Yesterday I was looking at alternative free blogging platforms (for an article I was thinking about). I’ve been to WordPress.com before yesterday, but had never been to the forums.
[Note:
Please keep in mind that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely separate entities. WordPress.COM provides a place to blog for free- similar to Blogger. WordPress.ORG provides the free software to blog on your own site. I have a WordPress blog on my privately hosted site, so I've been to the WordPress.org forums.]
As I was perusing the forums I noticed a conversation pertaining to ads on the blogs. WordPress.com explicitly prohibits blogs they host from being used to make money. They don’t allow any kind of ads- except those they put there, which logged-in users can’t see. The most vocal members of the forums don’t like ads on blogs- period. They don’t want ads on their blogs, they don’t want to see blogs on other blogs, and they won’t visit blogs with ads. One woman mentioned that her links list points to her other monetized blogs. Someone immediately informed her that they’d reported her. When I clicked on her link, there was a notice that her blog had been suspended for Terms of Service violations. Her links list pointed to other blogs outside of WordPress.com. Amazing.
I can understand that many bloggers disapprove of ads on blogs. I obviously don’t agree with them. But these folks seem to be fanatical in their quest for an ad-free blogosphere. They argue against the ads that WP.com uses to bring revenue to an otherwise free service, which I find hilarious. How do they think the admins there pay for the servers? One person even said “We bring clicks and provide content, they don’t need ads.” Clicks do not equal revenue on an ad-free service. The higher the traffic the higher the server bill. They pay more for the space with the increased clicks- unless they have ads. The most vocal opponents of the ads pay nothing to use the service. Though they say they are willing to pay “a small yearly fee” to have ad-free free blogs. How small, exactly?
My hosting bill runs about $100 a year. I have one blog hosted and very little traffic. I’ve looked into VPS and the yearly cost far exceeds what I can pay for one blog. I imagine that the “small yearly fee” wouldn’t be the “small” for which these folks are looking. Right now WP.com charges $15 a year just to change the css for one theme. I don’t blame them for charging anything, actually, but these folks that don’t think the admins should get paid… I don’t get it.
I won’t sign up for a blog there, simply because I don’t have the freedom I like with my blogs (Blogger is the best free service if you want the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want- otherwise buy a domain and use the WordPress software). And seeing the reaction to some of the “police” to a simple admission of linking to outside sources of income just cemented that for me.
Contrary to what someone in that forum professed, that will never be a central hub for all WordPress users. Not with that kind of attitude.
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