Looking Forward, Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7: The Future of Watchers on the Wall

17 Wall - Eastwatch 7x05 (1)

“Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”

Here at the Wall, we are more than a small man. We are a small team… a devoted team made up of journalists and writers and professionals and village idiots that genuinely put the interests of our supporters (you) above all else. Most importantly we are fans just like you, dedicated to bringing you the best coverage of our obsession(s) while protecting the realms of fandoms.

Thanks to the resiliency of our team and our enthusiastic loyal band of readers, our very small corner of internet ice and rock has cast a very large shadow. But as we always do in Looking Forward, we must look to the future. For the long night is upon us, the internet landscape is changing, and the endgame is now clearly in sight.

We request your presence to discuss the future of your favorite GoT site and to ask you, our loyal supporters, for a very small favor…


SueHistory

For those of you who do not know the backstory of how this site was contrived, well, I won’t bore you with the details. Nor do I want to beat the dead horse. It’s a long, drawn out story in which the ink is dry (and is best told in person anyway, over ale and snack mix).

script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js">

 

AxeWhat I will tell you is that the foundation of which the founders (Sue, Axey, Marko and yours truly) focused on was centered primarily on the priorities of you, the reader. Those priorities were largely based on preserving a positive reader experience (i.e., not having to watch unwanted autoplay videos, or deal with clickbait, or pop-up ads, or intro screens inviting you to play cyber slots or find a nice woman from overseas from which to settle down with).

 

MarkoAdmittedly, at times these things have crept in (much to our surprise) since none of our ad spaces are formatted for video. And besides that, they’re not approved.  But once we are made aware of them, we do everything in our immediate power to have them extinguished.

 

Present

In case you haven’t noticed, over the past couple of years the internet has changed tremendously and continues to evolve as you read this.

The trend is video advertising.  Everywhere.

This is not a knock on video content itself. In fact, we are in discussion on creating more video content right now. And we have multitudes of video content producers that we partner with and help promote.

This convo relates strictly to video advertising because apparently, it makes A LOT more money.

Here’s a stat for you that if you surf regularly, won’t surprise you.

  • Consumers are over 27 times more likely to click on an online video ad than a standard banner ad.

If you go to any large corporate-owned website right now, odds are favorable that you are going run into video advertisements either within the story, or in the sidebar, or on the landing page, or all of the above. Many of them give you no choice but to watch in its entirety. And as a result of this trend, display advertising is taking a huge hit when it comes to revenue.

707 - King's Landing - Cersei, Jaime 2

“Oz, I came here for Game of Thrones news and discussion. So, forgive me for asking, but why the hell do I care?”

If you love our site (or at least some of it), here is why…

Our biggest promise to you when we jumped ship from Old Nan was to never inundate you with shit that you didn’t want, or bait you into clicking on hair growth formula, or make you sit through a commercial before you got to the content. And believe us when we tell you, our decision to uphold that promise does not stem from a lack of opportunity.

Every day, we are swamped with advertisers that want to work with us and implement those things that we swore to protect you from. The promise of doubling or tripling or quadrupling our revenue is incredibly tempting if for no other reason than to be able to provide more content and prizes for you lovely people.

Jon-and-Sam

However, we made a promise to you. A sacred vow. And the Watchers on the Wall are NOT oathbreakers. We are oathkeepers.

We shall wear no crowns and win no glory. We shall live and die at our posts. We are the sword in the advertising darkness. We are the watchers on the wall. We are the shield that guards the realms of women and men of the fandom. We pledge our life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

This is our vow. It is known.

But we also have to be realistic. WotW has grown exponentially over the past two years which has brought expenses and taxes and upgraded servers and unexpected bills.  You may not be aware of this, but our contributors are volunteers, doing what they do simply for the love of the show and the interaction with you, or loyal supporters.

And hell, it’d be nice to give them a little something for their efforts more often.

Tyrion gif

So here is what we would like to do:

Instead of breaking our vow to you and start hurling “grow your penis 5 inches in a week” video ads, we’d like to ask you for a monthly gift. Anything you can do would be more than we have right now and will guarantee our servitude to you for years to come.

If half of our readers pledged the cost of one drink at Starbucks per month, we would be able to do so much more for our writers, the fandom, and for you, the reader.

Here’s what you can do:

  • Pick an option below and click the “subscribe” button or go to our Support the Wall page, find the “subscribe” button and pick an option. Anything is appreciated.
  • If you use an ad-blocker, greenlight us. Every little bit helps and if you ever see any intrusive ads, let us know and we will take care of it
  • Encourage your friends and fellow fans to do the same and to support and join our community.

