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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.

One of my concerns is that there's no indicator that something is an ad. You may be able to recognize it because it shows up more regularly than other skeets or seems out of place, but you're technically seeing ads that don't look like ads, and that feels weird.

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.

i honestly think that I'd be okay with you HEAVILY promoting a patreon in the feed to support the costs, instead of forcing ads in. im sure a ton of people here would be happy to donate just to keep it as free, and also because it's such a nice feed.

if that ends up not being enough money, then I'd accept ads for sure- but i think a lot of us would appreciate if you at least tried something like voluntary donations first.