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The Gloves Are Off
13 years ago
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My Bluesky
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My Bluesky
It's been several months, my friends.
Several months since I began to seek out money making methods online.
Allow me to address the most grievous one, Linkbucks.
I reason that there is no sin to make revenue off links I'd give anyway. So I will feed just about anything through it, slap a banner ad on, and gain some cash as people check it out. I see no issues with banner ads, especially since the human eye has developed a natural tendency to swerve away.
Now I understand for some it is "annoying," but I have to say tough cookies. I desire to profit from placing my work online, and well, that's all there is to it. While I'm happy to use banner ads instead of intermissions(intermissions make you wait 10 seconds before you can actually view whatever I linked), the "no ad" approach is just not negotiable for me.
I once GM'd something called IOT. It's a geopolitical simulation game that is a community effort.
Why did I -stop- GMing it?
Because one day I decided to start putting LB URLs for the stats and maps, you know, banner ads. On the side, a paltry sum.
Next thing I know, every single fucking one of those adolescent twats proceeds to basically call me the Devil, some more than others. I had never before felt so alone, so victimised, so unappreciated. I would spend -HOURS- of my valuable time making -THEIR- precious game work, and asking for a few cents every day, IF THAT, was unacceptable. Unappreciative, spoiled, moody bastards.
So, after concluding one of my games and running a flop, I basically lost any will to GM, as fun as it once was. I reasoned none of them really liked me as a person and only wanted my "porn." No one likes being a piece of meat, and that certainly includes me. So I left the community and don't really pay attention to it anymore.
Needless to say that left me a bit emotionally delicate. Now onto the point of this journal:
It is with deep regret I announce the velvet glove approach hasn't worked, so:
In line with such, I am now announcing my new policy. FA has a block feature, see?
I am going to start using it against habitual complaints. I've been polite and sympathetic enough, but honestly my patience has run out. If it's a sin for me to collect cash for my work at -zero- cost to you, well, I'm sorry, but I don't care what your God thinks. I'll just put with you with the "homosexuals are evil" club in terms of how much attention I give you.
P.S. This isn't even covering how I still give out tons of ad-free work, or how I like to choose the least invasive ads. How dare I make anywhere from 0.40-2.80 USD per 1000 views, I know, but quite frankly I like doing so too much to go back.
I'm still making tons of no-ad work for you to enjoy. I mean seriously, some of you act like there's popups devouring your screen every two seconds. And if there are, that certainly isn't me. You might want to call the Geek Squad.
Several months since I began to seek out money making methods online.
Allow me to address the most grievous one, Linkbucks.
I reason that there is no sin to make revenue off links I'd give anyway. So I will feed just about anything through it, slap a banner ad on, and gain some cash as people check it out. I see no issues with banner ads, especially since the human eye has developed a natural tendency to swerve away.
Now I understand for some it is "annoying," but I have to say tough cookies. I desire to profit from placing my work online, and well, that's all there is to it. While I'm happy to use banner ads instead of intermissions(intermissions make you wait 10 seconds before you can actually view whatever I linked), the "no ad" approach is just not negotiable for me.
I once GM'd something called IOT. It's a geopolitical simulation game that is a community effort.
Why did I -stop- GMing it?
Because one day I decided to start putting LB URLs for the stats and maps, you know, banner ads. On the side, a paltry sum.
Next thing I know, every single fucking one of those adolescent twats proceeds to basically call me the Devil, some more than others. I had never before felt so alone, so victimised, so unappreciated. I would spend -HOURS- of my valuable time making -THEIR- precious game work, and asking for a few cents every day, IF THAT, was unacceptable. Unappreciative, spoiled, moody bastards.
So, after concluding one of my games and running a flop, I basically lost any will to GM, as fun as it once was. I reasoned none of them really liked me as a person and only wanted my "porn." No one likes being a piece of meat, and that certainly includes me. So I left the community and don't really pay attention to it anymore.
Needless to say that left me a bit emotionally delicate. Now onto the point of this journal:
It is with deep regret I announce the velvet glove approach hasn't worked, so:
In line with such, I am now announcing my new policy. FA has a block feature, see?
I am going to start using it against habitual complaints. I've been polite and sympathetic enough, but honestly my patience has run out. If it's a sin for me to collect cash for my work at -zero- cost to you, well, I'm sorry, but I don't care what your God thinks. I'll just put with you with the "homosexuals are evil" club in terms of how much attention I give you.
