Once again there is no way to contact a human being.
Once again we hope that getting publicity on blogs will catch the attention of someone at Google who can do something about it.
This time, I'd like someone to tell me why it was impossible for the dev to remedy this through the normal channels and tell us what Google are going to do to stop this happening again.
But remember the people generating publicity on blogs, because their Google+ account was deleted? Then it turned out they used a company name as their profile name, posted underage nudity, or otherwise violated the rules.
The blog assumes the developers are innocent and abiding by the developer rules. But can we take this assumption for a fact?
For all we know the developers might have been offering incentives to write reviews. The developers might have send account activation emails from a spammy host.
The email they received from Google isn't published, only described as vague. A tweet mentions "repetitive content".
Spam and placement in store
Do not post repetitive content
If you currently search for "RPG" ( https://play.google.com/store/search?q=rpg&c=apps ) 4 games from the top 9 are by 'Cory Trese'. All have near duplicate descriptions. They have 4 versions of a single game "Star Traders RPG".
I wouldn't look at update frequency or an algo fluke as the culprit, but look how I could remedy this apparent repetition, both in game versions and game descriptions.
He has two version of Templar Assault and Cyber Knights (paid and free) and three versions of Star Traders (paid, free, lite).
Many big-name games do this (you can choose between a paid version and a free, ad-supported version). Rovio released an Angry Birds Lite for a while when they were having performance issues on lower-end devices.
Assuming this behavior does break the rules (which is not a given), the rules are still enforced very inconsistently, with no recourse.
Star Traders International is the third version. It contains a community translation to six languages done by volunteers. We didn't feel right selling donated work.
Star Traders Mini is a super stripped down low resolution version that is 1/7 the size of RPG. Tiny downloads are appreciated by some users, but can't be combined with full size editions.
Having actually played these games (particularly Cyber Knights which is an absolutely brilliant CyberPunk/ShadowRun tribute), I support these developers. I was highly skeptical when I first played the Star Traders game because the website wasn't the greatest, but after having played the games, I went and downloaded all their other stuff as well. I can see how it would be easy to dismiss them, but the algorithm is just wrong in this case.
Things would be a lot easier if Google just stated clearly what the alleged breach is. Google seems to think that saying too much enables the bad guys to tune their algorithms. That may be true, but I think it's the smaller problem.
Explaining exactly what behaviour should be stopped may make Google's arms race with the bad guys a little bit more difficult but it makes things a lot easier for everyone else without causing the kind of costs that human intervention would.
What they do now is basically security by obscurity.
But remember the people generating publicity on blogs, because their Google+ account was deleted? Then it turned out they used a company name as their profile name, posted underage nudity, or otherwise violated the rules.
It sucks for people running into legitimate issues, but I've learned to develop a bias over the years for these types of stories (especially when the word "ban" comes into play).
The vast, vast majority of people who complain about being banned from one service or another are either straight up lying, or leaving out crucial details to make their story sound sympathetic. Again, this ruins it for people that have legitimate grievances, but that's so rarely the case it's a lot more useful to take that stance that the person isn't being truthful about the situation.
If separate free and paid versions (of course with almost identical descriptions) are going to be grounds for banning, the app section of Google Play is about to become very empty. It seems to be a fact of life that you really need to have a free demo version to be able to sell a game (or even a more serious app). Of course developers could change to just a free app + in-app purchases, but in-app purchases seem to have a slightly sleazy reputation. It's easy to see why some would prefer the two app model.
Why are people so much more willing to give Google a pass for this kind of stuff than Apple? Whenever the Apple app rejection story du jour makes the rounds, I rarely see anyone taking the "two sides to every story" angle.
At least with Apple you can appeal to a human. With Google all you can do is appeal to the press and hope someone there cares.
While Google has terrible, terrible support outside of Enterprise Google Apps use, you bring up something foundational-
But remember the people generating publicity
We're hearing one side of the story, where the players know that the other side is limited in what they normally can or will say (e.g. talk bad about Apple or Google -- playing up being the victim -- and for legal and professionalism reasons they usually won't correct egregious lies).
I want Google to seriously put the hammer down on the Play store -- this is a good thing for everyone. The people who exploited it before, who are the enemy of people who want a healthy and vibrant system, will inevitably cry foul and protest their innocence.
That isn't to say that I know anything about whether these guys are in the right or wrong, but it is curious how one-sided they are about Google's communications. It's also worth noting that very frequent updates are also a mechanism to get your app in the "New" category again and again, and we have to assume that Google has the capacity to know that the update wasn't an actual update but instead was simply, for instance, a version number change.
This is precisely why Google will remain a search company. It's not that they can't create tech for enterprise, it's that no one with a brain cell trusts them with anything important.
That's obviously false. Hundreds of millions of people trust Google with things of high importance. They're even approved to be trusted by the US Government (FISMA). Cities like Los Angeles have no problem trusting Google. Neither do businesses like Genentech or BBVA.
Who's the we? I'm sure tons of Y Combinator startups use Google Apps.
Google has a team of Developer Advocates to provide developers with support. Search for "google play developer advocate" and the top 4 results are Google+ profiles for people in those positions.
That's not what he said. What he said was that there exist customer advocates. You can see this for yourself by finding them on Google+ and looking at how they chose to advertise their job description.
