Forum:Our content aggressively exposes user to advertising

This is what i wrote today to wikia support, anyone who is with me, please raise your voice, I am extremely disappointed with this service.

Greetings,

Thank you for giving me opportunity to create a game wikia of Crusader Kings II. Though if I knew your advertising exploit I would have never created it.

The moment my wiki became popular, and more users came in, you have saturated all the pages with advertising and flashing banners. I have counted 7 spots where unregistered user is exposed to your flashing advertising, completely killing the feel of the wiki. This is outrageous, you even change the background image of the wiki, which I set up, to advertisement background!

There is a rising amount of complaints from my users on forums, or from newcomers, that it is completely distracting and they think it is me, admin, who is exploiting them with this wiki because of advertising.

Something must be done on this issue or I will respectfully remove thewiki and move the content to a private hosting.

When creating wiki here, I have never thought that you exposed an unregistered user to such an aggressive advertising, using our content.

Please let me know what can be done, thank you.
 * Wikia wikis cannot be removed once created: if you move to a different host, the local copy will remain. 19:42, February 29, 2012 (UTC)

Can give some links? I believed every wiki has the same amount of advertisments...
 * Correct. Anyways, there's not much you can do about the ads. Cat 02:14, March 1, 2012 (UTC)
 * Not from what I see. Ad's are increased at some point around 1500 to 2000 articles. Ghostbusters Wiki as I remember got a shot in the arm at some point around there. Little wikis don't get ads like the larger wikis. Go to (signed out) SilverHawks Wiki, then visit Ghostbusters Wiki. Note that the following ads are gone on Silverhawks Wiki: The right top corner vid/square ad(s), and the bottom 2 square ads. The reasons could be that there are no interested sponsors or the content is so small on Silverhawks wiki, that it doesn't cost much to maintain therefore it needs less ads. I remember a while back I emailed Wikia about this 50/50 skin ad on Ghostbusters Wiki, and basically they said that they needed to, to pay for wiki. The ad was up a week by the way. Devilmanozzy  (Talk Page)  02:44, March 1, 2012 (UTC)

You could simply ask the users to create an account. That's actually the reason I created mine back in the day; to get away from the advertisements. Shotrocket6 14:42, March 7, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hmmm, that's very interesting to know how Wikia increases gradually the amount of ads on the wiki depending on how large it is. That way people creating a new wiki don't get annoyed with so many ads, and when they grow and get more ads they cannot move their wiki from Wikia. --Category:Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 21:28, March 7, 2012 (UTC)


 * I usually agree with you Ciencia, but size does not prevent a wiki from moving. When Wowpedia was created from WoWWiki, it was one of the largest wikis in the world. Advertising wasn't really the reason they moved.
 * Also, I have little sympathy for users who lurk and don't log in. I admin a very, very large wiki and the amount of ads for logged in users is minimal. Wikia is still a business and although they allow anonymous edits (which I think is not necessary), they need to have some motivator for registering. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 9 Mar 2012 12:47 PM Pacific
 * Fandyllic, when I use the term move, I mean to go to another wiki hosting and delete the wiki on Wikia. Besides that, Wikia puts ads for earning money, not for motivating people to register and log-in. --Category:Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 10:52, March 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * Wikia does not delete wikis unless legally forced to. If Wikia only put ads up to make money, they would be there when logged in also. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 10 Mar 2012 3:28 PM Pacific
 * Yeah, once wikia has your content, they will never let it go. They will greatly increase the number of ads and make your site unmanageable and unnavigable, Then they will laugh in your face when you tell them you want to delete your content or move. Do not start a website here. You will regret it. Facepalmer09 18:58, March 15, 2012 (UTC)
 * The first thing you seem to not understand is unless your writing stories on fanons, most content isn't yours to begin with. Copyrighted works are used here under the terms of Fair use. Therefore you never owned the images or the text to begin with. Wikia allows wiki's to fork, which may not seem fair, but truth be told they invest the space for the content. That being by allowing to use Special pages =>page tools =>Export pages. Wikia could easily remove that from the wiki markup if they wanted. Wikia has never hid the truth that they are a for profit wiki provider. If you can't grasp the reality of this you shouldn't edit here, or upload content at youtube, deviantART, facebook, or any service of the sort. Devilmanozzy  (Talk Page)  23:42, March 15, 2012 (UTC)
 * Well said, Devilmanozzy.
 * @Facepalmer09: If you can find a MediaWiki-based wiki hosting service with more manageable and more navigable aspects, go for it, just stop complaining here. It is not constructive without specific complaints. Until I hear a specific complaint that Wikia can act on (or not), what you're saying is just a useless rant. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 15 Mar 2012 3:53 PM Pacific
 * Oh, I complained back when Oasis was introduced. My complaints were completely and utterly ignored. I've since moved along with all the other admins and editors to a new site and am quite happy there. I just like to stop by from time to time to warn other people about what they're getting into.
 * Who are you? -- 22:46, March 17, 2012 (UTC)

Try MyWikis. They don't have ads right now. -- 22:44, March 17, 2012 (UTC) {C 22:46, March 17, 2012 (UTC)


 * Now Wikia is adding ads to the main page inside content space. They just added 2 ads in the top right corner of the Cannabis Wiki Main Page. It is covering up content. MyWikis.org looks interesting, but also very new:


 * http://www.mywikis.org/wiki/Main_Page


 * I don't mind ads as long as they are marked as ads, and do not cover up content. I detest ads that one has to click to get rid of in order to read content. I tried to leave Wikia before, but the other wiki farms seemed to be inadequate at the time. Also, Wikia made some slight accommodations. Eventually the other wiki farms will get their act together, and there will be many wikis leaving Wikia if Wikia doesn't respect its editors more. We editors create their content. Wikia could easily become like MySpace.


