Request for Comments: Advertising on wesnoth.org

[Iris]

I think we shouldn't consider advertisement before exhausting all relevant options for free hosting.

I think they've already been "exhausted". Have you ever noticed how slow and unstable is the 1.2 campaign server?

[Baufo]

I have never been using Google adsense myself but I heard from others it's rather easy to handle and you can make pretty good money from it. Adsense are also the only adds I don't find annoying.

PS: I don't work for Google

[freim]

I think they've already been "exhausted". Have you ever noticed how slow and unstable is the 1.2 campaign server?

That's because the wesnoth server and the campaign server isn't scaling very well and are unstable and unreliable. To fix that you need to fix the server code, moving it to a funded host will not fix these issues. Rewriting the server code to be more robust and scale better is the correct solution here, not throw hardware at the problem.

[DEATH_is_undead]

I think we should advertise things that help the game in funds, like the T-shirt thing. Thats probably going to raise more funds then getting a Beserker to drink coke becuase people might want to get those shirts, and that'll get more people, and some of those people will donate, giving us money from the guy with the T-shirt for buying it, and dotation money.

[freim]

We shouldn't advertise if the goal is to get money with no more thought to it than that.

If we have a specific need, like if we lost our free hosting and found no other suitable free hosting then we should consider advertising to fund this spesific thing.

IMO, just trying to get money with no clear goals will only poison the spirit and intent of a open source project.

[Iris]

Not sure about that. DOSBox is an open source project and already has a donation button. Not much difference to Adsense ads for me.
What about the Linux Kernel page, by the way?

I think they've already been "exhausted". Have you ever noticed how slow and unstable is the 1.2 campaign server?

That's because the wesnoth server and the campaign server isn't scaling very well and are unstable and unreliable. To fix that you need to fix the server code, moving it to a funded host will not fix these issues. Rewriting the server code to be more robust and scale better is the correct solution here, not throw hardware at the problem.

How do you explain the slowness then? With this kind of things every download-a-byte cycle:

Code: Select all

for (i = 0; i < 1000000; i++);

or perhaps:

Code: Select all

Sleep(10000);

(Sleep() is provided by Win32 Kernel API; a similar one is provided by Allegro and I'm pretty sure SDL also has it.)

BTW, what's this scaling business?

[theotherhiveking]

what about this?


Sell the actual version in a cd. with contain both development and stable version. And the better eras or map packs. Some projects do that.

http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/cPa ... cts_id/95ç


Wesnoth is included in that cd... (who knows what version) and in 3d games, lol.

[Soliton]

That's because the wesnoth server and the campaign server isn't scaling very well and are unstable and unreliable. To fix that you need to fix the server code, moving it to a funded host will not fix these issues. Rewriting the server code to be more robust and scale better is the correct solution here, not throw hardware at the problem.

How do you explain the slowness then? With this kind of things every download-a-byte cycle:

Code: Select all

for (i = 0; i < 1000000; i++);

or perhaps:

Code: Select all

Sleep(10000);

Do you know what a software bug is?

Regardless of what you think campaignd and wesnothd are currently being rewritten.

Keep trolling to the Off-Topic forum please.


PS: I fully agree with freim, btw. I don't see a real need for advertising atm.

[PingPangQui]

We shouldn't advertise if the goal is to get money with no more thought to it than that.

If we have a specific need, like if we lost our free hosting and found no other suitable free hosting then we should consider advertising to fund this spesific thing.

IMO, just trying to get money with no clear goals will only poison the spirit and intent of a open source project.

Exactly.

[Shadow]

Saving a small reserve for bad times I can't see poison at all.
If the free hosting runs out somebody must pay for a new one in the meantime if he is even willing to do. With this reserve the gap could be bridged and the person could get his costs back it is not like Wesnoth gets transformed into closed source.

[DEATH_is_undead]

If were advertising, were getting money anyway, so why not make it help fund the game more?

[Edward V Riley]

Yes, I tend to agree with the majority of people who have posted. Advertising is ok, as long as it isn't obtrusive.

I've only recently discovered this excellent game, and after immediately falling in love(I live for TBS, my eyesight isn't good enough for RTS, plus...I prefer TBS), I want it to stick around. Once I get my bearings, I may help others or make my own campaigns. Advertising on the site will insure that it stays.

Didn't even realize two of my old favorite Sega Genesis games are closely related to the developers of Wesnoth, Warsong and Master of Monsters. I've lost track of the number of hours spent on those games.

??? Idea. Advertising for other Strategy or RPG games would actually be kind of welcome and certaintly wouldn't intrude. Even other gaming sites. It's always hard to find ANY advertising for those types of games in the U.S. It's always sports or action(yawn).

[commanderkeen]

Ads are ok. As long as there isn't as many ads as Hotmail or Mail.com and that the ads advertise things which are somehow Wesnoth-related rather than random sleaze.

I notice the ads above. I'm happy with them. As long as they give a reasonable amount of revenue for the minor annoyance they cause.

[allefant]

We shouldn't advertise if the goal is to get money with no more thought to it than that.

If we have a specific need, like if we lost our free hosting and found no other suitable free hosting then we should consider advertising to fund this spesific thing.

IMO, just trying to get money with no clear goals will only poison the spirit and intent of a open source project.

I completely agree with this, ads for the sake of ads are bad.

In another open source project we have about 50$ from donations, but still, by now I think it was a bad idea to ask for donations just because SF provided that donations button. The people volunteering to handle paypal and the ones who donated money now think it was wasted, and others blame who's bad idea it was to set up the donations button in the first place, others have unrealistic ideas what you can do with 50$... So that's just as an example, even with such a small sum, while not exactly poisoning, it still has no positive effect.

With Wesnoth, things are different of course, it's a much bigger project, and may actually need money for better servers - but best to make a list of what/how much exactly is needed before starting with ads.

[Laudimir]

I think Ads are more than acceptable. It wouldn't bother me at all if the devs just wanted to line their wallets a bit for the hardwork they are doing.

And, it sounds like the advertising that is being suggested is as unintrusive as possible, and there will even be a link to allow you to completely disable them for free.

More money to the devs!