Forum:Advertisment Disgrace

Shouldn't Wikia be using advertising to generate interest in their own sites, rather than insisting on putting advertising on every wiki, just so they can line their own pockets?! I understand they need to generate enough income to keep the project afloat, but if the goal is to create on-line communities, as Wikia implies, shouldn't they concentrate on doing that, rather than stubbornly insisting on placing offensive, badly placed and unrelated advertising on every wiki, discouraging potential contributors from making edits?! Surely, there are other methods to generate enough income to keep the wikis in existence, without being so blatantly obvious about it! --81.79.249.81 13:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Wikia is very large and has a lot of traffic. That's why they're taking the actions described at Forum:Site performance issues and improvements. In addition, the United States (the country in which Wikia was incorporated in) is suffering from a serious recession. Also, what are the "other methods to generate enough income" that you're talking about? Wikia can't hold fundraisers like Wikimedia. If you know a way to generate a ton of revenue without the use of ads, I'm sure Wikia would be happy to heard it. Unfortunately, you're just complaining; you haven't done anything to find a solution. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:31, 18 April 2009 (UTC)


 * If I may make a suggestion, it might be beneficial for Wikia to take a more standard route. Use a series of user-generated or otherwise popular tags in order to define a wiki as accurately as possible, then limit the ads shown on that wiki based on the tags provided. That way, if nothing else, the ads you'd be getting wouldn't be nearly as 'offensive and out-of-place' as you're complaining about. If Wikia hasn't already considered this possibility, you may like to take it up with them through some sort of contact or comment. Personally, I haven't been quite as bothered with the ads at this point.


 * Alternatively, of course, you could always try and work something out with them by simply paying to get the ads removed. Most websites charge for ad-free service. Xelrog T. Apocalypse 02:08, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The last alternative had been dicussed many times. Who would be help resposible for paying to get rid of the ads in each communities ? And what if that person would not like/care to do this ? Or maybe doesn't have that kind of revenues.
 * Personnaly, i think people complain too much about ads on Wikia. Does they complain about ads on Hotmail, ForumActif or Google (to only name a few) ? Mostly not. — TulipVorlax 03:03, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you talking about the individual wikis or about Wikia staff as a whole? Because I rather doubt it would be that much trouble for them. All it takes is a simple switch of sorts in order to decide whether ads are displayed or not.


 * Aside from that, I don't think the real problem for most of us (with the plausible exception of the original poster... I can at least understand where he's coming from) isn't that we find the ads annoying. They just seem unprofessional, is all. Personally, I'd probably pay to get them removed on my own wiki - if that's what it takes to earn my patrons' respect then I'm very much prepared to take that step. - Xelrog T. Apocalypse 06:22, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It sounds technically simple but its not because of the way they are doing their contracts between wikia and the advertisers (not official). And advertise its all about potential you can have no income in 1 day and have tons the next day, how would you quantify that? by an average and then propose that to the wikis community. Should wikia do biddings to see who pays more? the community or the advertiser. But wikia is working hard to be desirable to advertisers since they are interested in huge bundles of potential advertise they will be discourage by the wikis where they cant advertise. Also keeping track of all this wikis that have paid, what have not pay, why they have not pay?, will require more man power and will bring costs up. I mean its simple but there are a chain of events that you must also considerate. My guess is that when wikia thinks and feels its very steady it will give the opportunity to the communities to be able to pay for the removal of ads --


 * Making a point: The next best thing to spellchecking. :P


 * Anyway, you have a point. But I think you're oversimplifying things a bit as well - if it were really such an impossibility it wouldn't be an available feature on sites cross the net, such as [Free]Webs and Proboards... and if Proboards can manage an ad-free function I'm sure the good people at Wikia are capable of it. The true defining factor is how much they think we, the people, can put such a feature to use. If they can earn enough off of us to bridge the financial gap they could just as easily turn it into profit rather than costs. In any case, it's up to them to make the final decision. Best we can do is hope. - Xelrog T. Apocalypse 06:22, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Errr....is it just me, or is this whole thing pointless? In My Preferences, when you select a skin, there's an option specifically for removing ads. Prince of MadnessDaedryon 06:29, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * That's just for removing ads on the article pages. The ones we're (or at least I'm) talking about are the banner ads on the mainpage. - Xelrog T. Apocalypse 06:40, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * sorry but spellchecking is working perfectly now there is no addon on firefox for english grammar and if you read my user info you will know im not a native english, and i take that comment insulting and discriminating...
 * now you are comparing models well i will tell you... why aren't the other wikis successful since wikipedia its a clear example of success... But in business there are many variables, and solutions dont work to some people and while to others do.
 * If you are only talking about the 2 ads in main page that register users have to see. That was the price wikia gave us to be able to remove all ads in articles. And if thats your complain you are wasting our time.
 * Daedryon: some communities care about what IP users have to see --