 * http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page ---Timeshifter (talk) 02:13, March 22, 2012 (UTC)


 * Adding Staff needed. I'd like Wikia staff to explain the gigantic ad on the main page of your wiki. I've never seen one so big on any other Wikia wikis. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 23 Mar 2012 3:04 PM Pacific
 * Got a screenshot? I am just seeing the standard banner ad on the top there now. Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:52, March 26, 2012 (UTC)


 * Took me about 4 or 5 reloads to get it, but it is clearly still in the rotation. I maximized the window on my laptop and the ad went off the bottom of the screen. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 28 Mar 2012 1:09 PM Pacific

Thanks for the screenshot. That is in fact a standard ad unit that is called sometimes. --Sarah (help forum | blog) 22:52, March 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * "Standard" meaning we just have to live with it? Adding back Staff needed for answer. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 29 Mar 2012 2:51 PM Pacific
 * It is a standard ad unit that may be used on a page. Its been in the system for quite a while (around 4 years), just doesn't appear as often. Sarah (help forum | blog) 17:38, March 30, 2012 (UTC)
 * To answer OP, perhaps one can replace every single page on the old wikia wiki with a redirect to a page that tells users the wiki's dead. Also, why aren't people using an ad blocker anyway? Mfaizsyahmi  (talk) 14:57, April 4, 2012 (UTC)
 * You cannot, because your content is released under the CC-BY-SA license, so you do not own it and therefore are not authorized to make such a change, as the licensing requirements are fulfilled by the attribution that page histories provide. 15:06, April 4, 2012 (UTC)

Continued
I had to start a new section, because this forum has got so long that it is beginning to significantly slow down my computer. Anyways, until around 200 pages, the wiki has one external advertisement (one at the top of the main page) and the Wikia Spotlights internal advertisement, which has three slots at the bottom of every page and then repeated at the sidebar of article pages (not visible in the Monobook skin) for registered users.

At around 200 pages, the advertisements begin to increase on the wiki, and an extra external advertisement displays on the top right of the main page for registered users. The amount of advertisements displayed to anomymous users is almost uncountable, so I'm not going to bother counting them, although there's a lot more for anomymous users. Thanks for listening. EpicWikipedian 15:16, April 4, 2012 (UTC)

What some posters don't understand
Is I originally created my wiki because I wanted to expose my love of a certain subject to NON-WIKIA contributors as well as Wikia contributors. When Wikia went completely overboard with their new design and advertisements, I realized people who viewed my content weren't going to enjoy themselves as much as they did before. NON-WIKIA contributors were going to see all those garbage ads and leave before they even read my content. That's why I left Wikia and took a copy of my wiki with me. Since that time, we've had over 20,000 commits at our new location and 1000+ new pages. The current Wikia wiki just looks disgusting and is an out of date embarrasment to us. 174.118.174.218 19:17, April 7, 2012 (UTC)
 * Staff needed. Please close this Forum topic. It seems to have been made into another troll-o-thon and wikia hater thread. I think anyone that has been around the internet knows there will always be haters, but making nests for them never helps the efforts of the many that believe. Devilmanozzy  (Talk Page)  19:32, April 7, 2012 (UTC)


 * It's not about true believers and fanboys. It is about some constructive feedback. If some of it is ignored, then sites lose viewers. But as long as enough constructive feedback is paid attention to, then sites gain more viewers than they lose. If lots of constructive feedback is ignored, then sites basically disappear. Remember Myspace?


 * Google lost many viewers to Bing when they tried to force massive, intricate, homepages on everybody. They got most of the viewers back when they went back to a simple Google homepage, and made it even better with "instant" google search. --Timeshifter 07:08, April 8, 2012 (UTC)

Hello, As most folks are aware here, Wikia is a free platform for both wikis and users, which is supported by ads. We are able to provide community support, development, server space and product development all from the funding we receive via advertising. The majority of ads are seen by non-logged in users, and the number and placement of ads is something we are always reviewing. We always appreciate any feedback on the types of ads you would and wouldn’t like to see, and do appreciate your honest feedback here. We work to provide a balance with the ads we serve, and always strive to improve the experience on Wikia. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions. Best, --Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:24, April 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * Here's some feedback: I don't like giant ads. See the screenshot I posted above for an example. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 11 Apr 2012 3:33 PM Pacific
 * I consider it quite narrow-minded to think that Wikia permits ads on wikis just to spite editors and viewers, or something similar, as too many people say. The fact remains that wikis are completely free encyclopedias to view and edit, and the company that provides, maintains and updates our software must have funding to do so. If ads are the way that they go about that, then so be it. It's the lesser of two evils, the other being subscription charges. They may be intrusive for anonymous users, but for users that create Wikia accounts, i.e. the actually productive userbase, ads are perfectly tolerable. 08:35, April 24, 2012 (UTC)
 * We're not against ads in general, but for very obtrusive ads. If readers don't want to return to our wikis because of them, then editors are wasting their efforts. I think it's a balance about how much money Wikia wants to earn and how many obtrusive ads readers are able to accept without leaving. --Category:Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 09:24, April 24, 2012 (UTC)


 * See also a related topic: Price elasticity of demand. The price being the number of ads, the intrusiveness of ads, and the "sneakiness" of ads. I am talking about ads (not marked as ads) in content space that irritate editors who don't want to seem like they are endorsing the advertised products and services. Also, readers oftentimes do not want to go to sites that seem to endorse questionable products and services. The thing that irritates me the most is the extremely narrow width of content space. If the content space was slightly wider (and flexible) then the ads would not seem overpowering. Some ads cover up content space. So you have banner ads on 3 sides, and then some ads that cover content, and have to be clicked out of. So content is barely visible at times. --Timeshifter 10:09, April 24, 2012 (UTC)