No more Spammy Ads?
We are going to remove those awful ads from the site. ALL of them! All those pop-ups, videos, shaking, talking scrolling, blinking, hijacking, spammy, malware, viral evil, insidious horrible ads!
HOW?
Well the site still has to be paid for and we can't afford to pay that all by ourselves without ads, SO what we want to do try is opening up a https://www.patreon.com/ page where people can donate to directly support DD, helping out the artists who host their stuff here and the creators who keep the place running every week.
The Duck, or Drunk Duck as we still fondly call it, currently costs about $350 to $400 a month to host, give or take a bit. Optimistically we'd like to be able to supply that with donations. The current awful ad spots on the site would be replaced with NICE looking notes asking for donations to our Patreon page. Doners will receive various benefits… we're not sure what yet! Something like being mentioned and linked to in newsposts, maybe a doner list on the front page?
We're also thinking of opening up the top ad spot on the site to web comics from DD and elsewhere. We could rotate 2 or 3 comic ads a day at the cost of $5 for the whole day. :)
If on the chance that this actually works, you'll have a site with NONE of those shitty ads! A site you won't have to approach with rubber gloves, 10 adblockers, disinfectant and penicillin, a site you can safely recommend to friends and family, within reason :D
AND, if we get MORE cash than we need to run the site, that will go into paying for fixes.
So that's it, let me know stuff.
This is NOT a done deal yet! If you want it, then it will happen.
It won't just all be about donations either- you'll get rewards like links on the front page, custom artwork, prominent links to your stuff on the front page. etc.
And the more we get the more we can add actual code fixes to the site: like more customisation of your comic pages.
NO MORE SPAMMY ADS?? O_o
Ozoneocean at 12:46AM, April 14, 2015
6 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
houseofmuses at 10:50AM, April 14, 2015
Talk to Phil. At the very least he can answer those questions you have just put out there.
JustNoPoint at 10:46AM, April 14, 2015
I don't think it's going to happen either. I was just speculating along with HouseOfMuses. Right now I'm just happy things are changing! I wasn't sure how much Muses was wanting to pool for a coder or how many others may jump in. I've been putting back for a Cintiq Companion myself. Those things cost $2,600. By next year I should be able to get it. But I might instead use it for this to get this site up and going better. I need to get the full data from the DD servers about how much space is used and how much bandwidth is used and start looking around to see what options we have. Bluehost's largest hosting business package is $129 a month. I use them for my site (not business hosting of course LOL) they even have coders that you can pay. I have nothing but good things to say about their hosting. Comic Fury uses Host Gator and it seems to be pretty good too! I didn't look at their prices but at this point I can't think DD and CF are too different in size and bandwidth.
Tantz_Aerine at 10:19AM, April 14, 2015
Oh my goodness, this piece of news made me come here to post in the forums after AGES. I'll definitely support this. <3
HippieVan at 10:05AM, April 14, 2015
**not
HippieVan at 10:04AM, April 14, 2015
Fair enough. I was thinking more that hiring a programmer would be the second funding goal of a patreon site, but I can see how moving to cheaper servers would be a priority. I'm just now sure how we could pull that off without having some funding in place to begin with - if you think hiring a programmer will cost 2 grand, there's no way a small side group is going to put that in.
houseofmuses at 9:51AM, April 14, 2015
Noted. Go talk to https://www.facebook.com/philip.hofer
JustNoPoint at 9:50AM, April 14, 2015
I'm actually not sure about that HippieVan. If we could get a programmer it'd be easier to move to cheaper servers (there are much cheaper options, CF runs on $60 a month) And we could build the site in a manner that promotes more donations, patreon support, better user tools, better forums. It'd bring more people in giving more exposure. Could you imagine the revenue a PW ad would have made on DD in it's prime? Also you will get more donators if you see things are actually changing. If a group on the side decided to pool together to fix the site I feel that would help DD much more in long term. I don't want us to be beggars forever in green and yellow purgatory! =p
HippieVan at 9:31AM, April 14, 2015
I feel as though we may be getting ahead of ourselves in talking about hiring programmers. Our first priority should be funding the basic maintenance of the site.
JustNoPoint at 9:26AM, April 14, 2015
Another note on the programmer. We would need to be able to find one we can always go back to and reuse. Or what they created would need to be very well documented so if we needed to do anything ourselves or hire someone else it wouldn't be a nightmare to reverse engineer.