Help Support the Wall and keep ads to a minimum!



In order to make this community ideal last, we need your help. If you’ve ever considered giving to a cause that stood for your values as a fan and that stood up for our fandom, then consider us. There is power in numbers, and together we can establish and maintain anything we feel passionate about.

707 - The Dragon and the Wolf - Dragonpit 3

Back to the Future

As to the future of Watchers on the Wall after the conclusion of Game of Thrones, your guess is as good as mine. Here is what we know..

  1. There will be spinoffs. Game of Thrones has been too successful for HBO to just to let Planetos go. And if there is something that relates to it, or ASOIAF, or anything Game of Thrones, we will be here so long as you guys keep visiting.
  1. We will expand to include other interests. We have already begun with Westworld Watchers. If you were unaware, go follow now… even if you haven’t watched it. We have no way of knowing if Westworld will succeed or thrive or survive, but it definitely has shown promise of longevity and facilitating theory and discussion.
  1. We’ve still got one more season! Who knows when that will air. In the meantime, we will continue to be your most trusted source for GoT. So, hang out… we have more fun in the off-season anyway.

That’s it for me today, Ladies and Sers. A man sincerely thanks you all for your time and consideration.

A man will see you Monday morning for the final Unsullied Recap of Season 7. It’s hard to believe that it’s already here.

Invite someone to the Wall. And may there always be peace in your realm.

-Oz

Follow Oz on Twitter

66 Comments

  1. You guys do amazing work. Because of that, I have absolutely no problem with donating to a worthy cause. Thank you to all who make this site one of the best places to talk about ASOIAF.

  2. Can you guys add a single payment option too? I am a University student and I cannot pledge to do monthly donations as I am currently not working anymore. However, if I could help, I would like to make a single donation. I am sure there are others who would make single donations too, or would like to see that option.

    Thank you for all your hard work and service to the GOT community. The only GOT website I trust to warn me about spoilers in the post before clicking on the post (below the cut). Once spoilers start to surface online, this is always my only go to website regarding GOT/ASOIAF.

  3. Hey Oz – does this also support Game of Owns during the season and off season for the book reading episodes?

  4. Oz:
    1. I’d be happy to contribute.
    However, I don’t use online payment methods. (“Internet security” is an oxymoron. I proceed on the assumption that anything transmitted online is automatically copied to Vlad’s Bot Army.)
    Do you have an address to which I can mail checks?

    2. When I first skimmed through your article and saw “village idiots”, my first thought was “oh, he’s referring to me” 😃

    3. Are there really “grow your penis 5 inches in a week video ads”? I guess they could do product placement by attaching them to clips of Jon’s post-resurrection scene when Tormund playfully mocks the size of Jon’s pecker.

    4. I have no doubt that video ads are effective and enhance revenue. But I’ll also say that they make mobile phones crash and freeze, and speaking for myself, I have a strict rule that I will NOT buy whatever’s being advertised in an unwanted pop up or video ad. If you had to resort to such ads to maintain quality, I’d understand. But I’d rather pay NOT to see them.

    Anyway, please let me know if there’s a way to mail $.

  5. Ten Bears,

    😂😂😂 Me too!! I would also like to mail my money in if possible! Not so trusting of internet payments! I didn’t know this site was mostly volunteers and am so appreciative of all the extra time everyone puts into making this the BEST GoT site!! I’m sure all your followers know what needs to be done to keep WotW on the internet and make it such a great site and will support your needs! I certainly will be happy to do so for now and for the future of WotW!! Thanks Oz, you managed to make what I’m sure was a difficult task for you, enjoyable as are all your “Looking Forwards”!!

  6. Mustafa. S.,

    Paypal’s rules are somewhat complicated for us as a website, but what it comes down to is, no we can’t do single payments, unfortunately. What you can do is set up the payment like we mention above- and then cancel it after one. It’s fairly easy to do on Paypal.

    onefromaway,

    Game of Owns is our partner podcast, and is run separately from Watchers on the Wall. They have their own Patreon that’s unconnected to our site.

  7. Over the last three years, I’ve become a real fan of WotW… Though I don’t often respond to the many fine posts herein, I do review them almost every day.

    Happy to contribute! Keep up the good work!

