AltaVista discretionary reason (1200)

What is it?

[Bareback]

I'd paid for inclusion to AVs database. All was fine for a couple of months and I just got a mail today from AV saying the following:

There was a problem updating the following URL(s):

[URLs listed]

Status: Excluded for AltaVista discretionary reason (1200)

What the hell does that mean? Any help would be gratefully received.

[makemetop]

Snap!

Every page on paid inclusion excluded for the mysterious reason 1200.

Oh, well - I'll miss that traffic.

[allybongo]

good god, I got the same. Was trying to keep it quiet here! At least I can stop panicking. Thought it was me as I'd changed the pages recently!

Aside from that though, anyone any ideas?

:)

[Bareback]

did either of you guys get back into AV and if not did you not try and contact AV and how long ago were you excluded?

I don't have a huge problem with it though, the traffic from AV is negligible, I was more concerned if there was something fundamentally wrong with the submitted pages that may have an effect on their rankings on other SEs, most notably Google and Inktomi - any thoughts.

[bobmcd]

All of my Pay-per-listing sites have now been excluded for discretionary reason 1200. Received notice today from InfoSpyder on behalf of AltaVista.

Am baffled why AV is taking this stance towards webmasters who are actually SUPPORTING their engine through paid listings. It seems AV would point to errors on a site and advise the webmaster what must be done to avoid being de-listed.

After having been paid-listed for so many months, why - all of a sudden - is AltaVista penalizing some of us by dropping our sites?

Does anyone on the AV team realize that webmasters are the LIFE BLOOD of the Internet? If we disappear (as AV obviously wishes we would) even after having "paid" for the privilege of being on their Team, what good will that do for their future?

What can we webmasters do when a major Search Engine player suddenly decides to drop paying customers? Any suggestions?

Please post.

BobMcd

[coco]

same here.

although if i am honest, all the pages i had that were dropped are pretty spammy redirects..

[makemetop]

>did either of you guys get back into AV...

Well, the sites haven't actually disappeared yet. I only got the e-mail today! I assume they will be history tomorrow or whenever they refresh.

Am I going to contact AV about it? Nah - they lose my sites, they will lose my revenue. 2% of my traffic is not worth getting too worried about.

[coco]

just spoke to av - they said they had prob indexing last night. all should be rectified..

and there i was, admitting to spam! :O

[allybongo]

hi guys

only got the email this morning. to be honest none of my pages rank in altavista. going to stop paying them when the 6 months is up in november and maybe pay someone else.

[Bareback]

I agree Allybongo, AV really are stretching the limit when it comes to getting a paid for service. The trafic my clients receive as a result of AV are negligible and the fees just don't justify it - the same money would be better spent on PPC with adwords or similar.

Those AV guys really better sort themselves out before they go under without a trace.

AVguy are you there....hello...AVguy.....oh no..he's flatlining.......beeeeeep

Stand back, there's nothing to see here... just an SE puttz that couldn't take the pressure.

:)

[allybongo]

I get so much more from paying inktomi. My traffic from MSN is 3rd only to yahoo and then google.

[ade_uk]

altavista have said there was an indexing problem last nite and will be sorted out tonite...

see below for their support chat message thing, couldnt paste it cos it was in a jave window:

[sandafayre.com ]