Banes at 9:17AM, April 14, 2015
We can surely get the bucks together to reprogram! It'd be great to lose the ads and make further improvements to our beloved Duck! Agreed with Hippie that keeping the site free is better. With the opportunity to contribute, many people will contribute voluntarily!
houseofmuses at 9:15AM, April 14, 2015
This is a well known WordPress/ComicPress programmer I was suggesting, not some newbie fresh out of college. My programming skills lie somewhere in between. My schedule has been busier than I like it recently, and I will need to start making time to get in and look around as well, but I don't see that happening before May 10th.
JustNoPoint at 9:11AM, April 14, 2015
Yes, if we can get the funds together for a programmer we could reprogram this whole thing! If that hadn't happened and everything goes my way going into next year I was going to do it myself. I figure for the functionality of a site this large we would want about 2 grand ready. That may even be low balling it. Not to knock the programmers that you know at all. But the site would need very professional work that could be reliable. There is a lot of information like emails and such on this site. Basically what I'm saying is if the ppl you know are friends or something I may not be comfortable with that. But if they have their own reputable business and you use them that'd be perfect!
houseofmuses at 8:52AM, April 14, 2015
JNP: I know a programmer or two. Can we scrape up $65 to have them help reprogram this site so that it can be used?
houseofmuses at 8:51AM, April 14, 2015
Well I am not in favor of one person footing the bill for this site with no recompense whatsoever. It can't sustain itself that way, and for full access to the site, I can negotiate down from $10 per year to the $5 per year Oz previously suggested. It's just no longer feasible to continue expecting full service for free and expect the provider to be able to keep it up. Monetize or perish.
JustNoPoint at 8:49AM, April 14, 2015
Let's get the heck out of this ad infested dump! =D Anubis: If I don't have to worry about the dumb ad placement I might be able to get us a way to start getting our PW ads back on here! I'm not the best at reverse engineering the python used to build this site but I may be able to do something like this on an individual basis. It may even be a potential patreon reward or something since I'd have to set it up manually per user until I figure out the outs and ins of the site better!
HippieVan at 8:46AM, April 14, 2015
Honestly, I'm not in favour of having the site be paid overall. I think the payoff wouldn't be good enough for the amount of people it would turn away. Something like extra benefits or rewards for premium paid members is something I can see being in favour of at some point in the future, but I want to keep the basic functions of the site (hosting and reading comics) open and free.
houseofmuses at 8:36AM, April 14, 2015
Because Tide Detergent just does not appeal to this demographic.
houseofmuses at 8:36AM, April 14, 2015
What do you all think about a subscriber option for readers? 99¢ a month or $10 per year to give readers full access to ALL the comics on Drunk Duck? It works extremely well on my own site at http://adeviantmind.com. I was worried about it at first, but all my most devoted readers chipped right in. I would suggest a pay as you go option for 99¢, and if they want a yearly renewable pass, pay at a discount for $10 per year, and get the full access. People are going to complain that they want all their comics for free. But, listen: they do not realize how much time, effort and creativity goes into creating these comics that they so love, and the bottom line is that without funding, this site will eventually cease to exist, and a new exodus to other sites will begin. Our goal here is to make this a self-sustaining site, and we also need to be taking a look at choosing advertising for this site that is of actual interest to these readers, stuff they gotta have and will impulse buy.
HippieVan at 8:31AM, April 14, 2015
@Kota: I do as well, but it would be nice for times when adblock isn't available...the ads can definitely be an annoyance when I'm on mobile, for instance.
Kota at 8:25AM, April 14, 2015
I can throw a bit into a patreon campaign. Honestly though, I've got adblock so I never see ads on here.
houseofmuses at 8:23AM, April 14, 2015
I'm all for it. Give me a $5 ad option, and I will rule the universe.
Anubis at 8:14AM, April 14, 2015
Id love to do a $5 advert for a day, so yes I think the patron thing is a very good plan, so that we can in time do the adverts for a day. I mean it would be so cool. Id love if we could have project wonderful back again, heck I cant even do a gofundme thing to help me raise money for my immigration to the US to be with my family.
HippieVan at 8:12AM, April 14, 2015
Okay, will do!
HippieVan at 8:12AM, April 14, 2015
Anyways, I think this would work really well! Not only would it mean no more spammy ads (and no more run-ins with weird ads that redirect users and crap like that), but it would make us way more independent. We would be able to take the money we make and put it directly back into the site, no complicated process, no middle man. Not to mention that if there's anything extra left over after hosting costs we might actually be able to start fixing some of the little things that have been piling up forever.
Ozoneocean at 8:09AM, April 14, 2015
Yes. Please do! :D I'm signing off for the night here now, it's my bed time.