  8. Done! Watchers on the Wall is by far the best Game of Thrones website out there, whether the show is airing new episodes or not. Everyone involved – staff, contributors, and regular commenters – has helped to create something unique that’s provided me with endless source of entertainment, information, insight, and engagement over the past three years. I’m more than happy to make a monthly contribution as some small token of gratitude, and to help preserve what makes this place so special. It won’t be a lot right now, but hopefully I’ll be able to give more in the future! I’d certainly like to. 🙂

  9. Jeez guys, why didn’t you just spit it out? I spent a good few minutes thinking please god, don’t let these guys jump on the corporate bandwagon too! I don’t need hair replacement therapy yet. As for an extra five inches. Well that’d be a tad excessive 😂

    Happy to pay a few bucks for a great service. But what does that mean? Will the site only be open to subscribers? I’m not opposed to that.. as it might eliminate a lot of the trolls, but would be good to get some clarity. Subscription done. 😊

  10. I’ve been enjoying this site from the beginning, lurking at first and now plunging in and splashing about. Happy to be a subscriber!

  11. You people make me proud to love this franchise. You always have. I might not say much, but believe you me, I appreciate your dedication to quality coverage with decent standards. As far as I’m concerned, my monthly expenses just went up a bit, and for a damn good cause. I don’t have much — most of my income is from a food service job — but I’ll part with what I can. It’s the least I can do.

    If any of y’all are ever in Durham, North Carolina, swing by Foster’s Market. Your ale is on me.

  12. Shout out to WiC Phil, who started this all.

    This site has always let me be me. Sue will always be a pirate. Kenny will always have my heart.

  13. Can’t do without Oz when GoT is running! Are you being practical when there are such long gaps between seasons? Can you get behind some kinds of interesting, useful purveyors to take pressure off the site? What about funding periods like PBS? Please don’t shut down, you are the best!

  14. Yeah, I saw this coming when I read “We request your presence to discuss the future of your favorite GoT site and to ask you, our loyal supporters, for a very small favor…” Don’t get me wrong Im not surprised and don’t blame you a bit for this. You run a remarkable site here, one that I honestly haven’t seen the like of, esp one w/o ads. And like another poster, I do not click on any pop up or similar ad. So I am willing to pay to help you guys out. But (yes I know everything before but is shit but hear me out) –

    Over the years my DH and I have settled on supporting certain causes and groups near and dear to our hearts and lately have done the amount per month since we know how much that helps. However we are working on two teacher salary, and our money can only go so far. I really cannot at this point commit to a regular schedule of payments. What I can do is give you a decent sized donation, perhaps once a year. It would be great if we could do this via paypal, or we can write a check and send it. Just let me know your snail mail info

    And I am glad to hear that this is not a subscription. I just fear that it will at some point. But we’ll cross that bridge when it happens I suppose, hopefully this site can last at least as long as GOT does.

  15. Even though I mostly lurk here (simply because by the time I’ve read all the comments, someone else will have said exactly what I wanted to say, and that’s not a bad thing at all!), this site has become an invaluable GOT resource for me. I visit it several times a day (OK Rodent, be honest, in the on-season it’s often more like several times an hour. :-p).
    I think y’all are doing a great job and command you for going the ad-free route. I hate my phone freezing up and crashing, and a site with several autoplay videos would inevitably lead to that.
    I’ll be happy to set up a small donation once I’ve informed my other half (who’s late at work tonight).

  16. ash,

    um ok I am a bit embarrassed that I didn’t see the amounts you listed. If that honestly helps you, we could do it monthly, and we can do it through paypal.

  17. “Consumers are over 27 times more likely to click on an online video ad than a standard banner ad.”

    That’s because I am trying to make it go away or shut up. I cannot express the depths of my contempt for video ads, but let me try: I hate video ads infinitely more than regular ads, and I hate regular ads so much that if one were advertising the cure for the cancer I was dying of, I still would not click on it. There is absolutely nothing legal or moral you can do to convince me to click on an ad intentionally.

    Rant over. Looking forward to the wall being breached, valonqar and CleganeBowl this week. And I hope to God Ayra has been playing some deep game with LittleFinger, because she has been utterly insufferable lately.

  18. Done. Happy to help however (little) I can. Always been a fan of you guys, though I do admit Sue is my personal favorite due to her love of Jorah’s yellow shirt (RIP) and sharp twitter wit. By far the best GOT website out there.

  19. Just subscribed. Happy to do so! Thanks WotW for a great experience year round. I love seeing the filming photos during the very long night wait for next season. You have talented journalists who post your articles. The articles and discussions are always interesting, and I found myself getting more courage to respond to posts this year.

