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Running an advert experiment
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Liam Dawe 6 Jan 2024
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 Jan 2024 at 6:25 pm UTC
martinligabue 6 Jan 2024
fair enough
jdb78 6 Jan 2024
How much is needed to cover your costs, if I may ask?
Liam Dawe 6 Jan 2024
How 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 6 Jan 2024
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 Jan 2024 at 12:10 pm UTC
Xpander 6 Jan 2024
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 Jan 2024 at 12:29 pm UTC
Liam Dawe 6 Jan 2024
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 6 Jan 2024
I restarted my Patreon support. I just wish they had payment options other than card and Paypal...
CatKiller 6 Jan 2024
(suggestions always welcome).
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kkrb4h4weW4
CatKiller 6 Jan 2024
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 6 Jan 2024
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.
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 Jan 2024 at 3:46 pm UTC
Liam Dawe 6 Jan 2024
I've already moved over from their "auto" everything to a bit more manual placement, as it was repeatedly putting it in places I told it not to. And was at times doubling up adverts, so I've done more tweaks and will continue manual placement. So if you saw too many earlier one after the other, it should be solved now.
damarrin 6 Jan 2024
May you make millions.
Liam Dawe 6 Jan 2024
May you make millions.
Hah, I like your thinking, but a few ££ extra a month will do just fine.

Be sure to report any nasty ads that appear here, and I will block them. Already blocked two websites completely today.
PublicNuisance 7 Jan 2024
The blunt reasoning: I need monies. I am a little capitalist bitch.

Yes, yes, let it flow through you ! In all honesty it doesn't bother me at all. I use uBlock Origin; Jshelter; and Privacy Badger. I see no ads and don't begrudge you for for needing more money. I'd rather run these extensions and give you money through Paypal. Win win. I would love it if you opened an Open Collective but seeing your stance on funding questions I can see that OC may not be something you would want to do.

Last edited by PublicNuisance on 7 Jan 2024 at 5:56 am UTC
emphy 7 Jan 2024
Blocking all those ads, but I've now added the gol's gog affiliate link in firefox and set it so that if I enter gog in the address bar it'll use that link by default.

As I understand such things, that should give a tidy contribution.

Last edited by emphy on 7 Jan 2024 at 9:35 am UTC
Pengling 7 Jan 2024
Blocking all those ads, but I've now added the gol's gog affiliate link in firefox and set it so that if I enter gog in the address bar it'll use that link by default.

As I understand such things, that should give a tidy contribution.
Funnily enough, I changed my bookmarks for Fanatical, GOG, and Humble to match this, the other day, too.
fearnflavio 7 Jan 2024
Total support for that, Liam. I expect this experiment can be good for you and GOL in general.
Arehandoro 7 Jan 2024
Maybe running some sort of membership on YouTube could help too? You could release videos for members only, that some perhaps won't be available to normal subscribers or are exclusive temporarily, and the content could be something more in depth on certain topics, configurations, or more personal, etc.

I guess something similar could be done with articles that are more extensive, require more research on your part, etc. Although not sure if that would incentivize people to be a supporter :/

Last edited by Arehandoro on 7 Jan 2024 at 12:44 pm UTC
tuubi 7 Jan 2024
I guess something similar could be done with articles that are more extensive, require more research on your part, etc. Although not sure if that would incentivize people to be a supporter :/
This would have the opposite effect on me.
Liam Dawe 7 Jan 2024
I use uBlock Origin; Jshelter; and Privacy Badger.
I have absolutely no problems with anyone using all that, totally fair, and I will also not put in any nagging detection stuff either.
I would love it if you opened an Open Collective but seeing your stance on funding questions I can see that OC may not be something you would want to do.
Open Collective is more for helping organisations, doesn't really fit with GOL, because it's all about funding me as an individual to keep everything going directly full-time.

Blocking all those ads, but I've now added the gol's gog affiliate link in firefox and set it so that if I enter gog in the address bar it'll use that link by default.
Blocking all those ads, but I've now added the gol's gog affiliate link in firefox and set it so that if I enter gog in the address bar it'll use that link by default.

As I understand such things, that should give a tidy contribution.
Funnily enough, I changed my bookmarks for Fanatical, GOG, and Humble to match this, the other day, too.
Brilliant, thanks peeps - that really does help :)
I guess something similar could be done with articles that are more extensive, require more research on your part, etc. Although not sure if that would incentivize people to be a supporter :/
Thanks but no thanks. I don't plan to pay-wall anything as that's one thing I've always said I truly disliked.
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