Should Ubuntu sell ad space on the forums to fund OSS

[swoll1980]

What you think?

[swoll1980]

The poll got borked some how.

Edit never mind it's fine now.

[Bachstelze]

Hell no. Put ads and I'm out of here.

[unknownPoster]

Hell no. Put ads and I'm out of here.

I agree with this. Ads just get in the way of a pleasant user experience.

[xir_]

if you upgrade to ubuntu premium you get add free help.


And I'm not seeing the problem of ubuntu repackaging. As long as the pull it together in a usable format I think they have done their jobs well.

[days_of_ruin]

Canonical doesn't own ubuntuforums.org correct?

Also, the amount of money to be made from internet advertising is always overstated.

[Bachstelze]

Canonical doesn't own ubuntuforums.org correct?

They do.


firas@itsuki ~ % whois ubuntuforums.org
NOTICE: Access to .ORG WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in
determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the Public Interest Registry
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for informational purposes only, and Public Interest Registry does not guarantee its
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circumstances will you use this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise
support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations to entities other than
the data recipient's own existing customers; or (b) enable high volume,
automated, electronic processes that send queries or data to the systems of
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Domain ID:D104981837-LROR
Domain Name:UBUNTUFORUMS.ORG
Created On:09-Oct-2004 16:28:59 UTC
Last Updated On:09-Mar-2009 11:02:05 UTC
Expiration Date:09-Oct-2010 16:28:59 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:MarkMonitor Inc. (R37-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:mmr-38190
Registrant Name:James Troup
Registrant Organization:Canonical, Ltd.
Registrant Street1:One Circular Road
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Douglas
Registrant State/Province:Isle of Man
Registrant Postal Code:IM1 1AF
Registrant Country:GB
Registrant Phone:+44.1624643643
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:hostmaster@canonical.com
Admin ID:mmr-38190
Admin Name:James Troup
Admin Organization:Canonical, Ltd.
Admin Street1:One Circular Road
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Douglas
Admin State/Province:Isle of Man
Admin Postal Code:IM1 1AF
Admin Country:GB
Admin Phone:+44.1624643643
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:hostmaster@canonical.com
Tech ID:mmr-38190
Tech Name:James Troup
Tech Organization:Canonical, Ltd.
Tech Street1:One Circular Road
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Tech City:Douglas
Tech State/Province:Isle of Man
Tech Postal Code:IM1 1AF
Tech Country:GB
Tech Phone:+44.1624643643
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:hostmaster@canonical.com
Name Server:NS2.CANONICAL.COM
Name Server:NS1.CANONICAL.COM
Name Server:NS3.CANONICAL.COM
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
DNSSEC:Unsigned

[sisco311]

Canonical doesn't own ubuntuforums.org correct?

Also, the amount of money to be made from internet advertising is always overstated.


http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=about

UbuntuForums History:
The UbuntuForums were created by Ryan Troy (ubuntu-geek) in October 2004 the forums quickly became a popular resource for Ubuntu and was deemed the Official Ubuntu forums in November 2004. The forums hosting continued to be maintained and paid for by Ryan until March 2006 when Canonical graciously offered hosting for the forums. 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 KiwiNZ, jdong, Technoviking, matthew, bodhi.zazen and bapoumba.

EDIT: uh, i'm too slow... :)

[dmizer]

Just a friendly reminder to keep it on topic.

Thanks.

[Small_Nuke]

Ads on forums just make it harder to read. Aslo it can open the door for XSS attacks unless the ads are 100% local which wouldn't make much revenue anyways.

I would probably stop viewing these forums if ads were put up. I like them the way they are now, which is simple and fairly image free. It makes it very easy to navigate on my iPhone since it loads really fast on 3G.

[Sporkman]

I say yes. This is a very high-ranking site, and gets lots of traffic. It would bring in thousands of dollars a month, I'd reckon.

For the naysayers, I assume you all use ad-blocking anyways, so why do you care?

[KiwiNZ]

Ever notice how the Ads load first?

They suck members band width allowances.
They are annoying
They detract from the esthetics of the page
They are annoying
They limit the space available on any given page
They are annoying
They will be here when Hell freezes over
They are annoying
A lot use Flash , and flash is the devils hand work

Oh and did I mention ..... They are annoying

[Sporkman]

Ever notice how the Ads load first?

They suck members band width allowances.
They are annoying
They detract from the esthetics of the page
They are annoying
They limit the space available on any given page
They are annoying
They will be here when Hell freezes over
They are annoying
A lot use Flash , and flash is the devils hand work

Oh and did I mention ..... They are annoying

Those discreet inline text ads aren't as obtrusive or annoying...

[mickie.kext]

I say yes. I would help Canonical make money and it does not have anything to do with proprietary software so it is good thing.

But they must make some rules about pricing to make Microsoft stay away:


Trillion dollars per click for Microsoft adds.

500 billion for other proprietary software.

Nice prices for nice FLOSS companies/products and other software unrelated products.


:KS

[KiwiNZ]

Those discreet inline text ads aren't as obtrusive or annoying...

annoying is in the eye of the beholder, to some even those are annoying and intrusive with their rollover popup

[dmizer]

Just a friendly reminder to keep it on topic.

Thanks.

Second warning.

Thank you.

[swoll1980]

I say if you don't want to see ads block them. The revenue could do some great things for the community.

[TheNessus]

they should.

I block ads, so I don't mind

[daverich]

certainly,- i'd have no problem with this.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[Tristam Green]

I say no, but I say this as well:


Hell no. Put ads and I'm out of here.

Aww, don't be like that.


I agree with this. Ads just get in the way of a pleasant user experience.

Ads haven't been an issue for me since 2005. (http://adblockplus.org/en/)

[gn2]

Yes, by all means put ads on the site, so long as we can AdBlock them if we choose to.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I would absolutely support ads from Ad Bard (http://adbard.net/) :)

[Jesus_Valdez]

I support this.

Some little text-ad.

So what if a thousand users go to another forum, there'll be a lot of pageviews.

[alket]

Yes, one small banner at the bottom of forums, who wants to contribute they'll just click, not one of those that appear at second posts and stuff.

[Sporkman]

who wants to contribute they'll just click,

That would be a problem, though - advertisers don't want to pay for clicks that don't convert to sales at a very good rate. If ads on a site get a lot of clicks but very few conversions, they'll stop paying & the revenue will dry up.

[BinaryFeast]

Sure. Those who don't like it can (and probably already do) use ad-block anyway.

[madhi19]

I got no problem with that but since a forums is composed of user generated content. We need a revenue sharing deal so that users who produce the best and most popular content get a piece of the action.

[Frak]

There's an art to implementing ads effectively without hindering user experience or wasting user resources. I don't think anybody at UF could facilitate that.

No offence to anybody, but there are UX Engineers that can't solve such dilemmas. Hint: Asynchronous ads are win.

[KiwiNZ]

There's an art to implementing ads effectively without hindering user experience or wasting user resources. I don't think anybody at UF could facilitate that.

No offence to anybody, but there are UX Engineers that can't solve such dilemmas. Hint: Asynchronous ads are win.

*cough* I wouldn't be so sure ;)

However

There will be no Ads

[kernelhaxor]

However

There will be no Ads

Just curious why not if I may know?

Also, if you're not gonna consider the idea, why not just close this thread as it'd be pointless in that case.

EDIT: I just saw your post on the 2nd page which explains why you don't like ads. Never mind my question.

[litemirrors]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they sold adspace to porn sites and the entire place was like a porn ad, lmao

[KiwiNZ]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they sold adspace to porn sites and the entire place was like a porn ad, lmao

And on that note.......