    Regarding ads, I have to say that the site has slowed down this year because of the number of ads, and I started using ad blocker recently, which has made things load much more quickly. I understand this is an issue for you now, so I will turn it off on your site so you get more revenue. I hope that you can switch to more of a subscriber model and not have to show as many ads. I already have some of your WotW gear, but it’s a good marketing enticement to give away some free gear or discounts on Gear with certain levels of membership. I wore the contest winner’s design t-shirt today! getting in the mood for Sunday. I have to say that the increase in leaks has really hurt me. I enjoy getting inside information from your site, but I never felt that they were leaks, because we were all still guessing what would happen. I enjoy guessing. I enjoy getting every tidbit, but I really didn’t want to read the actual script! I stayed away from most of the leaks, and WotW handles the leaks well by using the grayed out boxes and having a quarantined forum for people that want to discuss them. Other sites I’ve visited haven’t done nearly as well and spoils (pardon the pun) the experience for me.

  20. My favorite thing about this site’s crazy origin story is that all the drama leading up to it literally culminated in an Internet brawl involving a tacky cocktail named after Tyrion.

    No, really.

    Ah, those were the days! If only the Old Nan overlords hadn’t scrubbed all those comments. I’d get a kick out of reading them now.

  21. Finances are a bit tight. I am expecting some light at the end of what has been a very long dark tunnel so NPR and you are on my list of worthy causes I can skip a latte for once the ship comes in. And, seriously, thank you for the great work.

    I do have a suggestion: why not identify advertisers who may be willing to work some adjustments in light of the commitment level and desirability of this community as consumers. I was a bit disheartened when NPR and PBS finally gave in to advertising, but it can be done tastefully particularly if the target population expects something other than “hey little girl, want to see something interesting?”

  22. How odd… I was just thinking about this yesterday- what will happen to this site once the show is over. I have been checking it almost daily for the past 3 years and was feeling sad about the thought of it dying out, but also was feeling sad for the intelligent writers/contributors too. This site is a comfort to me- even the commenters/fans are (mostly) on the same page as I am re: this story- with the same level of passion and are also not idiots (I’m lookin’ at you, Reddit). I’ll gladly contribute! 🙂

    I hope WW continues to be a success so you guys get more traffic over on that site!

  23. So I don’t use an AdBlocker, but rather uMatrix, which blocks everything that isn’t served from the URL you’re visiting. This includes ads, but with the way websites work these days, sometimes it’s the entire website. It requires me to piecemeal allow certain domains per URL so the sites will work, but I prefer very fine-grained control over what makes it to my browser. Typically, when I see some appeal or splash page saying please whitelist or browse elsewhere, I browse elsewhere. Just about every text-content information site out there is reposting the same six or seven articles daily, or in Game of Thrones’ case, ripping off fan theories from Reddit, so cry me a river if you can’t stay alive doing that.

    You guys really are the exception. Not only original content, but honest to God honesty. I trust you like no other source on anything. That said, I’m still a bit reluctant, because when I browse this site at work, where I have no power to install browser extensions or block ads, the site takes five minutes to load and crashes the browser completely at least half the time. That’s on Internet Explorer 11, which obviously I don’t use at home, but still, I encourage you to try and reproduce the problem and see if you can figure out what is causing it.

    In principle, I’d gladly just directly pay you, but PayPal does present some friction. Not because I have any issue with Internet payments like the others, but because I had a PayPal account set up over a decade ago and can’t seem to recover it because they have an old phone number on record for me and apparently calling or texting that number is the only way they’ll recover it. I’m not sure I want to set up a second account just to pay one entity. Even when someone was trying to pay me a week ago and would only do it via PayPal, I just opted to not receive the payment instead.

  24. Adam,

    I have the same problem with intermittent crashing, freezing and reloading. It seems to worsen with certain types of locally-geared ads, and goes away several hours later when a new advertiser’s ads appear. During “dodgy” periods, typed text gets zapped or the keyboard slows to a crawl.

    I’m not “whinging,” Just emphasizing that I’d gladly pay to make ads go away – and to support the site in any event.

  25. Jeez guys, as I was reading I thought the damned post was leading up to you giving a story as to why you were disbanding the site, or something like that. Talk about near heart failure. You help make the off-season fly by. I’ve said that a dozen times. You have all done an amazing job, and if some contributions help make your devotion easier, then you deserve the help. Yep, subscription done. Carry on.

