Monetize Ubuntuforums?

[madjr]

All this activity going on and many novice asking for support, could really push funding for Ubuntu development.

i wouldn't mind at all some google ads at the bottom of the forum. Many forums have some ads and that doesn't annoy me.

In fact why hasn't this been implemented yet?

Some of us are in tight situation an can't donate at this time> http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations

or get some stuff from the shop
https://shop.canonical.com/

so i would love that my activity around here would help get some funds...

anything to help out!

ps. Servers and bandwidth costs to keep these forums up, repositories, main website, live-CDs downloads, etc. are not free.

[ShadowGray]

Because ads are always annoying, and also you'd have to think... mostpeople who use this forum are also the kind of people who pimp out their browsers with noscript and adblock. ;)

[madjr]

Because ads are always annoying, and also you'd have to think... mostpeople who use this forum are also the kind of people who pimp out their browsers with noscript and adblock. ;)

i would disable adblock for ubuntu forums if i had it installed.

but a small banner at the bottom doesn't hurt anyone, in fact it may really help a lot when one can't donate.

[ShadowGray]

Maybe. I'd rather purchase a t-shirt or bag if it ever gets more reasonable and affordable.

[madjr]

Maybe. I'd rather purchase a t-shirt or bag if it ever gets more reasonable and affordable.

thats what am waiting too, but till that happens an ad or 2 is ok

[ticopelp]

If it would help fund Ubuntu, I wouldn't mind it.

[spamzilla]

I don't care as I'll just block them anyway.

[smoker]

having ads on the forum is a slippery slope, i certainly don't want them? what is deemed suitable? how many ads will be considered acceptable? will they spread, what's next - popups, pop unders, who decides?

i haven't voted, but say NO to ads on the forum, if you can't afford to donate, there are plenty other ways to help ubuntu and linux, if finance came into the equation it could ruin the whole freedom and mutual help concept of the forum

[SuperSon!c]

Because ads are always annoying, and also you'd have to think... mostpeople who use this forum are also the kind of people who pimp out their browsers with noscript and adblock. ;)

why would you need noscript on an *nix box?

[PartisanEntity]

All this activity going on and many novice asking for support, could really push funding for Ubuntu development.

i wouldn't mind at all some google ads at the bottom of the forum. Many forums have some ads and that doesn't annoy me.

In fact why hasn't this been implemented yet?

Some of us are in tight situation an can't donate at this time> http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations

or get some stuff from the shop
https://shop.canonical.com/

so i would love that my activity around here would help get some funds...

anything to help out!

I loath forums with advertising, so in my opinion your poll lacks the option: No Way!

Plus IMO you have missed the point of the Canonical business idea, it's not make money off users like you and me, it's to make money off of mass installations and support contracts for businesses, institutions and governments.

[Officer Dibble]

if finance came into the equation it could ruin the whole freedom and mutual help concept of the forum

My feelings exactly... 'tis not the Ubuntu way...

[ticopelp]

having ads on the forum is a slippery slope, i certainly don't want them? what is deemed suitable? how many ads will be considered acceptable? will they spread, what's next - popups, pop unders, who decides?

I run ads on one of my sites and I am quite careful to make them as unobtrusive as possible -- I don't want to annoy my users into never coming back, and if the admins of Ubuntuforums are intelligent folks (which I'm certain they are) I'm sure they'd think the same. I'm confident they would know how to exercise proper restraint.

[madjr]

if finance came into the equation it could ruin the whole freedom and mutual help concept of the forum

totally untrue.

i help out in many many other websites and forums. Most of them have well placed ads and they don't annoy or "ruin the whole freedom and mutual help concept" like u say.

you think ubuntuforums is the only one that exists?


The ads funds are for ubuntu development or pay server costs (forums, repositories, the big amount of downloads, etc.).

by what u say u probably donate cash every day to help out costs?

[madjr]

I loath forums with advertising, so in my opinion your poll lacks the option: No Way!

Plus IMO you have missed the point of the Canonical business idea, it's not make money off users like you and me, it's to make money off of mass installations and support contracts for businesses, institutions and governments.

there is the option:

No thanks, i already Donated.



i guess i should had added the option:

No thanks, i don't care to donate.


am aware they will make money of support contracts.

But right now they don't make much money and will take more years for that to happen.

anyway, if i had the money i would love to donate daily but my activity around here could have the same effect.

all these half million registered users could really contribute to faster development.

