Bulbapedia talk:Advertising poll
Bulbabot?!
... I can't be the only one who thinks it's silly that our resident bot is not only allowed to vote in this, but has the most powerful vote of all. Zhen, did you give it AI when we weren't looking? D: --Pie ~♪♫ 22:58, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- Bulbabot will one day assimilate us all... TTEbot 01:23, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
- We can decide how to delegate its vote at a later point - whether to give it to Archaic (who is counted as a regular user in this poll), or something else. Of course, seeing as how most of the BulbaBot edits are due to my programs, I suppose I could just have its voting rights reassigned to me, for a total of 17... Anyway, essentially, if need be, we can use it as a tiebreaker. - 振霖T 05:30, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
Reasoning
I'm not a fan of advertisements in general, and there's quite a lot of good points against monetizing a community effort. But at the same time, if nobody can afford to keep these servers up and running, there is no community. I'm all for keeping this site around; a few advertisements on the sidebar aren't going to conflict with my editing (GuildWiki, another game-based wiki, uses a few non-obtrusive ads on the side to keep the servers up and running with no problems for anyone). So long as the money earned is going towards keeping this site running, and not going into someone's pocket, I say it's a noble cause. -- Jioruji Derako.> 12:46, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
P.S.: The example I gave currently has some ads up that GuildWiki actually don't want there, but that's already being fixed, hehe...
- I understand what you're saying about the money issue and the servers, but have you noticed advertisements lately? Everywhere you go, they're dirty and obstructive, particularly in the case of celebrity videos and dating sites. I for one don't want that kind of influence here, because this and other related Wikis like the original Wikipedia are basically the last place this kind of garbage hasn't filtered through, and I (hopefully with the support of others too) would like to keep it that way. I admit, ads for sites like Google aren't bad, but I'm not sure exactly how much control one can have over what ads are shown here and which aren't (depending on the deal or whatever, I suppose). I suggest we get in touch with Nintendo and work out a deal - maybe we could advertise some of their merchandise for some retribution, enough maybe to pay for the servers and any other expenses. I'm sure we're already in some sort of collaboration with them, seeing as we would've gotten sued for copyright infringement long ago if we weren't... Kochdude388 16:34, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
- Google AdSense's ads are based primarily on the content on the page. Most of the stuff that would be appearing would be stuff like "Pokémon merchandise" and the like. Unless some vandal goes and blanks the page and replaces it with something inappropriate, the chances of something risqué coming up are slim to none.
- The few ads that Nintendo has on its page are banner ads--which as we all know are considerably more flashy and annoying than AdSense. Plus, the closest thing on Nintendo's page to getting any type of financial help is a sponsorship, and all of Nintendo's sponsorships are approved by a third party, not Nintendo itself. If Nintendo was a sponsor, they could also apply financial pressure to remove information on the site that they didn't like (not-officially-revealed Pokés like Darkrai, anyone?). In short, very, very risky. I agree with Jioruji Derako, as long as it's all going towards site maintenance, I have no qualms about a few ads. -PsychoYoshi 18:47, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
- The one problem we've been having on GuildWiki is a particularly offensive banner ad, which is bought up via Google (sometimes you'll get some crappy ads just because they have a single keyword in common). Normally though, the admins have the ability to block some ads from showing up, and generally advertisements aren't a big problem. Perhaps just simple Google ads, instead of google-powered banner ads, might work well. -- Jioruji Derako.> 03:21, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
- Wha? There's only one Google AdSense service as far as I know. I don't have access to the AdSense account for Bulbagarden (that belongs to Archaic), so I can't tell you what can or cannot be done in terms of filtering and control. It's a valid argument though. I was originally against ads on Bulbapedia, but lately we've been feeling the pinch as the expenditure spirals upwards... - 振霖T 07:32, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
- Hmm, it's most likely just the one AdSense that's running on GuildWiki then. I think AdSense can be used in different forms, though... there's a few AdSense-powered banner ads I've seen before, as well as the good old links-to-mostly-random-stuff ads. From what one of the Admins did mention, there are some sites they can block from showing up, I believe, at least banner-wise... aside from that, there are some sites that blocking just doesn't seem to work on. I've got very limited experience with it myself.
- Archaic would probably know what you can and can't do with Google, I suppose... only experience I've got with the whole thing is what I've seen and heard from others. -- Jioruji Derako.> 08:25, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
Wikia
Hello. I'd like to propose an alternative. Rather than have an advert right along the top of the page like that, you could join Wikia and see only one small ad in the top corner which isn't even visible when you scroll down the page. See our new slate or smoke skins for an example. Since Wikia provides free hosting, you would be guaranteed of a stable place for your wiki even if the ads do not generate enough to cover the hosting costs, which might be the case if you use your own ads.
You would be joining a network of more than 3000 different wikis and be hosted on a spam-free site. We have wikis in 70 different languages, so if anyone wanted to create Bulbapedia in a new language, we would freely host that as well.
There's also the benefit of being able to choose between the normal monobook skin used here and new skins which provide new features, including automated listings of the top articles and recently edited articles, and article rating. We also have extensions that allow you to import images from Flickr and embed videos from YouTube.
Let me know if you'd like to join Wikia. Of course, the wiki would remain community owned and run. Angela. 01:16, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
- It bothers me a little that you're advertising Wikia as a "spam-free site" when this is essentially spam you're posting here. Anyway, I'm bringing your offer to the attention of other Bulbapedia staff, but offhand, I wouldn't get any hopes up. I'm pretty sure most of us know about Wikia, and if our editorial board - particularly Zhen - was interested in having a wiki on Wikia, it would have already been started there. --Pie ~♪♫ 05:35, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
On a related subject, having advertisements on the sidebar would be much better looking then having it right across the top of the page... I hate to keep using the same example, but what we've got on GuildWiki works quite well. Fits the page perfectly, doesn't disrupt the page with a glaring ad right across the top, and so on. -- Jioruji Derako.> 03:55, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Can I just say that over at the Marvel Database Project, we became a part of Wikia and have only benefited from it. It allowed the Wiki to be seen by far more people than it might otherwise have, it gave us many new creative options, the ads are very unobtrusive and from what I understand, our administration staff hasn't lost a single bit of their power or control. But I'm just throwing that out there as someone who's seen a Wiki before and after Wikia. Or, maybe, I'm just a tool of the Wikia-"man". --- GrnMarvl13 21:23, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
