Author Topic: I want to try an experiment on the site for March 2012 (Read 93408 times)

mouser · « **Reply #50 on:** February 20, 2012, 07:53 PM »

Appreciate the thoughts, but 90 days is too long to live with ads on the site.

Tuxman · « **Reply #51 on:** February 20, 2012, 07:53 PM »

Ads? On the interwebs? Haven't seen them for ages...

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #52 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:08 PM »

Appreciate the thoughts, but 90 days is too long to live with ads on the site.
-mouser (February 20, 2012, 07:53 PM)

No reverse the order, 91 days ad free, then ads kick in.
The point is that "fly by night users" who only stay a month then drift off need a good impression, it's only the "budding regulars" who end up seeing ads.

wraith808 · « **Reply #53 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:30 PM »

Appreciate all the thoughtful comments, but just to keep us grounded:

I do not want to put ads permanently on DC, and do not intend to do so, and won't be doing so.
I do not think we get the kind of daily traffic that would bring much income from ads (we have 35+ gigabytes a day of downloads of our software, which is pretty huge, but we do not have so many daily readers, the way a popular blog does)
This is really just a matter of being curious, nothing more.
-mouser (February 19, 2012, 03:48 PM)

I guess if you're already set on not doing the ads permanently, then my question would be what is the purpose/would be learned?

mouser · « **Reply #54 on:** February 20, 2012, 08:43 PM »

Tao, interesting idea.. but i'm afraid that would be a very narrow experiment..

Wraith, your question is the same as Chris's, and I don't have a very good answer.. It's just been a few years since we last tried it and I'm curious to what happens if we try it again.. How much revenue will ads generated? What kind of ads will it show? Will it change the number of people who donate? Will google change our search rankings? None of these reasons are particularly compelling, and if it would take a lot of work to put it in place it would hardly be worth the effort, but since we implemented it a long time ago it's really just a matter of throwing a switch.

wraith808 · « **Reply #55 on:** February 20, 2012, 11:45 PM »

But what's the purpose of the information, if not to use it?

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #56 on:** February 21, 2012, 01:26 AM »

But what's the purpose of the information, if not to use it?
-wraith808 (February 20, 2012, 11:45 PM)

Good point...what happens if you find that ads generate 2x the amount that Donations do?

mouser · « **Reply #57 on:** February 21, 2012, 02:14 AM »

Nothing happens.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #58 on:** February 21, 2012, 02:27 AM »

what happens if you find that ads generate 2x the amount that Donations do?

I doubt that.

Nothing happens.

Tuxman · « **Reply #59 on:** February 21, 2012, 05:10 AM »

xyzzy

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #60 on:** February 21, 2012, 07:16 AM »

what happens if you find that ads generate 2x the amount that Donations do?

I doubt that.

Nothing happens.

-mahesh2k (February 21, 2012, 02:27 AM)

Absolute Ads Corrupt Absolutely and all that.

But this is a meta theme for the entire tech world. How do valuable sites keep going?

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #61 on:** February 21, 2012, 08:01 AM »

Off Topic

xyzzy
-Tuxman (February 21, 2012, 05:10 AM)

Meh... I much prefer Zzyzx Rd. tbh

mahesh2k · « **Reply #62 on:** February 21, 2012, 08:16 AM »

How do valuable sites keep going?

I don't know answer to this question. All I can say is, that it shouldn't be the way with which people are moving away from any other annoying ad plastered site. It's about ad blindness and annoyance. I can tell you this from my experience, Adsense on tech site is going to earn less revenue from now on for plenty of reasons.

anandcoral · « **Reply #63 on:** February 21, 2012, 09:25 AM »

Now I am feeling curious.

Let us see what happens in one month.

Regards,

Anand

wraith808 · « **Reply #64 on:** February 21, 2012, 10:42 AM »

Now I am feeling curious.

Let us see what happens in one month.

