpcan on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM
However, this did happen before the Dev Center design change and I WAS able to go in and modify my game's description and that's how I noticed what the problem must have been. I think they should at least allow read-only access to the app's info so you can legitimately investigate.
by Nemant on 4/10/14, 6:54 PM
http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/com.cod...
by FaisalAbid on 4/10/14, 6:42 PM
The best part is, my app was not even live!!
It was in draft mode. My description and screenshot were not final, and were semi-complete placeholders. Before publishing the app I would have obviously made sure it complied with everything.
Google found issue with that and took down my app. Now I've been running around trying to get a hold of someone to look into this.
by wreegab on 4/10/14, 6:49 PM
by sgehrman on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM
Banned for life: The hidden danger when developing for Android.
by wjnc on 4/10/14, 6:47 PM
But the thing is, I'm unsure what to do. Those massive infrastructures bring software to the masses for free or little and bring huge opportunities for developers. It's hard to imagine someone forcing Google and Apple to give developers some sort of 'due process' within their ecosystem. Who would force them and why? And 'due process' exists outside the ecosystem, but you signed the EULA, remember?
Anti-trust would say: alternatives exist. They're small, but they exist. I really don't know which approach would guarantee user rights better. But my feeling is that this trend is bad for choice in the long run.
by DatBear on 4/10/14, 7:17 PM
>"...Vibe Vault’s store listing did not 'not use irrelevant, misleading, or excessive keywords in apps descriptions, titles, or metadata.'..."
With a double negative implying that it did break the policy. Hope he doesn't write legalese every day as well.
by chrisBob on 4/10/14, 6:45 PM
by fredgrott on 4/10/14, 6:38 PM
by pdonis on 4/10/14, 8:13 PM
> I suppose now that Android is a lot more popular than it was when we started developing Vibe Vault, it is no longer a priority for Google to treat the Android community with a modicum of care or respect.
Oh, there was a time when Google did treat the Android community with a modicum of care and respect? There was a time when they gave you detailed reasons why they pulled your app, and would actually give serious consideration to your arguments for reinstating it? When was that, exactly?
by tn13 on 4/10/14, 8:58 PM
For example consider this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eterno
And give me one good reason why it is not yet banned.
For Adsense look at this : http://khabar.ndtv.com/ (This is a site in Hindi and Adsense does not support Hindi)
by Namrog84 on 4/10/14, 6:38 PM
That is really unfortunate and not sure if there is much you can do about it now. I do wonder if they secretly discriminate against ad free and free software for lack of money?
by jug6ernaut on 4/10/14, 6:48 PM
I had one of my application taken down on a bogus DMCA takedown but do to having no money/time to fight it i just moved on.
by yaur on 4/10/14, 6:49 PM
by UweSchmidt on 4/10/14, 6:48 PM
App Stores with a specific profile are absolutely fine IF competing App Stores exist and operate on a level playing field on that platform.
by sparkie on 4/10/14, 7:02 PM
by bitJericho on 4/10/14, 6:46 PM
by gress on 4/10/14, 6:39 PM
/s