Free Advertising on Derpibooru + Privacy Policy Updates

Hello all,
 
Project Wonderful Shutting Down
 
Derpibooru is a non-profit, volunteer-ran site. However, due to the massive size of our community, our servers do cost quite a pretty penny to keep running. To help offset this cost, we have worked with an advertising network, Project Wonderful, for the past several years to help fund the site’s operations.
 
Unfortunately, after twelve years of operations, Project Wonderful announced last month that they are shutting down, and disabled all ad serving yesterday. We have since removed their ad code from Derpibooru.
 
Free Advertising on Derpibooru
 
Thanks to all of our supporters on Patreon, we’ve determined that we do not need to replace Project Wonderful with another commercial advertising network.
 
Since one of our main goals is to help encourage people to create and share art, we’ve instead decided to utilize our advertising spaces to help promote artists, creators, events, groups, and charities within the fandom. We are now offering free advertising in two week blocks for fandom related content, and advertising at a low, fixed monthly rate for non-fandom content and people wishing to have more than two weeks of advertising.
 
Of course, advertisements must be in good taste, and due to practical reasons we will only be able to run a set number advertisements at a time (with charities/charitable events getting priority).
 
If you are interested in learning more, please see our advertising information page.
 
Privacy Policy Update
 
Likewise, due to the removal of Project Wonderful ads, we have removed the following line from the “Information that may potentially be shared with third parties” section of our Privacy Policy:  

 
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
 
Cheers!

Will the site be okay?

When did you begin Project Wonderful?

Of course it will, she just said that Patreon’s more than working to keep it up.

I’m curious about what this change may bring.

Project Wonderful is shutting down? That’s not so wonderful.

@Background Pony #EC69  
Yeah, the site’s fine. Patreon’s able to cover the costs to keep the servers running, so when Project Wonderful announced they were shutting down, we decided we just didn’t need to replace them with another ad network.

@Meanlucario  
Some unique pony adds created BY YOU!

The site had a HUGE scare last week

Hopefully it won’t be any short or long-term losses.
 
Perhaps putting on occasion an ad there for the site’s Patreon will help bring more awareness of it.

@Background Pony #EC69  
Yes. PW was a very niche “geek” network based around high publisher and advertiser control and zero user spying; unfortunately that sort of thing doesn’t work these days, publishers want to be hands off, advertisers want to spam ads wherever they can in bulk, and both want to track user behaviour to customize what they see for “engagement”… basically meaning PW never did pay out much (and their fees were minimal, compared to other networks).
 
 
@Background Pony #EC69  
Fully, a bit over three years ago, I believe.

@Meanlucario  
Probably not much. The site can stay afloat without Project Wonderful. Now people can just advertise here directly.

Will the site be fine?

@Background Pony #EC69  
Yeah, the site will survive.

@The Smiling Pony  
So in 2015?

@Meanlucario  
Very little. The only real change is that instead of using a commercial ad network, we’re gonna be managing advertisements in house and using them to benefit creators and charities and such.
 
@Registered Anon  
Nope, it really sucks. They were argubly the most ethical advertising network on the Internet. Plus they really helped a lot of content creators turn their hobbies into careers. They’ll be missed.
 
@Josh103  
Patreon’s covering the site’s operating expenses now. We’ll be fine.
 
@Background Pony #EC69  
You already asked that. Everything’s fine, please stop panicking and posting.

Interesting move. I’m cautiously curious to see who decides to advertise. At least I’ll be able to block the ads without shame if they’re garbage.  
Mods, would you consider going back to paid ads if Patreon doesn’t work out in the long term?

@Background Pony #EC69  
Too bad I’m talentless.
 
@Registered Anon  
I read that, I’m just curious about the big long-term affects, if there will be.

@Joey  
I know, though most big long-term affects aren’t seen until after they happen, so it’s a waiting game in my perceptive. And again, it may be nothing or very minor, I don’t know, I’m just saying it’s a possibility.

@Litrojia  
The idea’s mostly for artists to advertise commissions and art packs and what not. We’re gonna be a little bit flexible so long as it’s relevant and tasteful.
 
And honestly, probably not. Most advertising networks do a lot of unethical stuff such as tracking visitors, gathering way too many statistics and that. We’re not really fans of that kinda stuff. Not to mention that due to some of the content we host, a lot of advertising networks would probably be hesitant to work with us anyway.

@Litrojia  
Unlikely; most ad networks are horrifically unethical or pay pennies. My address gets roughly a mail asking to advertise every other day, and they’re all tracking, use popups/unders, don’t allow for proper controls (ie. “do not display this shitty ad”), will spam explicit porn (ala “grannies gone wild” but not the MLP kind), or are almost certainly malware vectors.
 
As long as patreon covers the site there’s no need at all for that mess; really the main reason for using Project Wonderful for the last couple of years is because most of the ads were nice, gave discoverability to small creators, and exposed users to stuff that may have actually interested in.

@Joey  
That’s good, as long as y’all get a steady amount of new supporters, as the expenses usually only go up.
 
There might be a small influx of new potential advertisers, but I’m sure y’all got a prioritizing system in place already.

@Joey  
Sweet! Sounds cool.  
@The Smiling Pony  
Have some shekels.

@Josh103  
Priority is pretty much going to be charities and paid advertisements. We’re not looking at taking on too many paid advertisers though, that’s mostly just an option for people who want more than two weeks once every six months.