Regards,

Anand

-anandcoral (February 21, 2012, 09:25 AM)

I think that a valuable thing has been said, no matter if this is for revenue or for curiosity... one month is not a long enough sample time. Any data taken based on that will be suspect at best. For example, look at the graph that mouser put up. During February there is a dip based on the anti-SOPA protest. Taken with that month by itself, your data would be corrupted by that one day. Similarly, during a month, an article or a thread or a piece of software can be slashdotted, lifehacked, etc, polluting the sample. Just my

mouser · « **Reply #65 on:** February 21, 2012, 10:46 AM »

I agree it's not a long enough sample time to get a really accurate picture -- but it should be enough to satisfy some curiosity by the time the month is over. We could always extend it a little bit if it looked like things were changing fast enough that we wanted to wait for them to settle.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #66 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:00 PM »

Something I have always thought would be really funny is to turn the whole ad paradigm on its head and make the ADS BECOME the "Content!"

Make an ad page! Vote up or down your favorite ad! Nominate ads! Get innovative companies to authorize writing our own! Make a "bandwidth killer super ad page!" that crams as many things on one page as possible! You know, like this:
http://anselme.homes...ad.com/AFPHAITI.html

(Haiti News Network, via Vincent Flander's pages on Web Pages That Suck)

wraith808 · « **Reply #67 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:10 PM »

^ Reminds me of the Superbowl. It's not just for fans anymore.

The reasons for astronomical ratings:

1) Parties
2) Halftime
3) The Ads

nosh · « **Reply #68 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:16 PM »

http://anselme.homes...ad.com/AFPHAITI.html

(Haiti News Network, via Vincent Flander's pages on Web Pages That Suck)

That's the funniest thing I've seen today!

rgdot · « **Reply #69 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:20 PM »

http://anselme.homes...ad.com/AFPHAITI.html

(Haiti News Network, via Vincent Flander's pages on Web Pages That Suck)

That's the funniest thing I've seen today!
-nosh (February 21, 2012, 12:16 PM)

+1
I miss Geocities

mahesh2k · « **Reply #70 on:** February 21, 2012, 12:25 PM »

There are some sites like that hosted and linked via webring.

40hz · « **Reply #71 on:** February 21, 2012, 02:21 PM »

http://anselme.homes...ad.com/AFPHAITI.html

(Haiti News Network, via Vincent Flander's pages on Web Pages That Suck)
-TaoPhoenix (February 21, 2012, 12:00 PM)

Raises the portrayal of ugliness to a whole new level.

(I think I might have blown a few pixels on my monitor loading that page.)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #72 on:** February 22, 2012, 08:02 AM »

And now for the encore!
An archive-type copy of political activist Bella DeSoto's wonderful page!
http://www.bellads.info/
http://www.bellads.info/page2.html
http://www.bellads.info/page3.html
http://www.bellads.info/page4.html
http://www.bellads.info/page5.html

So can we do one Mouser? Pleeeese?

Curt · « **Reply #73 on:** February 29, 2012, 04:54 PM »

In general I hate adverts, because I cannot trust them, and too often they are perverted.

But here at DonationCoder I really don't think ads have to be a problem.

First of all, in my opinion of course, they must never be mis-taken for anything else than what they are - meaning that people without blockers must not be led to think that this "recommended download" is a part of DonationCoder's text, or similar.

Secondly, they can only be placed where I quite often anyway am missing some part of something: in a column in the right margin.

Lastly, they should be moderated; "free download" means free. Etcetera.

With these three easy to handle rules, I will welcome the income to "our" site.

Project Wonderful sounds okay, even wonderful, but I don't trust it to make money.
Do 'we' have any facts about it?

40hz · « **Reply #74 on:** February 29, 2012, 07:26 PM »

Project Wonderful sounds okay, even wonderful, but I don't trust it to make money.
Do 'we' have any facts about it?
-Curt (February 29, 2012, 04:54 PM)

Check with app103. IIRC she's worked with them.