Hey guys,
So i had this idea you know what if you were to add ads to the app center but only on the screen of foss software say you searched for vlc click it and then you get on their page where you will display ads specifically privacy respecting ads ones.
And all the proceeds go to the foss app developer in this example vlc.
but only if it is a snap.
So that anyone who makes a snap is eligible for this.
So this is win win foss developers get a steady stream of income and the store gets more snaps.
Win win
And i hate ads with a passion but i would be more then wiling to watch these ads for apps that i use lil effort if at all and they benefit from it.
What do you guys think?
If you are willing to endure an hour of ads that generate €0.30 for a project, might you be willing to instead donate €20.00 directly…and get the hour of your life back? Or donate the equivalent of €40.00 through volunteering, substituting the need for a hire?
Privacy-respecting ads, from the perspective of organizations willing to pay for their use, tend to be limited. The capability to focus the message upon your likeliest markets is the part that’s valuable. Why would any organization spend money on advertising without any way to gauge its effectiveness?
A free variation upon the advertising concept has been tried before. In Gnome Software, and in its Software Center predecessor. A problem cropped up: Managing the advertisements must be done by a human; it incurs cost.
I’m NOT saying “it’s a bad idea”
I AM saying that there is some history there already, and advertising is not quite a free money machine.
It’s a rich tapestry.
3 Likes
I think it’s ok but only if it’s completely optional and not enabled by default, so it’s explicitly up to the user to decide whether or not to see ads.
In any case, there are some issues to consider like what about paying users (businesses) or how to present the idea to the community since many users don’t want ads at all (for instance, ask Mozilla on how not to do these kind of things).
How could you say no to ads if you know it means helping supporting your favorite foss programs?
Donations can only take you so far not everyone donates and myself am not a rich man how am i help all those different projects ?
This way they could generate some revenue without much trouble and everybody seeing those ads are there because they want to download their program for free!
they can do this to give something back and all they have to do is see a couple ads for literally seconds come on man your telling there are people who wont even do this little thing for great projects?
even if there is a cost for canonical they should see this as an investment in their snap format and store literally everyone benefits from this.
I suppose you could give people the option to turn it off.