DistroWatch "Page Hit Rankings" tables, are they designed to generate $$$?

[MissionImpossible]

Is it a "light-hearted way of looking at popularity of distribution[s]",
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=faq or is LB "too clever by half"?

Could this be helping to generate $$$ for Mr DW?
Because every time you reload that index page to see how your distro is
"ranked" at the different time periods (7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 1 year,
etc, etc,), your are making more impressions on the advertising banners

---------------------------------
Advertising rates

The following are the current impression-based rates for banner and sidebar advertisements:

• 100,000 impressions for $160.00 USD
• 200,000 impressions for $300.00 USD
• 500,000 impressions for $500.00 USD
• 1 million impressions for $800.00 USD
• 2 million impressions for $1,200.00 USD
• 5 million impressions for $2,000.00 USD

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=advertise

--------------------------------

Interview with Ladislav Bodnar - distrowatch.com

[...]

FH: How you make your living?
LB: Maintaining DistroWatch is a full time occupation. I also write regular
articles for the distribution section of Linux Weekly News (http://lwn.net/).

FH: What is the business model of DistroWatch? Does it make enough Money?
LB: DistroWatch is supported by advertising.....

[...]

http://www.linuxsoft.cz/en/article.php?id_article=752

As for DW "OS Log stats", they are even more dubious and irrelevant, based on hits as they are, 1 page can generate 20 or more hits (index page) and another can generate 1 or less than 20 (eg a distro info page).
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.html
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html

[wolfen69]

money is at the heart of most things in life.

[MissionImpossible]

money is at the heart of most things in life.

Yes, money makes the world go around! But money should be made ethically and honestly, that is NOT how DW, IMHO, is making some of its money - SHAME!

Manipulating PCLOS (and other) gullible fanboys (suckers) to make banner impressions is UNETHICAL and dishonest, IMO, to his paying advertisers, many of whom are from the Linux community.

His "OS logs" rankings are even more preposterous when we consider that they are based on "hits", where the index page makes double the hits when compared to the distro info pages (approx 40 : 20).

The following link will make 100 hits:
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.html

and on this next one, you can make approx 180 hits (all the world country flag images):
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.alldomains.html

Last week's DW Weekly editorial was a TOTAL JOKE!
Anybody who buys into it is a BIG LOSER, IMHO!
I never knew there were so many gullible losers in the Linux ranks, very disappointing.

[Epilonsama]

Whats wrong with making a few bucks by using ads, is not like they are popups and those flashy Free ipod adds.

[RAV TUX]

Is it a "light-hearted way of looking at popularity of distribution[s]",
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=faq or is LB "too clever by half"?

Could this be helping to generate $$$ for Mr DW?
Because every time you reload that index page to see how your distro is
"ranked" at the different time periods (7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 1 year,
etc, etc,), your are making more impressions on the advertising banners

---------------------------------
Advertising rates

The following are the current impression-based rates for banner and sidebar advertisements:

• 100,000 impressions for $160.00 USD
• 200,000 impressions for $300.00 USD
• 500,000 impressions for $500.00 USD
• 1 million impressions for $800.00 USD
• 2 million impressions for $1,200.00 USD
• 5 million impressions for $2,000.00 USD

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=advertise

--------------------------------

Interview with Ladislav Bodnar - distrowatch.com

[...]

FH: How you make your living?
LB: Maintaining DistroWatch is a full time occupation. I also write regular
articles for the distribution section of Linux Weekly News (http://lwn.net/).

FH: What is the business model of DistroWatch? Does it make enough Money?
LB: DistroWatch is supported by advertising.....

[...]

http://www.linuxsoft.cz/en/article.php?id_article=752

As for DW "OS Log stats", they are even more dubious and irrelevant, based on hits as they are, 1 page can generate 20 or more hits (index page) and another can generate 1 or less than 20 (eg a distro info page).
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.html
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html

I have one answer for you:

Distropedia (http://www.cafelinux.org/distropedia/)
(no ads, no notability, no waiting list, you don't have to buy an ad to have your distro added or taken seriously; it has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) and nobody is making money off of it)

[dca]

Not that I care or anything but couldn't someone be sitting there and typing PCLOS into their web browser and hitting <ENTER> over and over again showing page hits on distrowatch? I dunno' never bothered to find out how they or netcraft or any of the others monitored popularity...

[Frak]

I have one answer for you:

Distropedia (http://www.cafelinux.org/distropedia/)

(no ads, no notability, no waiting list)
Thanks RAV for Distropedia :)

NO ADS! NO BIAS! NO PROBLEM!

[angryfirelord]

Thanks RAV for Distropedia :)

NO ADS! NO BIAS! NO PROBLEM!
Um...

This site has been temporarily disabled. If you are the owner of the site, please contact customer care. :oops:

[SuperDuck]

Not that I care or anything but couldn't someone be sitting there and typing PCLOS into their web browser and hitting <ENTER> over and over again showing page hits on distrowatch? I dunno' never bothered to find out how they or netcraft or any of the others monitored popularity...

I believe I read something in one of the recent articles that said each IP only counted for one click today. The owner addressed this when there were accusations of PC Linux OS fans "inflating" their numbers.