They also have office hours that you can join via hangouts. I've only seen them on youtube after the fact, but they're generally pretty good, and they will sit there and answer questions to your face (though since it's a webcast, general questions about banning would probably work better than "why is my app being banned?"):
I had to can a project recently after spending over a month fruitlessly trying to get a response from Google's support resources.
On the up side, I made $70 and learned some interesting stuff.
But here's yet another way for Google to run false positives which send you into their black hole of non-support. So one of the things I'm still learning is "don't let Google be a mission-critical part of a project."
Better yet, "Don't let anything over what you have no control whatsoever be a mission critical part of a project". If that single company can be heavily influenced by you, risks are acceptable.
It's back up as of right now. I just downloaded Templar Assault.
Also, just to be clear: once again, we're responding to a one-sided media story without reference to the app in question or the facts on the ground. And, once again, we're jumping in for or against the side we curently favor in the smart phone wars (I'll bet good money there's an iPhone in your pocket, so let me put down my Galaxy Nexus to respond).
It seems you are trying to steer this into a "if you criticize Google you're an Apple fanboy, if you criticize Apple you're a Google fanboy" argument which is not only dangerous in itself but utterly ridiculous.
I think the demands he made are pretty reasonable. Both Google and Apple need to improve relations and communications with developers in cases like this and trying to avoid the subject or turn it into a fanboy war wont help the case.
So please, put back your Nexus in your holster, cowboy.
It's more "If you make a knee jerk criticism of Google or Apple that we've all heard a thousand times already, based on a single poorly sourced blog post, and bring no new insight to the table" then you're a fanboy and should be posting somewhere else. I'm tired of this.
You are tired, fair enough, but then don't try to make it a fanboy case, just let it slide.
I have my own perception about these things and that is that if this was an Apple case instead of a Google one it would have been overanalyzed and exaggerated ("devgate" or whatever other stupid name attached to it) and that one-sided stories would be welcomed instead of questioned.
This is probably coming across as a pro Apple statement, no doubt (and I do'nt really care, i don't make a big deal about what technology i decide to put in my pocket), but I also think it'd be against users and developer interests to say that the problem is not there or that is only a matter of perception based on your ecosystem preferences.
If there something wrong, or that needs improvement, it should be said regardless on what phone you use or your personal preference.
Given that both Apple and Google are notorious for not talking to anybody, even the devs they're making money on, I'm not sure what you see as the alternative. If a journalist can only get one side of the story, I think they should print it.
Also, just to be clear: once again, we're responding to a one-sided media story without reference to the app in question
And just to be clear, the only reason you're responding is because ten thousand other people consumed and shared the story. And the reason they did that is because the narrative that nobody is home at Google is powerful in the development community. It threatens to spread to the rest of the web as well if you guys don't get in gear and start fixing this corporate culture problem.
Since an android app has to demand all possible permissions pre-installation (feel free to correct me here if I'm mistaken), then how else can one provide versions of said app that don't ask for the permissions that make some uncomfortable?
That's just repeating the speculation in the article. We have no idea if the multiple app versions are the source of the warning. We haven't seen the letter, nor even read selective quotes from it. That's what drives me nuts about this: this is pure sensationalism. There's no journalism here at all, and almost no real facts. Yet all the "con-Google" crowd jump in with the tired old customer support meme anyway.
Stop it, people. Find some real evidence and indict them with that.
How is it not journalism? The story is admittedly one-sided but only because Google won't communicate with anyone. The author and the article's subject both reached out to Google and got no reply at all.
That is the story. Google is threatening to remove non-shady apps for reasons that are entirely mysterious.
Where are the quotes from the notifications from Google? Where is the independent verification? Where is the attempt by the author to "reach out to Google" (I just re-read the article -- they didn't do what you assume they did)? Literally all this is is an author using a few quotes from one source to rehash a meme and get clicks. And everyone here has jumped on it and pushes it to the top of YC. And I'm sick of this kind of discourse.
Here is a quote cut & pasted from the article:
"Google didn't respond to a request for comment from me."
So the article details the attempt and failure of the devs to contact Google, and the author's attempt and failure to contact Google. What do you want, a seance?
The Trese Brothers have attempted to contact Google many times via email and through Google's support boards since the first warning and have heard nothing back.
Google didn't respond to a request for comment from me [the author of the article].
I think you need to read more closely.
And BTW I'm generally favorable toward Google, and my pocket holds an Android.
By asking Google. By looking for criticism of the apps elsewhere. By downloading and running them to validate there is no spam. By asking for a copy of the communication from Google. Are you serious about this, or did you just not think of that stuff?
Oh fer cryin' out loud. I downloaded and played this game (or an earlier version of it) over a year ago. It's not anything special, but it sure isn't spam, and the developers clearly have an engaged and enthusiastic audience...
If google is going to use an automated tool to detect violations of their rules that generates false positives, then if they have any clue whatsoever they need to put a human in between it and the developers to prune those out. Otherwise, it's like going to see your doctor and only getting a web browser set to WebMD instead.
Once again we hope that getting publicity on blogs will catch the attention of someone at Google who can do something about it.
This time, I'd like someone to tell me why it was impossible for the dev to remedy this through the normal channels and tell us what Google are going to do to stop this happening again.