12mo ago

About plans to put ads on bg3.wiki

bg3.wiki

bg3wiki:Ads

12 comments

This is a hard no. The argument is litterally "I would make so much money. I won't have to search for a job". That is a shit argument to make and degrading the user experience for personal gain is selfish. Also consider that those ads also track the ip's which means you aren't just showing users ads but also letting companies track them
I will only do this if it makes so much money that I can fairly pay everyone who had non-trivial contributions to the wiki, and still have enough money left to have it as my main source of income.
Unless I underestimate the amount of traffic the wiki gets I'm guessing this is going to be a frustrating amount of ads. Yes, there are ad blockers but I'm guessing that will defeat the goal and then we have no wiki maybe? I'm more than willing to add this site as another regular patreon donation.
- The idea that this person wants it to be their main source of income concerns me.
  
  I mean, they do realize that interest in a game wiki will die out over time, right?
Just put ads up, we'll live, and if we cant, we'll make another website
- Which will eventually need to pay for its server fees as well, and thus the cycle continues
From the post:
potentially making more money than I've done in the past by working 40 hours.
And I could retroactively pay contributors, who made bg3.wiki what it is, for their past volunteer work. Potentially significant amounts,
It might make lots of money, and I could pay all past contributors.
they will be very non-intrusive and clean.
I wonder if he's overestimating the potential ad revenue here. Many of us use ad blockers, and some only use bg3.wiki at all because it's free of the junk that comes with getting/sharing the same information elsewhere. If the money he's expecting depends on traffic remaining the same once ads are introduced, and users not using ad blockers, I think the income estimates might be... unrealistic.
In any case, he does ask for feedback at the end of the post. It might be worthwhile to send him a (kindly worded) note.
Is it really that expensive to run a wiki? I mean, I host Lemmy and PeerTube (+more) out of my own pocket.
- It's apparently only €50/month and the 2024 costs are covered.
  
  €50?? Sounds like they are using an expensive Digital Ocean droplet or something 😅

12 comments