P.S. This isn't even covering how I still give out tons of ad-free work, or how I like to choose the least invasive ads. How dare I make anywhere from 0.40-2.80 USD per 1000 views, I know, but quite frankly I like doing so too much to go back.
I'm still making tons of no-ad work for you to enjoy. I mean seriously, some of you act like there's popups devouring your screen every two seconds. And if there are, that certainly isn't me. You might want to call the Geek Squad.
As I've said time and time before, that "service" you use, if you even want to call it that, is scummy. I'm hardly saying "it's a sin to profit from art", after all, that's how people make a living, but you seem to have the strange urge to want to wring money out of the people who look at your art, any way you can. I mean hell, even the Linkbucks link you posted for reference is a referral link for the site, and I see those urls as your status on AIM far too often for my like. And you seem happy, even, to get tiny amounts of money from this service. By your estimate above, people looking at your art would hardly give you enough for any sort of decent sustainable lifestyle.
I see better people putting out better art on a far more regular basis. For free. And people putting out the same quality of art on a regular basis. For free. And when compared with your whinging attempts to squeeze money out of people, even asking for tips back from a piece of art you commissioned (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8549932/), it just looks like you have a lack of integrity, both as a person and in your own field. I mean hell, have some standards. Remember back when I said I'd love to commission you? Yeah, that feeling went away pretty quick when you starting pushing Linkbucks at people.
Here's what you really should be concentrating on. Instead of having the people who view your work jump through a hoop to look at it (a poor idea in the first place, really), just so you can buy a candy bar every now and again, what if you actually spent some time actually working on your art? You seem to be trying to make money like a freelancer, without actually having sunk time into your craft. That's why people like me are going to complain when you make people visit a Linkbucks link for the sake of a little thing like a poll. I mean for fuck's sake, a poll.
So to cut it short, you need to stop laboring under the delusion that making art and putting it on the internet will magically make you money. Commissions are how people generally go about that, not sticking it under a banner ad. And I don't really give a shit if you block me over this, I'm not going to support your shameless attempts to make a quick buck off of your art.
Word.
This has nothing to do with any particular individual; it's a general vent of my frustrations.
Calling it a "hoop" to me is unfair - 10 seconds is basically as if one had a slow internet connection. What'd be unfair is if I put a locker link for such things... those require you to complete a survey to view content. Even I find such things unreasonable. And while I don't listen to "No ads," I do take into account unnecessary red tape and try to limit it(one site I was using actually puts a SECOND intermission up. Needless to say, I don't use it anymore).
Overall, I view everything as a case of, if people are going to look anyway, why not make some money off of it? It takes me seconds to create and post paid links, and I normally use a banner ad, so I never saw the issue. It struck me as some folk going "Someone's making money off things we all do anyway, that's bad."
I never had issues going through LB links, which is why I never understood why anyone else would. Time is the currency everyone is rich in, which is why I prefer gaining money through advertising rather than through sales; it doesn't cost anyone. :V
What I do have an issue with, though, is using Linkbucks for links that direct to other people's works. This includes things like Wikipedia articles or other type of stuff people have produced. Like you, people have put the time and effort into creating these things, oftentimes for free. I don't think they would appreciate other people profiting from their work in that sort of way, y'know? Take me and Vulpine Hollow for example. I would be upset if someone was making a profit off of links to our website, especially if they didn't give me and the people that help run it anything back in return. I've put a lot of time and effort into making it what it is right now. I don't do it for money, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with someone else making money off of my work.
If you were giving back a portion of the money, then I feel it would be totally different, because then you'd be helping to support those same people that have given you these additional streams of income. Like, if you want to link people to Wikipedia articles, maybe donate 30 cents for every dollar you make off of doing that. That not only generates money for you, but it also helps support Wikipedia and encourages people to continue writing articles there.
That's just how I feel. <3
If I do make any substantial income off someone else's work, of course I'd be happy to give back to them as thanks. I have no qualms with such and it is perfectly reasonable.
If I ever reach payout, for example, I want to donate some to FA since they have served as the primary medium for my links. I also offer artists I've commissed to try and raise some extra money for them through the links.
What this journal was about was how some folks act as if I just imposed a 50% tax on them, rather than requiring a few seconds of their time every once in a while. It always struck me as very strange and in many cases also left me feeling very alone and unappreciated.
As far as the naysayers go, I can totally understand why you'd feel alone and unappreciated. D: I've been in similar situations before. All I can say is that people are gonna have different opinions. You've got mine and, by the looks of it, other people's support though. :3