I’ve just learned that Traffic Heroes blocks IPs from China, and is quite proud of the fact that they have very few Chinese surfers. I understand that there is a common notion that surfers from Asian countries tend to surf tons and may have no interest whatsoever in joining other member programs. But is it fair to block out legitimate surfers because of a stereotype of their race?
“…we are getting good quality surfing and not all the
Chinese surfers that so many other exchanges have. Part of the reason
for this is I block ips from China so we do not get those members
joining or surfing.”
What if I didn’t want your business because I met someone of your nationality and didn’t like them? Is it ok to lock the good customers out there because you want to avoid the bad ones? Whatever happened to punishing the people who violate the rules, and not punishing those who have yet to do anything wrong.
I am Chinese, so maybe they should block me too. But I’ve grown up with great friends of nearly every race, and when people badmouth another race (versus just telling jokes), it always upsets me. I can understand we all have preconceived views about other races, but we should at least give them a chance to prove us wrong.
Is this a common practice among Traffic Exchanges? I sure hope not. There is no way I could support a business who feels this is right. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this and I hope this is just some big misunderstanding on my part.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:05 am
I read that as well and had the same feelings but didn’t think much about it (i am light-hearted by nature). It’s no secret that lots of members from china use traffic exchanges in a bad manner, but blocking out all of them to weed out the bad ones is excessive. I’ve spoken with rich and I’m sure he doesn’t mean to offend people, but rather trying to improve his exchange. I’m sure he’ll realize soon that banning based on location is bad, but rather should block based on suspicious activity.
I do not participate, nor know of any others, who participate in this sort of activity.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This subject has been debated at length in traffic exchange forums.
I personally would never ban a whole country, I’m against banning at all wherever possible, but I am aware how much time and effort a traffic exchange owner can lose if they are hit by tag-teams or ptp cheats.
For a part-time owner (for example) their business can, literally, be ruined.
As I say, I don’t agree with blanket bans but please don’t be too quick to condemn those do. In this instance, and others, I am certain that the motivation is practical, nothing more.
February 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hi,
First off I would like to point out that I do not block any country, but also I would like people to just step back and look at it this way.
I think calling it racism is a bit much and that maybe we should be stepping back and looking at it in a different way.
It takes a lot of time finding and constantly deleting bad surfers or cheaters and I will admit 90% of them come from other China.
Now with 3 exchanges I spend and my helpers spend in total about an hour each day on this. Now if I put a cost on time and a price on this i would say about $40 a day. Now the income from members from China is so so low (In fact I think I only have 2 upgrades from China) that it would make real business sence to ban chinese IP addresses from using the programs.
That would make me $1200 better off each month.
If it was your site and you could save $1200 a month would you not do it?
If I had a chain of sports shops and one country I traded in made a loss and a fairly big loss and say 90% of my problems (Example stolen goods as this could compare to stolen credits that cheaters steal) then I would close all my stores in that country. Would that then also be racism.
Also I would like to point out that lots of businesses do not deal with certain countries. A lot of websites will not let people from different countries join.
What about services that are only available in certain countries.
I just think a lot of the time racism is used when really it may not be.
Should it also not be the business owners right to decide who he trades with.
The main factor here is do we really not owe it to the genuine members to provide the best service. If cheaters account for 5% or even sometimes as high as 10% of your page views. Then you found out that by banning China the exchange owner could save you 90% of those lost credits would you not want them too?
Just thought id ask and see what people think.
Just a thought
February 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Those are some great comments and clears up quite a bit of the picture. I do think the mention of “Chinese surfers” came off as very negative. After learning more and reading your opinions, I don’t believe it is meant to sound that way.
As said earlier, I understand that many surfers from Asian countries are surfing machines that have no interest in joining any programs. But I do hope for any business, that an entire race is not singled out as being poor quality.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 am
As an American-born and raised TE owner of Chinese descent, I see both sides of the issue.
TE owners have to make sure that all members are abiding by the terms of service. The more members there are, the more time consuming that job is. In the end, all members benefit from the removal of cheating members. Serious surfers want people to view their sites, not have their hard-earned credits wasted by autobots. TE owners are taking care of their business by searching for and booting cheaters.
The mass majority of cheating members happen to have IP addresses that identify their physical location as China. The reference to “Chinese surfers” is meant to identify surfers who reside in China, not surfers of Chinese descent.
Being of Chinese descent, however, I take the reference to “Chinese surfers” the same way Solomon does. It always hits me in the gut as a racist remark when I first hear it, but then I remember that it is not meant the way it sounds. Whenever it is said in a conference room, I make a joke out of it by saying, “Yeah, those damned Chinese.” When I say that, everyone in the room realizes that “Chinese surfers” sounds pretty derogatory.
It all comes down to HOW you say things, and who is listening.
Thanks Solomon, for a thought-provoking post.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I own a traffic exchange and had a few PTR and PTC sites and I have allowed members from China to join. But their own dishonesty forced me to ban them.
I am not racist against anyone, but those that are dishonest just steal from the site and members who are. And they have no place as members of any site if they do.
Most PTRs and PTCs ban China from even joining. Why? There are a lot of cheats from China who violate the TOS. Every country has those who are dishonest, but China tops the list of those who try to hide it.