Monetize Ubuntuforums?

[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.