Click fraud is tricky, and I'm sure Google doesn't disclose the precise methods for tracking it, but as a general rule, if you click on ads that interest you, you are serving the financial interests of both the wiki and the advertisers because they're getting what they paid for.
Incidentally, we aren't using Google directly anymore; we're going through a third party aggregator.
edited 21st Feb '12 1:57:12 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"You'd have to ask Eddie to be sure, but the new service we're using apparently has better customer service policies — including having an actual human being responding to requests and serving ads from additional providers.
Edit: ninjaed with the real reasons.
edited 21st Feb '12 1:56:48 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Slightly off-topic, but they would be doing even better if they did. I hear some companies even require their top management to spend a few hours a week in customer service.
Back on topic, the best it seems we can do now is donate, and give honest clicks to any ads that genuinely interest us.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.I've finally got a chance to buy something from the Zazzle store this coming month, and looking at the offerings, all 14 of them, I am saddened by the lack of variety.
Didn't we have a whole ton of suggestions like a year or two ago? Why have so few of them made it onto the store? Or were more there and they got taken down for lack of sales? Is there a cost for listing items? Is more manpower needed to get designs up in the first place? What's going on?
I have been hoping for a long time to get a t-shirt or hoodie with the TV Tropes logo in small print about where the pocket would be, and something interesting about one of my favorite tropes on the back. I definitely want something with the logo on it, because I helped design that logo, and I would sorta like to be able to parade that around. But I want more than just the logo; I want something that would interest a person who knows nothing about this site, rather than just a "Hey, there's this site I like" thing.
For the same reason, I'd also like to see some alternate mugs. Actually, if I were to choose from just the assortment we've got now, the mug is the one thing I'd choose (that heat-triggered fade-in is awesome)... but I want more variety.
I'd give some suggestions, but I can't think of any really interesting ones right now. I do remember suggesting a lot for one of the older threads.
...Gentleman Snarker, maybe... I'd wear that even though I'm female, but perhaps we should also have a female version (Lady Snarker?).
edited 1st Mar '12 3:22:06 AM by Kilyle
Interest in coming up with ideas and actually doing the layout for items stalled then faded, once the urgency of the Google situation went away.
No, we don't pay anything for listing items. We can put as many different things with as many different layouts as we want.
However, we also ran into a difference of opinion over whether having lots of different items and designs was a good thing (more to choose from, more probability that there would be -something- a person browsing the store would decide to get) or a bad thing (choice overload leading to indecision, leading to no purchase at all because they couldn't decide which thing they wanted.)
I know there's a thread back in the dim dark depths of somewhere that has a whole shipload of suggested item/design suggestions that were never made up. I'll try to find it and link it here.
I'd recommend starting by reproducing the coolest of the knockoff TV Tropes merchandise on other sites. Some of it's stuff I'd actually buy if it supported the site.
(I assume it's knockoff, anyways, since if you search for TV Tropes merchandise on Google, you'll find a lot of designs that can't be bought on Zazzle . . .)
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something AwfulI could think of worse things in the world than having a coffee mug with the pic from Example Sectionectomy on it, presuming we have rights to the pic.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.I'd very much appreciate a link to that old thread, yes.
When it comes to the comparative likelihoods of lost sales from insufficient selection vs. overabundant selection, I expect the insufficient to be far more likely. Have you ever walked into a clothing store and gone "Man, they have too many t-shirt designs here; I'm gonna go find a place where there's only a dozen or so, so it's easier to choose"?
I mean, I realize that some people are MBTI Judgement types (good at making decisions) while others are MBTI Perceptive types (good at seeing options, but easily overwhelmed by too many choices), but I doubt the effect is so severe as to make it profitable to keep our selection minimal. I'm a Perceptive type myself, and I'm the one calling for a larger inventory.
Do any of the sites allow custom writing pads? I could see us designing little creation sheets, like a pad with blanks for a Five-Man Band, or for some variant of The Hero's Journey or one of the other plot setups. Maybe we could aim for a 2013 calendar or two - say one with 12 distinctive boy character tropes and one with 12 distinctive girl character tropes, and someone having drawn examples of them (possibly in swimsuits). (If our current store doesn't do calendars, it's possible that Lulu.com does.)
I'd love to find a site that did custom variants of full-size (or steno size) writing pads (all the ones I've found with decently thick cardboard backs have fairly large lines, and for me it wastes a lot of space)... we could run tropes down the margins as inspiration :)
The brainstorming thread itself appears to be gone. Here's another thread that started accumulating ideas and suggestions
, and here's a crowner where suggestions were listed and voted on
.
Zazzle has a link somewhere on its site of all the things they can provide. It's ... quite extensive. I don't know about writing pads, but I'm almost certain they do portfolios and folders.
edited 8th Mar '12 7:45:17 PM by Madrugada
I have a question - just what pictures does the wiki have the rights to use for its own profit? The idea of neat text items, like folders, notebook covers, and the like, would be a good one to spread around, people do often like pictures on their shirts and other items as well (see my previous comment about a coffee mug with the rocket-powered chainsaw on it).
We obviously can't use pics that are from series, but I have to imagine there are at least a few images (beyond Trope-tan and the main logo) that could be used.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Anything our artistic tropers what to make for us from scratch. Perhaps some Echo Chamber stuff, but that would really need permission from Echo Chamber.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickAnd the page image on Dug Too Deep made for us by the wonderful Geoduck
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickI think Moral Event Horizon was made by Maddie. And the images on Competitive Balance, which might earn some scratch purely from gaming fans.
edited 9th Mar '12 8:52:05 AM by Deboss
Fight smart, not fair.The Competitive Balance pics would be neat for dice pouches... sadly, I don't think Zazzle actually makes those.
This seems to be the list of what they produce
.
EDIT: I suppose, though we could request that they try making them. It's not like they're hard to produce.
edited 9th Mar '12 9:08:00 AM by 32_Footsteps
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

I've just remembered to disable ad-block for this site. I use the World Building and RP forums a lot, might as well click an ad once in a while.
I'm actually impressed at the advertisement server: Some of the ads are legitimately interesting. I've seen several links to PC RPGs I hadn't heard about.
edited 21st Feb '12 8:15:14 AM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.