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Ads Coming to AtariAge


Albert

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6 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

@Mr RobotI strongly urge you to stop attacking @Thomas Jentzsch. He has created a quite a few homebrew games, which is more than you or I have contributed to Atariland culture. There are many ways to participate, and since it's not your site, it seems inappropriate to attempt to dictate to @Albert how things should be run. 

A lot of people have invested business, time, friendships and effort attached to this site so concern does come up.

I would recommend donations and/or if you are going to sell an item through Atari Age then you should pay advertising space if not already.

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13 minutes ago, Mike Harris said:

Initial post does not mean changes down the road as desperation sets in.
My example of TOSEC is a prime and exact one.

Initial post means exactly what the initial post means. 

 

Why would you bring some other site that isn't AtariAge into this or make an assumption that AtariAge is "desperate???"   Do you not trust Al?  You could point to a million other examples until you turn blue in the face, run out of air, and are dead on the ground.  But why would you do that?  Al specifically said the ads would not be obnoxious.  Why would you challenge that and not just simply say "thank you" for him thinking about how to best balance both our online experience and placing Ads on AtariAge?


Just sounds like you're going out of your way to create an argument or a concern that doesn't really exist. 

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19 minutes ago, Tempest said:

I'm assuming that 99% of us use Ad Blockers anyway, so I doubt it's going to be a problem.  

100% agreed! Either ad blockers or subscriptions.  


Here's one more thing I'm sure people don't realize, and I have learned this from my own experience on my website and my forums...

 

The "regulars" here are, as you said, most likely are using ad blockers or have a subscription so those ads don't really apply to them anyway.  BUT... and this is VERY IMPORTANT...


If you do a Google Search for "Atari... <insert just about anything here>", AtariAge is almost always one of the top search results.  I'd be willing to bet that Albert has a TON of "random, non-regular Google Visitor page views" from people who may be finding AtariAge for the very first time, or just doing a search for something, have no interest in being a subscriber or an AtariAge Store customer, but are here because of the large volume of information offered on this site.

 

Those people probably make up a HUGE amount of page view for Al (as I can tell you they do for me, and this site is a much MUCH larger site than mine) and I have to be honest, when you are working your butt off ~24/7 (And I can tell you from the conversations I have late in the wee hours with Al, he's working CRAZY HOURS), and server fees are not cheap, those "Google Visitors" not seeing ads is just a website operator leaving money on the table, and I personally would like to see AtariAge make as much as possible, because the other thing I know about Al, is that he puts a lot of that money RIGHT BACK INTO this page.


Anyone who thinks that "Ads on AtariAge" is going to hurt AtariAge in any way, IMHO, is very mistaken and will probably be very pleasantly surprised at how much the revenue generated from those ads will HELP the site.  And if you're worried, just turn on your ad blocker... Al's not going to care if you turn it on or not, because there are going to be plenty of other "Google Visitors" who will make up for them. (Even if some of those Google page viewers are also using blockers!)

 

tl:dr - Ads on AtariAge aren't going to impact you very much at all. Cut Al some slack.  Thanks. 

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Totally get why you're doing this, and I'm totally fine with it. Future-proofing is important.

Something else you could do would be to do a once a year 'pledge drive', the way Wikipedia or BoardGameGeek do to raise additional funds. It's not compulsory, but it does raise a significant chunk of cash, and the once a year thing prevents it from becoming annoying to members.

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4 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

Yes there have. Which methods specifically would you be willing to contribute using? A member for over 18 years, over 25000 posts (over 100 posts a month), not a subscriber, adblock enabled. How does Albert get you to help keep everything running?

 

Say one more thing like this, and I will remove you from this thread.

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Having gone back to read replies... Are people seriously bothered by this?

 

Web hosting isn’t free. A lot of work goes into this site. They need a way to monetize users like me who visit sporadically enough that a $5/month sub is more than I feel would be worth throwing at it.

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Quote

Anyone who thinks that "Ads on AtariAge" is going to hurt AtariAge in any way, IMHO, is very mistaken and will probably be very pleasantly surprised at how much the revenue generated from those ads will HELP the site.

Agreed.  I'm still a member at RCGroups.  They've had a similar setup for many years now.  The ads have helped keep the site afloat.  Though for the most part, the ads there generally lean toward companies associated with the R/C hobby.  It would be great to see something similar here at AA.  Advertising for CollectorVision Games, Nintendo Age, Piko Interactive, just to name a few.

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I think people tend to go "hair on fire" with changes like these, and we'll find later it not be so bad.  Al sounds reluctant to implement ads, so we can take that as a positive sign.  

 

While I run an ad-blocker, the best way to get me to turn it off is good content.  For example: I just disabled it on The Register's whole site, because of their sadly-unique coverage of a certain taco-related console.  

 

I believe it was @Flojomojo who once longed for a way to donate subscription money to others for great posts.  I'm not sure if a "buy beer" (/taco?) option is feasible, but maybe it would help?

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1 minute ago, PlaysWithWolves said:

I believe it was @Flojomojo who once longed for a way to donate subscription money to others for great posts.  I'm not sure if a "buy beer" option is feasible, but maybe it would help?

I said I want to buy subscriptions for people who are consistently awesome. I've actually done that, but $25 or $50 a pop is a lot for me to swallow. As a result, I haven't followed through as much as I'd like to. A micro transaction like the Reddit Gold concept would be great. A few bucks for goodwill here and there feels easier to absorb. 

 

In the meantime, serving up ads to casual visitors is way easier and probably just as lucrative. 

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