The devs have to eat too to stay alive... just like they state in the donations page

Your support makes all the difference to improving Ubuntu, and helps to keep hungry programmers focussed on making sure Ubuntu is the distribution you love to share. We use donated funds to pay developer contracts for feature goals in the next release, or contribute them to the bounty fund.
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations

OSS may seem magical, but people don't eat open source code, they need food and food costs $

[akiratheoni]

If Canonical really needed the money, they probably would have been ads on the forum a long time ago. From the looks of it, they aren't struggling -- after all, they're funded by a multimillionaire...

[madjr]

If Canonical really needed the money, they probably would have been ads on the forum a long time ago. From the looks of it, they aren't struggling -- after all, they're funded by a multimillionaire...

yea, could be. But there's just too much activity going on here and slightly monetizing it would be of use for more full time developers and bug squashers.

just read the donations page to get an idea
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations

even mozilla monetized firefox, thats why their development is so efficient and have many full time devs and support staff.

[saulgoode]

Ubuntu should charge for ShipIt CDs. That would make money.

[Lostincyberspace]

I would put two adds in one at the top next to the Ubuntu Forums Logo.

And on at the bottom.


I include images showing placement.

[FyreBrand]

All this activity going on and many novice asking for support, could really push funding for Ubuntu development.

i wouldn't mind at all some google ads at the bottom of the forum. Many forums have some ads and that doesn't annoy me.

In fact why hasn't this been implemented yet?

Some of us are in tight situation an can't donate at this time> http://www.ubuntu.com/community/donations

or get some stuff from the shop
https://shop.canonical.com/

so i would love that my activity around here would help get some funds...

anything to help out!

ps. Servers and bandwidth costs to keep these forums up, repositories, main website, live-CDs downloads, etc. are not free.Can you imagine when you see Microsoft Server ads here or even worse competing Red Hat server ads? The next step, after the revenue potential is realized, will be to have the mouse over ajax popups. No thank you to adware.

The point of the forum here, to me at least, has been to foster a learning community where it's safe to ask questions and share knowledge.

I loath forums with advertising, so in my opinion your poll lacks the option: No Way!

Plus IMO you have missed the point of the Canonical business idea, it's not make money off users like you and me, it's to make money off of mass installations and support contracts for businesses, institutions and governments.
You said it so well.

[Lostincyberspace]

but the forums are hosted by ubuntugeek out of pocket so should he have to pay to be ubuntus whole support area? I don't think so and it could be given to some deserving program group like deluge or some other unsponsored app.

[FyreBrand]

but the forums are hosted by ubuntugeek out of pocket so should he have to pay to be ubuntus whole support area? I don't think so and it could be given to some deserving program group like deluge or some other unsponsored app.I think the expense and subsidy of hosting the forums is UbuntuGeeks business. I think you are also opening up a huge can of worms if you are talking about using ad money to fund certain projects. Why Deluge? Why not Transmission? Hey, why do torrent projects need funding when they are just icing when obviously Project X needs it so much more because it's core to stability. Do you see where this is going? This is a support forum and there are plenty of business models outside the ad-driven-forum model to keep projects going.

[Lostincyberspace]

I think the expense and subsidy of hosting the forums is UbuntuGeeks business. I think you are also opening up a huge can of worms if you are talking about using ad money to fund certain projects. Why Deluge? Why not Transmission? Hey, why do torrent projects need funding when they are just icing when obviously Project X needs it so much more because it's core to stability. Do you see where this is going? This is a support forum and there are plenty of business models outside the ad-driven-forum model to keep projects going.
I was just giving an example because I know they have been having some problems supporting their forums and features in the past.

And X is already backed by quite a few company's anyway. They could do without another sponser I would even suggest giving it to Linus Torvalds, and Richard Stallman to thank them for their work on creating linux.

[jaytek13]

Oh, I clicked on this thread thinking you meant charge a subscription fee, and I was like nooo of course not. But no, I wouldn't mind a few unintrusive ads on the page. I know a lot of people don't donate so it would help.

[FyreBrand]

I was just giving an example because I know they have been having some problems supporting their forums and features in the past.

And X is already backed by quite a few company's anyway. They could do without another sponser I would even suggest giving it to Linus Torvalds, and Richard Stallman to thank them for their work on creating linux.Not the Xserver project. I meant generic Project "X" lead by Speeds mysterious older brother of the same letter name.