Also, to the topic if the thread, making money is NOT a bad thing. I know we're all "rah rah OSS hooray", but everybody needs to make a living, even the develops of all our "free" software. Webmasters/developers/owners need to eat, too! If running the site is his full occupation then A) I'm glad he's able to get soem income from it and B) come on - it's still a site about Linux distros. I doubt he's raking in enough to buy that second Gallardo.

[Frak]

Um...
:oops:
And????

I've used it before, I like it. It has a nice Google Maps interface so you can see where all the distributions come from. Plus, there are NO ADS, which not only gives me confidence in the credibility of the site, but also I'm not bombarded by stupid offers.

Awsome site, hope it comes back online soon... :)

[angryfirelord]

And????

I've used it before, I like it. It has a nice Google Maps interface so you can see where all the distributions come from. Plus, there are NO ADS, which not only gives me confidence in the credibility of the site, but also I'm not bombarded by stupid offers.

Awesome site, hope it comes back online soon... :)
I didn't mean that it was bad, I was just pointing out that the site was down.

[Frak]

I didn't mean that it was bad, I was just pointing out that the site was down.
And I hope it comes back online :)

[cotcot]

When I look to other distros I first browse their forum and check the activity and type of answers and replies. This says much more than this distrowatch thing.

[TheeMahn2003]

Is it a "light-hearted way of looking at popularity of distribution[s]",
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=faq or is LB "too clever by half"?

Could this be helping to generate $$$ for Mr DW?
Because every time you reload that index page to see how your distro is
"ranked" at the different time periods (7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 1 year,
etc, etc,), your are making more impressions on the advertising banners

---------------------------------
Advertising rates

The following are the current impression-based rates for banner and sidebar advertisements:

• 100,000 impressions for $160.00 USD
• 200,000 impressions for $300.00 USD
• 500,000 impressions for $500.00 USD
• 1 million impressions for $800.00 USD
• 2 million impressions for $1,200.00 USD
• 5 million impressions for $2,000.00 USD

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=advertise

--------------------------------

Interview with Ladislav Bodnar - distrowatch.com

[...]

FH: How you make your living?
LB: Maintaining DistroWatch is a full time occupation. I also write regular
articles for the distribution section of Linux Weekly News (http://lwn.net/).

FH: What is the business model of DistroWatch? Does it make enough Money?
LB: DistroWatch is supported by advertising.....

[...]

http://www.linuxsoft.cz/en/article.php?id_article=752

As for DW "OS Log stats", they are even more dubious and irrelevant, based on hits as they are, 1 page can generate 20 or more hits (index page) and another can generate 1 or less than 20 (eg a distro info page).
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.html
http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html

Your numbers are inaccurate, I have had 320,000 impressions so far this month, and it is less then what you post at 200,000, perhaps you are trying to post an avg. of what someone would be paid but it is the click not impressions that make money. Most people don't take the time to look at hosting costs, let alone the time the owner spends on his site, if that was the case I work for pennys a day. Just thought I'd toss down my 2 cents worth, probably a days work ;) Traffic of their caliber would indeed be much greater then I see, I am small fry and have to pay for 3 servers to float the traffic I see, can you imagine their hosting costs? Hit and impressions are not to be confused you do not get paid for "hits".

1 server:

8. Successful requests in last 7 days 1,141,677 Requests

Hits typically cripple a site and force you to pay for another server, bandwidth is expensive BTW

download server:

16. Total data transferred 14.934 TB
17. Total data transferred in last 7 days 1.462 TB

[MissionImpossible]

Hit and impressions are not to be confused you do not get paid for "hits".

Read again!


Could this be helping to generate $$$ for Mr DW?
Because every time you reload that index page to see how your distro is
"ranked" at the different time periods (7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 1 year,
etc, etc,), your are making more impressions on the advertising banners

Banner impressions are what makes the money!

[RAV TUX]

I have one answer for you:

Distropedia (http://www.cafelinux.org/distropedia/)
(no ads, no notability, no waiting list, you don't have to buy an ad to have your distro added or taken seriously; it has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) and nobody is making money off of it)

I edited the Distropedia link, the old one was not working.

[RAV TUX]

Thanks RAV for Distropedia :)

NO ADS! NO BIAS! NO PROBLEM!Good Welcome, it is my pleasure to give something free back to the Linux community.

[TheeMahn2003]

Read again!



Banner impressions are what makes the money!

Your topic: Re: DistroWatch "Page Hit Rankings" tables, are they designed to generate $$$?, Need I say more? Don't I wish, CTR, maybe I need someone other then google ;) I see typically between 9,000 and 12,000 impressions a day (no more then 2 on a page) if zero click I make 0, should I quit my day job, for money like that why not? What does it cost to host 3 servers? My time is free. I am sure they pay out a whole lot more then me.

Even if you didn't have to pay for hosting would you work for an avg. as they say it $ 9.71 a day? <<-- that is slave labor ;) Ironic distrowatch, how about the billions M$ makes, boycott them.... Only have 1 cent left now you don't earn the 2 cents ;)

I am really impressed you had the balls to post after what I posted, I was not trying to fire you up. Kudos.