  26. Not sure if you can use it on the scale you would need, but I personally use Venmo to send money. The user gets 100% of their money as Venmo doesn’t charge a fee. Just thought I’d throw that out there. I’m sure you’re aware of it, but just in case you aren’t…

    I’ll be subscribing this week. Your site has brought me happiness and joy over the past few years; I can’t think of a better way to spend my money.

  27. Done. I love this site, and it’s getting more and more unique in its focus on content over marketing. Just out of curiosity, is there a reason there is no 1-USD-option? That’s usually where the Patreons start, and it might be easier to come up with for students and other financially challenged fans.

    Will this also mean more overseas prizes? I know, shipping is a bitch, but it would probably be nice for a great percentage of your fans not to get excited and then to realize that, oh, it’s just for Americans again. Maybe there are some overseas partners you could work with? In case this pans out, of course.

  28. Are there any hints that are more than speculation as to when season 8 will start? I know, it’s possibly going to be 2019, but is there anything more concrete than that?

  29. Of course!

    THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!!

    I adore this sight, and sometimes I consider I am more obsessed with it than the actual show…I visit it multiple times a day. I lead a sad life, haha. Just talking to fans is so incredible for me, as I can’t talk about it to anybody else (I live in the middle of freaking nowhere in the Land Down Under).

    Despite me reading every post and mostly every comment, I rarely comment myself, and when I do it is usually asking a question everyone already knows the answer to and I just haven’t gotten the memo. However, it is answered detailed and graciously every time.

    Anything for this sight xx

  30. Hm – being overseas, I’ll have to think about how this would work. However, what I’m mostly concerned about is greenlighting this site on the ad blocker.

    I didn’t use an ad blocker until very recently. I mostly use Safari, but it was being slow to load this site so I switched to Firefox for WoW. Then last week or thenabouts problems arose with a very annoying ad coming up on this site – British readers will know it – ‘Go Compare‘ – which kept repeating its exceptionally irritating song, and each time the ad started it sent me right back to the beginning of the page. That was about every 30 secs, so I couldn’t read the pages.

    Hence the ad blocker, since when there have been no problems and I can now read the articles and comments properly again, and enjoy the site. But if I disable the ad blocker, can I avoid that ad?

    As it’s a UK ad, it must be coming through something that recognises geographic area, so it may be that you, though wonderful people, don’t have control over what comes up in an ad space for us overseas folks…

  31. Supported.
    I don’t read or post much anymore since I’ve wanted to stay unspoiled the last two seasons and haven’t had much time, but I’d gladly help you continue being awesome.

    I’d love it if you started covering The Expanse somewhere. Doesn’t have to be a dedicated site, but it might be a good idea to have a site that covers a number of different (genre) shows.

  32. Dear Oz, et al.:

    Instead of monthly installments, I’d like to send a lump sum for the year up front. (I can mail a check, cash, or cool-looking postage stamps.)

    Can we make that happen ?

  33. You guys deserve to get paid for the job you do (and for putting up with me). People aren’t going to die if you put up a couple of video ads. Stop being so nice and get that $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

  34. Starbucks is not so great anyway, imho. I would rather drink in the awesomeness of this site! It may not be much but I would be glad to contribute!

    Happy season finale day guys! 🙂

  35. Hey guys! I really appreciate what you guys do with this site, and Im very sad to hear you are being pushed by the ads. So, for all the good content I’ve read in here in the past 2 years, I’ll gladly help! I’m from Brazil, but I think thats no problem for internet banking. Count on me! Love you all, and I wish you good fortune on the wars to come. Brazil sends its regards! <3

  36. I only found this site after season 6 and it’s become a must-visit-daily for me ever since. Thank you for all you do to make this place what it is. I don’t know what I would’ve done during the long wait between seasons (probably would’ve driven everyone around me nuts!).

    So, it’s option 5 from me. You’re all I have in this ASofIaF world. I need you to keep going.

    Again, thank you.

  37. Hey Watchers! Thank you for all you do… I know there’s a lot of behidn the scenes work that goes in to running a website and you guys are saints for dealing with that so we dont’ have to (most of the time)

    A couple things… First off I never use adblock and I do try to click something interesting once in awhile to make sure you get the click revenue you deserve (I’m also hoping by doing this that I will start to get more relevant advertising). However, one issue is that there is something in the site that absolutely wreaks havoc with Safari on my iPhone. Like, it literally takes minutes to load the page, and then it resets randomly every 3-4 minutes (“an error occurred and the site had to be reloaded”). I was trying to post a comment in on my phone and it took literally 10 tries (each time it was deleting my entire comment so I had to copy it every time I added a word to make sure I could continue where I left off). I feel like it’s not just traffic but it must be something in the ads because it didn’t use to be so bad. Is there maybe a “mobile version” of the ads that you could use? It’s gotten so bad I’ve considered using adblock on my phone only but I really dont’ want to do that.

