This is old news, but I’ve been busy. Congratulations go out to the YPN team for listening to their detractors and instituting a method for the general public to comment on websites they see that contain YPN contextual ads. Before, you had to be a member of the YPN! network to report other members who abuse YPN’s Terms of Service (TOS) (read Abusing Yahoo!’s Contextual Advertising (YPN) — not clickfraud for a full account of the details).

As of July 31, you can use the following email address to alert Yahoo of websites that mess with the colors, and generally try to get you to click on ads unwittingly (and thus break the TOS): ypn-feedback@cc.yahoo-inc.com.

Today, we’re pleased to announce that the blog will now feature a permanent link to our feedback email box that anyone can use, located under “Network Feedback” in the right-hand column. If you, our network’s volunteer hall monitors, catch someone placing images next to ads, splattering ads willy-nilly all over their pages, nicking other sites’ content, or running with scissors, let us know and they’ll be sent to the Virtual Principal’s Office.

We won’t be able to respond to all feedback that we receive but, rest assured, we will be monitoring all submissions and, perhaps, doing show and tell later on.

Read straight from the source, A Thousand Hall Monitors. Now that they have an email, its up to us to make our voice heard. Think it will work?

For a refresher, YPN suggests that publishers refrain from the following:

* Adult-oriented content
* Violence, excessive use of vulgar or obscene language
* Excessive, duplicate or competing advertisements
* Content related to human suffering or death
* Copyright or trademark-sensitive products such as MP3 downloads, DVD backups or bootleg items
* Weaponry, ammunition, fireworks or explosives
* Gambling
* Illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia
* Propaganda, potentially offensive or controversial content
* Defamatory, libelous, threatening or other material that advocates against any individual or group
* The sale of body parts or bodily fluids
* The sale of hazardous substances
* Political, religious or charitable organizations, issues or causes
* The sale of tobacco and tobacco-related products
* Hacking, surveillance, interception or de-scrambling equipment
* The sale (or facilitated sale) of prescription drugs
* The sale of counterfeit or stolen items
* The sale of government IDs or police items
* The sale of alcoholic beverages
* The sale of products from any of the following countries: The Balkans, Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, The Sudan, Syria or Zimbabwe