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Running an advert experiment
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Liam Dawe Jan 6
Hi all, just a note that as of today users not logged in will begin seeing adverts. All you need to do not to see any is just be logged in. Eventually, if successful, it will move from not-logged-in users to showing to everyone who isn't a Patreon supporter.

Trialling adsense to begin with but I may replace it with another if this doesn't really work. Still tweaking it, and have already disabled a few parts of it that are overly annoying. Let me know if you see any issues that need addressing.

The blunt reasoning: I need monies. I am a little capitalist bitch. The price of everything keeps going up, and Patreon just isn't keeping up with it (and Thunderbird are no longer sponsoring too as that was only temporary).

It may turn out not to be worth it, and if so, I will simply remove it and seek other funding somehow (suggestions always welcome).

I want to continue running GOL for a very long time and extra funding is essential.

If you never want to see adverts / sponsors

Support GOL directly on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/liamdawe

Other ways to support: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/support-us/ (but only Patreon removes ads).

Reporting Bad Adverts

For people reporting problematic adverts: I'll need the URL it leads to or the website name along with a screenshot, so try and grab the link somehow so I can block it in adsense. Only so much I can do with a screenshot if it's not obvious where it leads to.

Adverts are disgusting, I hate this raaa

I get it. Use adblock if you need to. I won't hold it against you and won't bug you with pop-ups asking you to disable it either.


Finally: this is not a place to debate or argue with other users. Please keep this topic hyper-focused on feedback. Comments going off will simply be removed. Comments that are complaints and nothing more will be removed. Be useful, or don't post in this topic please.

Last edited by Liam Dawe on 14 January 2024 at 6:25 pm UTC
martinligabue Jan 6
fair enough
jdb78 Jan 6
How much is needed to cover your costs, if I may ask?
Liam Dawe Jan 6
Quoting: jdb78How much is needed to cover your costs, if I may ask?
Respectfully, I'm not going to go into detail about personal costs :)

But if you want a ballpark figure, an extra ~£500 a month would settle things nicely without a problem.
jdb78 Jan 6
The ballpark figure was what I was asking for, thank you! That is an enormous amount of money. I will disable my ublock on GOL. Usually I'd donate monthly but I had to cancel all donations due to my own personal issues recently (was giving to Sea-Shepherd, digitalcourage, animal shelters and such). So disabling ublock is the best I can do for now I am afraid. I hope that the experiment goes well, I love to browse GOL daily on the various channels, i.e. mastodon, the website.

Edit: make the ad visible for every user, otherwise you won't get any money, right?

Last edited by jdb78 on 6 January 2024 at 12:10 pm UTC
Xpander Jan 6
Yeah, enable it for logged in non-patreons also, if it helps and if the ads aren't in annoying places.
I have GOL whitelisted on my browsers builtin adblock quite some time. Currently also not able to really commit to patreon due to all the living expenses rising etc.

Last edited by Xpander on 6 January 2024 at 12:29 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Jan 6
I will eventually enable it for all non-Patrons as mentioned in the OP, once I am satisfied with the placements. Currently waiting for it to update to disable a bunch and will keep testing.
tuubi Jan 6
I restarted my Patreon support. I just wish they had payment options other than card and Paypal...
CatKiller Jan 6
Quoting: Liam Dawe(suggestions always welcome).
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kkrb4h4weW4
CatKiller Jan 6
One thing that occurs to me is that you've got two completely separate streams for people to support the site: Patreon and PayPal. Somewhere like Ars, for example, has one subscription that they manage themselves. Obviously Ars has an IT staff and you have... you... so it might be biting off more than you can chew, but bringing it in house might make it easier to manage and net you a bigger chunk of the amount people are paying to support the site.

(For reference, the Ars subscription - which ISTR is cheaper the bigger chunk you get at once - gets you no ads or trackers and a big subscriber badge on all your posts to encourage others to pick up a subscription, too. I think that whether it auto-renews or not is a tickbox in a user's control panel)
Liam Dawe Jan 6
Quoting: CatKillerOne thing that occurs to me is that you've got two completely separate streams for people to support the site: Patreon and PayPal. Somewhere like Ars, for example, has one subscription that they manage themselves. Obviously Ars has an IT staff and you have... you... so it might be biting off more than you can chew, but bringing it in house might make it easier to manage and net you a bigger chunk of the amount people are paying to support the site.
Bringing it in-house would also make me directly liable for VAT across the world, Patreon takes care of that their end. Just too much admin and tax headaches to do it directly, as I would then also have to grab more info from users on their location for VAT and so on - just messy.

Last edited by Liam Dawe on 6 January 2024 at 3:46 pm UTC
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