sir_inferno wrote:
speaking of money, since the donat-o-meter always shows a surplus each month, why do we need ads at the top of amiga.org
Whether or not you choose to accept this, placing Amiga oriented advertisements on Amiga.org actually HELPS THE AMIGA COMMUNITY...
There are currently three active ads on the Web site.
1) Amiga Forever. Freely placed because he has always been kind enough to send me the latest updates
2) Amiga Future. Freely placed because he asked nicely.
3) The Auction Ads from e-bay.
Placed because I find it incredibly interesting to see the stuff that comes up, and I know that if *I* find it interesting, someone else might find something they're looking for, and if I can lead a potential new user to buying themselves "new" Amiga off of eBay to "see what it's all about" then I'm ok with that.
It keeps people looking over Amiga stuff on eBay. It keeps people buying Amiga stuff on eBay. It keeps people coming back here for community support and considering that there ARE NO NEW AMIGA PRODUCTS, I figure that trying to keep people interested in the Amiga is what we're all about, so I'm ok with that too.
Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone could possibly complain about it. Anyone who thinks there's "millions of dollars" in placing adverts on any Amiga site needs to seriously rethink their business plan..
Hell, I can't even think of the last time I charged anyone for an advertisement. Well, yes, I can, and I figure I need to apologize to him, but he usually sends the "$1.00 per day" amount of money before I even know that he wants an advert.
In fact, the ONLY reason I still charge for advertisements at all for commercial dealers is because they are, in fact, making money from said adverts.
Paltry money, but money nonetheless and if I were to give free advertisements to all the dealers, then we'd have people {bleep}ing because I'm "supporting XYZ who sucks because they don't support {insert favorite complaint program or platform here}" or we'd have people {bleep}ing because "XYZ ripped me off and you are supporting them".
As a matter of fact, or at least it's been so long that I can't recall, there have never been any fees requested for shows, usergroups, or any other entities other than commercial dealers or companies.
Further as a matter of fact, in the last three years, Amigakit is the sole, singular, solitary ONLY dealer who has even asked me for an advertisement, so this is not about the money, the adverts are there because they -- in some small way -- help keep people interested or coming back to the site.
Wayne