[Lostincyberspace]

Oh- I did not know that I will have to look it up am always looking for new apps.

Or the money gotten it could go to help OLPC or any other worthy cause.

Yeah I really would like this I am her so often it would me I could contribute without having to realy pay anything since I am strapped for cash right now since I have a major surgery coming up which mean I will be on pork and beans for a while.

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Yeah, I really hate the sites that post those ads in the middle of your post, and over-inflate their text so they stick out like a sore thumb, and you can't read what the person wrote.

[PartisanEntity]

but the forums are hosted by ubuntugeek out of pocket so should he have to pay to be ubuntus whole support area? I don't think so and it could be given to some deserving program group like deluge or some other unsponsored app.

The forums were taken over by Canonical and are now hosted by them, they have taken over costs of hosting.

[warbread]

If the ads were entirely for sandwiches, I would abide their use.

[jeffc313]

I would not mind advertising, only if it were to be no obtrusive. Ads from companies such as Dell for its Linux PCs and System76 would not be too bad.

[Erik Trybom]

I say no. This is the official Ubuntu support forum (ever since it was taken over by Canonical) and as such it should be free from ads.

I don't mind ads in places like online newspapers or private forums who need the revenue, but they don't belong on official company sites (unless they're promoting the company's own products).

The main goals of the Ubuntu forums are to help Ubuntu users, to promote the use of the OS and to create a nice and welcoming community among its users. Since it does this so well, there is every reason for Canonical to take the cost and put it on the "advertising" tab.

[hessiess]

wairs the NO! option?

[amazingtaters]

I've gotta say no. Ads really wouldn't be good for the forums. Sure, I'd just adblock them, but its still annoying to know that they're there. And one ad could lead to more and more ads. I'm just not seeing how this could be a good thing. If they really wanted to make money off of the average users like you and me Canonical would charge some sort of fee to use the OS right? That would make more sense if money was what they were after from us.

[Lostincyberspace]

I say no. This is the official Ubuntu support forum (ever since it was taken over by Canonical) and as such it should be free from ads.

I don't mind ads in places like online newspapers or private forums who need the revenue, but they don't belong on official company sites (unless they're promoting the company's own products).

The main goals of the Ubuntu forums are to help Ubuntu users, to promote the use of the OS and to create a nice and welcoming community among its users. Since it does this so well, there is every reason for Canonical to take the cost and put it on the "advertising" tab.
It has never been taken over by Canonical It is endorsed by Canonical but they do almost nothing here.

[macogw]

why would you need noscript on an *nix box?

Because cross-platform browsers have cross-platform exploits. Because most site admins aren't good enough at security to protect against cross-site-scripting attacks. Because cross-site-scripting attacks let people steal cookies full of your login info...for example, to your bank account.

[Erik Trybom]

It has never been taken over by Canonical It is endorsed by Canonical but they do almost nothing here.
It says on the About page:

"In June of 2007 the forums domain, license and assests were transfered over to Canonical they now maintain sole ownership of the forums. Ryan continues maintain the forums and serve's on the Forums Council along with Mike, KiwiNZ, Matthew and Jdong."

So while Ryan (ubuntu-geek) still maintains the forums, I'd argue that they do have the status of official support forums and as such should be free from advertising.

[ubuntu-geek]

It says on the About page:

"In June of 2007 the forums domain, license and assests were transfered over to Canonical they now maintain sole ownership of the forums. Ryan continues maintain the forums and serve's on the Forums Council along with Mike, KiwiNZ, Matthew and Jdong."

So while Ryan (ubuntu-geek) still maintains the forums, I'd argue that they do have the status of official support forums and as such should be free from advertising.
You are correct I transfered ownership of this site to Canonical last June. My guess is it will remain ad free, but if canonical requested ads we would give our opinion and do as they wish. They have never requested ads be placed on this site though and I doubt they would considering other official sites do not carry ads that I am aware of.

[bilal.17]

id rather see canonical gain revenue through a different way such as the store by reducing some items and selling new ones too.

[Frak]

If I'm not mistaken, Canonical pays for the server costs (I may be wrong). So while it would generate extra income, I think it would also generate negative press.

[p_quarles]

If I'm not mistaken, Canonical pays for the server costs (I may be wrong). So while it would generate extra income, I think it would also generate negative press.
You're not mistaken, but you did miss the part where ubuntu-geek states precisely that fact. :D

In any case, this is an old thread on an idea which is not being considered. Closed.