Pro-Lite

Re: Pro-Lite

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:46:15 +0000

It requires some. Making sure the ads are in the right place. Making sure the code's right. Dealing with Google (or whoever) if there are problems with the ads. It's not going to be an everything deal, but at the same time, if something does need to be fixed, we're going to want it fixed pretty quickly.

Re: Pro-Lite

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:56:45 +0000

On Yoric's note, I'm also not sure that a pro account would need that much maintenance- we can make an account for the money, get the money, send it to Gears, he buys the account, voila. (There might be a more direct way to do this, dunno though.) If we decide to go into google ads, that might be different, but it might also be pretty simple to get going.
If it isn't, however, Bright is certainly the best choice. I'm just not sure that we need to. (Of course, the last paid website I ran was in fifth grade, was about fish, and didn't have ads, so I may be wrong about this.) But a pro account would be awesome and we should try to do it.

(Also: I'll likely also be able to give some dough, though not a lot and I'd have to mail it to someone who could give it through the website. However, between our senior staff with credit cards and our huge amount of users, I don't think it'll be a problem. For potential overflow, I imagine it would be easy to close the donation thing quickly after it hits fifty bucks, and we could find something else to do with the money if we have much left after the fact.)

Re: Pro-Lite

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 23:53:03 +0000

Yeah, if it comes down to it, I'll pony up the cash myself. :U

Re: Pro-Lite

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 23:11:06 +0000

Yoric, if it comes down to it, I'll buy the account for Gears or Bright. I just want to give our users a chance to step up first. I think they will.

Re: Pro-Lite

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:00:14 +0000

While I do support the idea of making the site ad free, and have thought for a while now that we should start excersizing control over our ads for the betterment of the site, I dunno that I'm okay with just telling gears "okay, you're not owner anymore.". Bright's a fantastic admin, and he's around often enough that he is absolutely the best choice if we do this, but we should talk with gears first before we just vote him off like that.

So, yeh, I definitely support this, but let's talk to gears about it.

Now, on a practical note, the userbase is pretty huge, and fifty dollars a year sounds like a fairly small amount. But, we all know how asking people on the internet for money can go. Can we be sure that we have enough users who will donate to make this a sustainable option?

On the other hand, assuming the users come through in a big way and donate more than is needed, what happens to the rest of the money? I initially typed something up about saving it for hosting to get off wikidot, but a niggling little voice in the back of my head started muttering about eggs and counting.

Re: Pro-Lite

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:48:11 +0000

I approve this new order… Er I mean idea, new idea.

Pro-Lite

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:37:37 +0000

So, I was looking at the Wikidot plans, and the Pro-Lite account would give us complete control over site advertising. Currently, anyone viewing the site while not logged in is treated to the ads Wikidot has. If we went with Pro-Lite, we'd be able to remove the ads. For example, right now, if you log out and look at the Wanderer's Library, you'll find no ads, while they're still up on the SCP Foundation wiki. More importantly, we can put in our own ads.

Pro-lite's pretty cheap at fifty bucks a year. I think we get enough traffic to make this worthwhile. We could get an account with Google AdSense, put them somewhere unobtrusive (I've been experimenting with the options with my sites, and there are plenty of options for placement), and get a small profit, which could then be used to fund other projects.

The only problem is that you can't upgrade a site. You upgrade an account, and then that account has access to the major options like advertising. So, we either have to get Gears to be here a lot more often, or else have him transfer ownership to someone else. Assuming that he's still got a fairly busy schedule (family, job, etc.) and shaky internet connection, I think the latter option might be best. This is no disrespect towards Gears, but if we do this, we're going to need someone who's going to be here a bit more often to take care of these things.

My suggestion, therefore, is to transfer ownership to Bright, and then have the userbase contribute money to buy Bright the upgrade. Thoughts?