S
Sculli
Guest
First things first, this is an informal poll (actually it isn't a poll poll, just looking for opinions) that does not necessarily foreshadow the things to come.
QCDN has always been, and will always be, a free resource to the end-user. The whole point of making QCDN was to get away from other boards that drown you in flashy ads no matter where you look on your screen.
Nonetheless, at this time the cost of running QCDN is starting to exceed what I would comfortably consider a pure hobby. Interestingly enough I have yet again been approached by a company that deals in virtual goods with an offer to buy QCDN. The reason that is interesting is that there must be someone on this board working for them. I talked to Pupusa and he confirmed that during his admin period no one asked him to sell. He couldn't have sold anyway because even though he was admin I was in control of the domain name. Now that I am back as admin someone took note that admin and owner are the same person again.
Be that as it may, I am not going to sell out to gil sellers. You have my word on that.
There are very few feasible options on how to raise funds for QCDN operations.
Donations
This has been done in the past, and worked reasonably well, though it pplaced the "burden" on those few who did donate. As little thank-you those received a custom title, which now really doesn't mean all that much anymore as I have enabled custom titles for long standing members anyway.
Google AdSense Ads
Easy to implement into the page header, non graphical text ads. Just displaying the ads would lead to revenue, without the need for people to actually click them.
Personally I am opposed to these ads, for many reasons, one of which is that they will be gil seller ads for sure, at which point selling out to gil sellers without Google would yield a higher revenue.
Affiliate Ads
Dell, Amazon, other carefully selected ads placed throughout QCDN.
Again, I don't really want ads, revenue would be very dependant on whether someone actually clicks the ad, and proceeds with a purchase.
Exclusive Affiliate Ads
Such as Newegg. QCDN would be showing only one company's ad.
I am not sure what the buying power of the average QCDN user is, but since QCDN is not a community of like-minded individuals when it comes to buying stuff, this option is really not an option no matter what.
Non-Profit
One possibility is to create a non-profit organization (basically me) that will manage QCDN, and start the kind of fund raising non-profits do, which will brind in underwriters for QCDN, who in turn would want some sort of mentioning of their contributions. The advantage of a non-profit is that any kind of contributions are a tax write-off, be it a personal, or corporate contribution. I am not sure how many QCDN users run their own businesses in some form or another, but this could be important to them.
Going non-profit would add more work for me, no doubt, but if there is enough interest in financially contributing to a non-profit, then I may consider it.
Subscription Services
Some message boards make certain areas of the board subscription-based. Want to read and post to the Flameboard? $5/annually!
Subscription services tend to improve the quality of posts, as those who are just out to troll tend to not want to pay.
This is basically it, unless you guys see some other alternative.
Please use the above as food for throught, and some sort of discussion baseline. None of the things listed will happen overnight, though I would want to come up with some sort of permanent solution before long.
Discuss.
QCDN has always been, and will always be, a free resource to the end-user. The whole point of making QCDN was to get away from other boards that drown you in flashy ads no matter where you look on your screen.
Nonetheless, at this time the cost of running QCDN is starting to exceed what I would comfortably consider a pure hobby. Interestingly enough I have yet again been approached by a company that deals in virtual goods with an offer to buy QCDN. The reason that is interesting is that there must be someone on this board working for them. I talked to Pupusa and he confirmed that during his admin period no one asked him to sell. He couldn't have sold anyway because even though he was admin I was in control of the domain name. Now that I am back as admin someone took note that admin and owner are the same person again.
Be that as it may, I am not going to sell out to gil sellers. You have my word on that.
There are very few feasible options on how to raise funds for QCDN operations.
Donations
This has been done in the past, and worked reasonably well, though it pplaced the "burden" on those few who did donate. As little thank-you those received a custom title, which now really doesn't mean all that much anymore as I have enabled custom titles for long standing members anyway.
Google AdSense Ads
Easy to implement into the page header, non graphical text ads. Just displaying the ads would lead to revenue, without the need for people to actually click them.
Personally I am opposed to these ads, for many reasons, one of which is that they will be gil seller ads for sure, at which point selling out to gil sellers without Google would yield a higher revenue.
Affiliate Ads
Dell, Amazon, other carefully selected ads placed throughout QCDN.
Again, I don't really want ads, revenue would be very dependant on whether someone actually clicks the ad, and proceeds with a purchase.
Exclusive Affiliate Ads
Such as Newegg. QCDN would be showing only one company's ad.
I am not sure what the buying power of the average QCDN user is, but since QCDN is not a community of like-minded individuals when it comes to buying stuff, this option is really not an option no matter what.
Non-Profit
One possibility is to create a non-profit organization (basically me) that will manage QCDN, and start the kind of fund raising non-profits do, which will brind in underwriters for QCDN, who in turn would want some sort of mentioning of their contributions. The advantage of a non-profit is that any kind of contributions are a tax write-off, be it a personal, or corporate contribution. I am not sure how many QCDN users run their own businesses in some form or another, but this could be important to them.
Going non-profit would add more work for me, no doubt, but if there is enough interest in financially contributing to a non-profit, then I may consider it.
Subscription Services
Some message boards make certain areas of the board subscription-based. Want to read and post to the Flameboard? $5/annually!
Subscription services tend to improve the quality of posts, as those who are just out to troll tend to not want to pay.
This is basically it, unless you guys see some other alternative.
Please use the above as food for throught, and some sort of discussion baseline. None of the things listed will happen overnight, though I would want to come up with some sort of permanent solution before long.
Discuss.
