I'm jumping in here. I see services like Wikia fail for several reasons, but the primary one is because we all fail to think outside of the box. The deliberations that were conducted on whether to move to this "ads inside content" model were done without any feedback from the users of the site. It was simply announced to us. That is not putting us first, the customer, the stakeholders.
Revenue comes into Wikia in one and only one way. Advertising revenue. That will be the death of the Internet. I have sometimes searched for an ad that I am interested in clicking, but I gave up a long time ago. I don't click on any ad on any website. I don't think I am alone in this. Nobody is advertising anything that I am in the market for. Because what I AM in the market for is information that I can use to answer a question or that I find interesting in some way. If Advertising revenue is the only possible option that Wikia, Inc. is using to provide a revenue stream for paying expenses and staff, it will fail eventually, for the reasons that Laurence articulates below. Advertising is a gamble that people will want to see and buy your product. If people don't buy, it's a failed investment. There are other options to provide a funding stream. The best that I've ever seen is one used by the Veterans Family Fund here in Washington State. It uses a new fangled financial product called a Certificate of Deposit (CD). Hopefully most of you have heard of these. The CD's are offered by many of the state regulated banks here in my state, and are available in denominations as low as $100. People invest money into these CD's, and when they mature in 6 months, the interest is split in half. Half goes to build the balance of the CD, which is usually renewed for another 6 months. The other half of the interest goes as a donation to the Veterans Family Fund, a non-profit organization focused on helping military families. The interest rate is set by the banks, and is usually around 4%. Their goal is to reach a revenue stream of $6 million dollars for the charity, and they're going to make it this year, one year after launching the product in a single bank. It is now offered by almost two dozen banks, with branches in most areas of the state. I can't afford to donate to Wikia to keep the sites I manage ad free. But I can afford to invest some money that would earn interest, with part of that interest going to pay for the hosting and part of it coming back to me. I've mentioned this before, and I'll probably have to do it again. And I will, because I see this as a more positive future than anything based on ad revenue. Chad On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Laurence Parry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Let me explain the situation from our point of view: Wikia provides a > hosting service to its users - us, the wiki editors. You provide this > service at no monetary charge, in exchange for our contributions (both > editorial and promotional) and the ad space. We would otherwise have to pay > for this service. > > We have, to this point, been satisfied with this service. Unfortunately, > Wikia is apparently not making money on the service, or it no longer fits > the company's business plans. It is therefore making changes to better > align > the services it provides with its needs. > > The new service Wikia has chosen to provide is simply not acceptable on a > quality level to a significant proportion of your current customers. We > would rather pay someone else money for hosting than use the service > offered > by Wikia at no charge. > > If Wikia does not resolve this situation to our satisfaction, then we will > leave, taking our content, our communities' inward links, our established > service marks, and our fellow editors with us. If you are thinking we would > not take that risk, or that we would not be successful, think again. We are > more than capable of organizing hosting, and most of us maintain sufficient > personal control that if we choose to move, it will not be a fork - it will > be a clean break. > > Of course, you will be able to keep your copies of the content (in most > cases), but it will quickly depreciate without maintenance and the goodwill > that came with it. Wikia cannot afford to recruit people to replace us - > you > of all should know the rarity of viable community leaders, even among a > body > of established wiki editors. Even if Wikia does find people willing to > revive an abandoned wiki, they would be unlikely to garner support from our > source communities - and all the time, we would be developing our own sites > further, making Wikia merely an outdated mirror. > > The fact that the service would no longer be free of charge is not a > significant barrier. Personally, I make a reasonable wage at my day job. > Choosing to be hosted by Wikia was a cost/benefit decision, and the money > required was only a part of that. > > There are other sources of funding, too. WikiFur has raised over a thousand > dollars over the last two years without even trying: > http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/WikiFur:Ledger > Would that be sufficient? Probably not; but we have not yet begun to ask. > Our readers appreciate the service we (the editors) provide - perhaps more > than Wikia - and I'm willing to bet they would pay for recognition as the > service's benefactor. The larger the site, the more likely it is that this > will be the case. > > So. Your service is not as sticky as you imagine. You cannot do without us, > nor can you force us to remain, nor do you appear to be willing to keep us > under current conditions. What can be done? > > The only solution that I see is for Wikia to start charging its communities > a reasonable amount for use of its facilities, replacing the need for any > ads, skin controls, or similar creative restrictions. If Wikia can provide > a > useful service at what we deem to be an acceptable cost, it would be > logical > to pay for it. I envisage something akin to a bandwidth-linked meter - if > the account runs out of credit, the wiki switches to the ad-packed, > skin-locked mode for unregistered users. > > It may be that Wikia's cost structures are too high, and that the price > that > Wikia can afford will be more than we are willing to pay. This would be > unfortunate, but perhaps you will attract those who appreciate the > proprietary features which you have developed, or the personal assistance > you offer. All we really need is reliable hosting, which is pretty much a > commodity these days. > > Wikia might also be exercising a higher level of control to further its > corporate goals, looking beyond mere profit from services rendered towards > (say) greater acquisition value. If so, we may have little to discuss. We > are our own communities - not Wikia's - and we have our own needs. If you > do > not intend to provide a service that meets them, we must seek it elsewhere. > > -- > Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry > http://greenreaper.co.uk/ - http://wikifur.com/ > "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?" > > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l > -- Chad Lupkes http://chadlupkes.blogspot.com
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