Since I don't often hear from visitors to the site, I'm not sure we have many visitors who come back often enough to notice something like this, but if we did then such an imaginary visitor, then that person would probably have noticed that the ads that used to show up on all pages of the site are now turned off.

It turns out that the company -- one which is trying its best to become the non-governmental-organization (NGO) censor of the web in the US -- decided that one of the pictures included in our gallery is "adult or mature" content.

I won't mention the company's name because they don't like to be criticized and are known to respond with even more viscous actions if a site questions the company oft-expressed and self-professed "do-good" nature.

Because of their un-appealable decision, the NGO censor canceled this site's advertising contract. (As they have with several other sites, they waited until the cash in the account technically owed to this site had risen to about $150 before canceling the account -- an action that means they'll probably keep all the accumulated funds owed to the site.)

Since those ads were the only thing that allowed me to pay for the server used for the site, I'll be faced with a tough decision in September when the bill for the server comes due again. But that's the kind of thing that the NGO censor seems to see as its duty. It wants to exercise ever-greater control over the content on the web -- just as the company's partners in the Chinese government exercise that kind of control (with this NGO censor's help) over that country's web sites.

If they reinstate the ad account (which is doubtful, since this obnoxious company doesn't like its tight control to be challenged), I might respond the way the NGO censor expects and alter the offending pictures in a way that would make them acceptable to the censor. I'll call it "googeying" the pictures (just to pick a nonsense word).

I haven't decided yet whether it's worthwhile to googey the pictures, but it's one of the alternatives, I suppose.