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Possible Google Drive/Docs bans starting to be enforced for host/sharing sexually explicit content

metalax

metalax

Let it Burn.
Joined
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Last edited:
metalax said:
Posting something that popped up here over on SB. Apparently, there have been some reports that Google has started enforcing bans on accounts that have shared sexually explicit content on Google Drive/Docs.

The original report appears to be sourced from An Instagram post.

Google's T&C on sexually explicit material : https://support.google.com/docs/answer/148505#zippy=,sexually-explicit-material

If anyone has other reports or corroboration, post it here.
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Apparently it's because one of her betas actually reported her for writing child porn...???
 
KinKrow said:
See, this is why I use Microsoft Word for everything.

I think there's also an open source document writer out there that's basically as good as Word.
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LibreOffice, I believe. I've used it in the past and it's pretty decent.

I'm used to writing on my phone, not a laptop, so while it's an option to swap to LibreOffice it'd be a bit of a shift. Gonna look into whether I can host locally on my home server, and access the files over LAN to edit and write stuff.
 
As locke24 pointed out, looks like it might be a false alarm at the moment.

However, it is worth the reminder that a lot of what we use it for is something that Google could choose to block you out of at any time, along with the rest of your stored material.
 
KinKrow said:
See, this is why I use Microsoft Word for everything.

I think there's also an open source document writer out there that's basically as good as Word.
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I use Apache OpenOffice, though Libre Office is also an option.

They look a little old fashioned compared to the latest Word program, but that is because they don't feel the need to redesign the interface on a regular basis. I consider it a plus.
 
Carthienes said:
I use Apache OpenOffice, though Libre Office is also an option.

They look a little old fashioned compared to the latest Word program, but that is because they don't feel the need to redesign the interface on a regular basis. I consider it a plus.
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Do they have dark modes, because that's literally all I care about.

Beautiful white text on dark gray backgrounds.
 
Carthienes said:
I use Apache OpenOffice, though Libre Office is also an option.

They look a little old fashioned compared to the latest Word program, but that is because they don't feel the need to redesign the interface on a regular basis. I consider it a plus.
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I used to use OpenOffice, but something about its documents always screwed with other word processors. If I tried sending a document to someone else, it seemed like the formatting always got booged up along the way.
 
How do you delete stuff off Google drive? I really can't afford to lost my account.
 
KinKrow said:
Do they have dark modes, because that's literally all I care about.

Beautiful white text on dark gray backgrounds.
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Huh, I've been using LibreOffice for a decade or more and I didn't know the answer, I had to look it, and yes you can choose themes, some of them are dark. Be advise that if you have WTYSIWYG the pages stay white, for obvious reasons...
 
Scopas said:
I used to use OpenOffice, but something about its documents always screwed with other word processors. If I tried sending a document to someone else, it seemed like the formatting always got booged up along the way.
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That's because OpenOffice defaults to saving as its own file format, .odt (Open Document Text). When you go to Save As the file, you can select a different option like .docx if you want. That said, I use LibreOffice myself, in part because that's annoying.

The thing people need to realize when using stuff like Google Drive and Google Docs, is that cloud saving is just "saving on someone else's computer." If you lose network access, you lose access to the document. If their computer goes up in a fire, you lose the document. If they decide they don't like you, or discontinue their service, or a government they're trying to butter up to says so, you lose access to the document. Potentially forever. Cloud-based backups are better, in the sense that you still have your initial copy on your own hard drive. However, the big ones everybody knows about are still not great from a privacy standpoint.

Ideally, you want to have your own copy on your PC, a second external hard drive or SSD that you use for backups, and likely a second cloud-based backup in case your home goes up in smoke and you lose both of them. Well, not ideally; ideally, you want multiples of each backup type and one or two other types as well, but that's not practical for individuals instead of businesses in most cases.

Personally, I stick with just the first two (file on computer, external backup drive) because I'm lazy, and because most of the cloud-based backup options that wouldn't require me to stop being lazy are things like Google Drive or OneDrive. I don't trust Google or Microsoft that much. They've definitely got things in their terms and conditions that would let them rifle through those drives and cut you off if they feel like it. This latest event is just an extra point of confirmation on that.
 
JadeKaiser said:
That's because OpenOffice defaults to saving as its own file format, .odt (Open Document Text). When you go to Save As the file, you can select a different option like .docx if you want. That said, I use LibreOffice myself, in part because that's annoying.

The thing people need to realize when using stuff like Google Drive and Google Docs, is that cloud saving is just "saving on someone else's computer." If you lose network access, you lose access to the document. If their computer goes up in a fire, you lose the document. If they decide they don't like you, or discontinue their service, or a government they're trying to butter up to says so, you lose access to the document. Potentially forever. Cloud-based backups are better, in the sense that you still have your initial copy on your own hard drive. However, the big ones everybody knows about are still not great from a privacy standpoint.

Ideally, you want to have your own copy on your PC, a second external hard drive or SSD that you use for backups, and likely a second cloud-based backup in case your home goes up in smoke and you lose both of them. Well, not ideally; ideally, you want multiples of each backup type and one or two other types as well, but that's not practical for individuals instead of businesses in most cases.

Personally, I stick with just the first two (file on computer, external backup drive) because I'm lazy, and because most of the cloud-based backup options that wouldn't require me to stop being lazy are things like Google Drive or OneDrive. I don't trust Google or Microsoft that much. They've definitely got things in their terms and conditions that would let them rifle through those drives and cut you off if they feel like it. This latest event is just an extra point of confirmation on that.
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TLDR; Fuck big companies, because they'll fuck you given even an iota of a chance.
 
OK, backed up my writing documents to a home server, followed by nuking them from GDrive. Arguably only a single story was risky due to notes about potential future sex scenes, with the rest being entirely combat or 'character with a crush' as potentially-problematic elements go, but better safe then sorry.

This does make it troublesome to write from my phone, alas, due to there not being an easy way to SMB into a LAN server from mobile devices. You have to daisy-chain a file navigation app with SMB functionality into a writing app, and even then it might run into issues saving files. Blah.
 
KinKrow said:
Do they have dark modes, because that's literally all I care about.

Beautiful white text on dark gray backgrounds.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I do believe so, you can also set the background and text colours separately if you want.

Faralis said:
Huh, I've been using LibreOffice for a decade or more and I didn't know the answer, I had to look it, and yes you can choose themes, some of them are dark. Be advise that if you have WTYSIWYG the pages stay white, for obvious reasons...
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What he said.

Scopas said:
I used to use OpenOffice, but something about its documents always screwed with other word processors. If I tried sending a document to someone else, it seemed like the formatting always got booged up along the way.
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OpenOfficeWriter defaults to ODT format, which is an open source document type that is available to everyone... unfortunately, it seems that some big names decided to screw them over by implementing them badly, so their office software screws up displaying Open Document files. Not a problem if you're just writing for yourself, and you can easily save a copy in another format (I prefer .doc or pdf) for documents you intend to share.

It works well enough for me, and I don't have to pay the ridiculous fee's microsoft thinks is appropriate for their downgrade.
 
metalax said:
As locke24 pointed out, looks like it might be a false alarm at the moment.

However, it is worth the reminder that a lot of what we use it for is something that Google could choose to block you out of at any time, along with the rest of your stored material.
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I can confirm that it is (probably) a false alarm. I talked to someone who actually used to work at google dealing with exactly this sort of thing and they were doubtful.

Not saying don't have backups, absolutely have backups. But the sky does not appear to be falling.
 
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