UOGuide talk:Advertising

In the very near future there will be some advertisements placed on UOGuide. Unfortunate as it is, websites do not run on Magical Residue or Zoogi Fungus. I have personally contributed a lot of money to keep UOGuide running, as well as many others who have donated directly. However it simply is not enough. Donations from the past year come to about 5% of what it cost to run UOGuide. The UOAM hosting isn't breaking even anymore and will likely end up being discontinued with everyone moving to the new mapping application.

So it has come to advertisements. By my estimates, they should fund UOGuide by at least 100% of what it costs to keep the site going. I hope it will be more than that though. More money means the ability to purchase more server power. Maybe run contests and other fun activities.

This does not mean every page will be choked to death with a dozen flashing adverts, distracting you from the real reason you came to UOGuide. They will be placed below the left hand menus and at the very bottom of each page. The side bar on 95% of pages is empty space to begin with. The ad at the bottom will only extend the page (as will the sidebar one if the page is too short). Advertisements will not be placed in the header or mixed in with content. This will be more clear when they are actually in place.

There is going to be an initial testing phase for the ads. They will be tweaked and moved to find out what works out. If they turn out to be more trouble than they are worth, then they could be removed all together. If you have any feedback you can leave it on this page's discussion page.

I know this will be a big change for some of you used to UOGuide being ad free. I am also dismayed at this prospect. Hopefully it will work out in the end and UOGuide will live happily ever after.

Look forward to more UOGuide changes and additions in 2010. - JC the Builder 20:39, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

UOGuide hosting

Hi,

I would like to know what are the specifications to UOGuide. I might be able to provide my web server to host this side also. The only downside would be the server is located in Thailand.

...Vinit

Thank you for the offer, but UOGuide is not looking to relocate servers at this time. Also being in Thailand will slow down the site which is mostly visited by people in North America. - JC the Builder 18:39, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Financial Transparency

In the interests of financial transparency, I propose that the UOGuide:Shoppe page should be replaced by a page displaying the complete financial statistics of UOGuide, including current balance and to-date incoming and outgoing transactions, to be updated monthly. This data should be itemized and should delineate between advertising revenue, donations, hosting costs, etc.
--Cogniac 23:08, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

While financial transparency can be a great thing for some organizations (government), I don't see a good enough reason to do so here. I have plans for the future which could be negatively impacted if finances were disclosed. There is also the fact that I am lazy and never even kept up with that to begin with. The amount of money being generated is just enough to run the website and if that changes then an announcement will be made. - JC the Builder 06:55, 18 January 2010 (UTC)