I have to say, I'm in the "no ads under any circumstances" camp. I really think we need to avoid using ads to pay for anything. At all. Ever. If that means this can't go forward, so be it. Looking into free or donated options is worthwhile, I think. I've had good experiences with Googlepages, so that might be a good starting point. -Mike
-----Original Message----- From: Andrew Whitworth [mailto:wknight8111@gmail.com] Sent: December 5, 2007 3:42 PM To: Wikimedia textbook discussion Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] Website for Wikibookians
On Dec 5, 2007 2:00 PM, mike.lifeguard mike.lifeguard@gmail.com wrote:
At this point, anyone who asks can probably be considered "established"
(and
I'm not kidding) But yes, this could be very useful, if only for email aliasing and the IRC client. I also like the idea of hosting WB-specific tools, though I don't think we currently have any. How would this be paid for, though? -Mike
The issue of pay is a tricky one. Veropedia uses some advertising to offset the cost of hosting, mostly unobtrusive book links from Amazon. I think we could go a similar route, using advertisements from Amazon or Google to try and offset costs a little. We certainly wouldn't want any crazy flashing banner ads or anything. A small hosting package, with a basic HTML-based site, some blog software, and email aliasing would not cost too much to operate. I would need to get some quotes, and I would also like to see if there were ways we could get hosting donated. We could use a free site such as google pages or geocities or something to start.
--Andrew Whitworth