Howdy!
Just to clarify - I am absolutely not going to run ads or “monetize” the forum.
(holy crap that post was from back in 2015…)
So we won’t run adsense or any such nonsense. As this is my primary hobby I’ll keep the lights on even without any support (which we’ve been extremely fortunate to have from various people over the years). If I have to stop enjoying cigars then so be it. 
On that note, I guess I should clarify some of my opinions.
-
I am not sure what to do with affiliate links yet. I don’t think users should generally post them and I’m not quite sure if it should be ok for the forum to use them. On one hand it would be nice to have the occasional kickback through something like an amazon affiliate link, but I’d really want to community to know and be ok with it first.
-
I actually don’t mind if people find a good deal on something and want to share it where appropriate and in moderation. For instance, I don’t mind it here in this thread where it’s pretty clearly labeled and people aren’t forced to seeing it in the normal flow of their other interactions. If someone doesn’t want to see it they can avoid this topic.
It’s a different matter if it pops up in other threads where it may not have been explicitly requested. I feel like that could be annoying and should be frowned upon.
-
Software “deals” - I’m not quite sure where I fall on this yet personally. I get that many folks might use some sort of proprietary link in their tools. At the same time, companies that charge for software surely have a marketing budget of their own?
I generally view this as a good thing, by the way. I think it indicates that we are reaching a larger audience then strictly FOSS users which hopefully means we are starting to raise awareness more to people that might not have otherwise participated here or considered FOSS options.
It’s a balancing act to welcome and encourage these users while not spamming the forum. (All while continuously nudging them towards FOSS tools and philosophy…)