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Hey #GameDev, what are everybody's thoughts on ads in the game dev feed? I'm looking for ways to support my work, so lemme explain about what this would look like. 🧵

The platform we use now — @graze.social — offers monetization via ads. Ads in this case are just regular skeets that folks pay to have injected into the feed. I can decline ads, I can control how often they show up, I can revoke an ad if things get weird... basically, I have a lot of control.

Couldn't you just autoreject ads that don't disclose themselves (i.e. ad skeets must start with "Advertisement:")

That's a hard line. I would make them be required to put #ad in the thing

I've been sorting through this concern. I created a Bluesky labeler as a result. Nice & clean tags on your sponsored posts, and your audience can control which types of sponsored content they see. Happy to hear your thoughts re. Graze integration. bsky.app/profile/adco...

I considered doing this with @ozone.birb.house since it already has wide adoption across my community, but I decided it was probs a waste because it has to be opt-in. I like the idea of making ads more obvious, I just don’t like that the visibility has to be discovered to be useful.

Yeah the opt-in can be a hurdle. I'm hoping that people who want to know will activate the labeler and campaign partners looking for transparency and compliance will do the same. I'm open to ideas, so please do feel free to chat. Gonna connect with Graze as well.

maybe throw a advertiser/supporter label up for the accounts that are advertising?

That's not a bad idea! It'd require people be subscribed to @ozone.birb.house, but that could deffo work!

Yeah, or just require that they start their post with 'AD:'. If it's clearly defined as an ad, I've got no qualms with it. If they're secretly paid, even if on topic, it feels gross.

You're right to feel weird. Folk are sensitive about what is content vs what is sponsored. If the ad service doesn't have a way of identifying its content, consider solving the issue with a CSS style. Make the distinction obvious.

non disclosure of ads is quite fucked

this specifically is an absolute deal breaker for me. as much as I'd rather not have ads at all, I'd be fine with them if they were obvious. if they look like normal posts, that's not cool, that's deceptive, and I'm very much not a fan although my top choice is no ads, if that's feasible

Yeah, does having the #ad hashtag do the trick for you? I've gotten that suggestion from several folx, and I can guarantee that all accepted ads have the requisite hashtag.

Also, if there's demand for an ad-free version I may do a subscription (Ko-fi, Patreon, etc) for a couple bucks a month to get access to an ad-free version of the feed (or maybe the ads just won't show up for you, I dunno). We'll see. Unfortunately I've gotta support my work somehow.

The plus side is that even a small number of ads (think 10 or fewer being shown once every ~100 skeets) would help support all of my feeds immensely.

Not opposed as long as it is disclosed clearly that some posts are paid promotions. Can you require those posts being labeled by a labeler listed in the feed description, for instance? I will say, 10 per 100 is a lot of ads to me, that's US Twitter level of ads, which is not 'normal' to me.

In comparison, before the Elmo takeover, Twitter here (Europe/Netherlands) had maybe 1 ad every 100 tweets, if that, and it was very easy to block. The difference was staggering, whenever I would visit the US everything became infested with ads, and they would all disappear once I came back home.

I also think I'll _mostly_ keep it limited to ads that are relevant to game dev. Game jams, game engines, conferences, etc. So... what are y'all's thoughts? Is it a bad idea? Are there other options for monetizing that I'm not thinking of? Are there other issues I haven't considered?

I don't know what editorial controls are in place for ads and their sources but I guess a concern will be troll ads masquerading as gamedev with poor click-thru destinations? Could you end up spending all your time doing editorial/censorship admin?

This sounds good. Plus games that are coming out or being dev'd. Anything game is fine by me.

I think it's probably a good idea. Like you I am kind of put off by the fact that they won't look like ads, but whatever. Go for it.

I'm afraid it would give me "Twitter trauma" 😅 but if it's really under control, if the sponsored skeets are tied to game dev and if it's not an ad every two or three posts like Twitter, I guess it'd be fine?

P.S. - If you want to directly support my work for the #GameDev community here on Bluesky, you can always buy me a coffee. 🥰 ko-fi.com/TrezyCodes

I kinda feel like ads that are relevant to game dev will be *harder* to tell from regular posts

I thought it was required to label ads as ads? is it not?

United States law certainly appears to require it. Platform support for the disclosures would certainly make it easier. Perhaps BlueSky could add a "sponsored" label and augment the labeling system with a way to give the reason for a label. www.ftc.gov/business-gui...

I assume ads are going to happen eventually in bsky due to the explosive growth, so maybe they'll implement something like that. Might not be a bad idea to request it, actually. I hear the devs have been really responsive, so maybe!

I’m not opposed to ads, but not having proper disclosure it’s a deal away for me. I believe it may also not be legal in some markets. If you found a way to disclose that they were ads, I personally would be okay with them.