    Also there have been a lot more video ads lately even though I know you guys are trying to prevent it. I hope at least when one gets through that you get paid more in some way, given you’re probably being paid less for (supposedly) not having video ads. I personally don’t mind video ads either, as long as they don’t mess up the site and don’t pop up in front of what I’m trying to read but maybe I’m in the minority on that.

    One other thing – is it possible for you guys to do more content-targeted ads, or get corporate sponsors rather than random ad providers? I listen to a ton of podcasts and those are generally the types of ads I actually don’t mind hearing/reading about.

    Thanks again! – QoT

  38. Sue the Fury,
    Hey Sue,

    If paypal subscriptions can’t take lump sums, do you think you guys could have an item in your STORE that would basically cost you nothing, but we could donate (pay) a lump amount for it?

    So like instead of buying a T-shirt I don’t need for 20 bucks, I could buy a sticker that says I donated $20 to the site? Or for $100 I get a WotW tote like NPR? :p

  39. I’d buy an app if that helps you out. I’d even pay a monthly fee for the app.

  40. *Enter clicked* Subscribed with pleasure! 🙂

    Lately I’ve almost felt like one of Melisandre’s leeches and is amazed you’ve gone this long without “getting paid”. It goes to show your honest commitment to your oaths and compassion for the best community available! I truly hope all of you are able to feel the gratitude from all of us enjoying your great work – and especially hope this will be mirrored in a lot of loyal subscribers over the next few days and weeks.

    Btw. If you should ever consider it in the future:
    I don’t think you should be afraid of making WotW (maybe just partially) closed to subscribers in the future, if a troll-ish problem should increase… I bet it could even be as low as a nickel a month, as I’m confident trolls will never pay a single cent to be able to continue their low-life enterprise!

  41. QueenofThrones:
    Sue the Fury,
    Hey Sue,

    If paypal subscriptions can’t take lump sums, do you think you guys could have an item in your STORE that would basically cost you nothing, but we could donate (pay) a lump amount for it?

    So like instead of buying a T-shirt I don’t need for 20 bucks, I could buy a sticker that says I donated $20 to the site?Or for $100 I get a WotW tote like NPR?:p

    Interesting idea QoT! Or a fridge magnet image of the wall (or something) that says “I am a watcher on the wall.” Sue, you all could do another contest for someone to design the said “donation item(s).” And a poll of what we would want, i.e. tote bag, fridge magnet, pens, etc. I can appreciate that you all have probably thought about all the variables, including the legal and tax consequences of whatever you do, but we fans like to share our ideas :)! So, one more, what about an annual GoFundMe type of a drive in addition to the regular monthly subscription? I understand the monthly stuff gives you all a better idea of what you can budget for regular expenses but an annual drive might help pay for an expansion or special project.

    Question for anyone who can answer – I am not that familiar with all this ad stuff on websites (other than I don’t interact with it). Is it correct that if I click on an ad, it generates revenue for this site? From time to time I’ll see ads for a company or product I am very familiar with and would gladly click on it if that helps the site. But if I don’t know it, I would not. So, is that the deal -> click =$$$$? Thanks, I am so behind the times!

  42. onefromaway,

    Yes indeed! Click the ads and you will help Watchers. Do Eeet!

    I too am not exactly sure what the formula is but I do believe the amount they get is based first and foremost on the number of clicks.

  43. QueenofThrones:
    onefromaway,

    Yes indeed!Click the ads and you will help Watchers.Do Eeet!

    I too am not exactly sure what the formula is but I do believe the amount they get is based first and foremost on the number of clicks.

    Will do! Thanks! One learns so much on this website!!

  44. onefromaway: From time to time I’ll see ads for a company or product I am very familiar with and would gladly click on it if that helps the site. But if I don’t know it, I would not. So, is that the deal -> click =$$$$? Thanks, I am so behind the times!

    Yes, and I’ve gladly done that too, quite a few times. BUT unless I know that the dreadful ad I referred to earlier isn’t featured, I’ll need to keep the ad blocker in place.

  45. Subscribed! I don’t like the idea on monthly subscription (too open-ended a commitment ^_^). Echo in the idea on one-time payment.

  46. Dead Dane Walking,

    Btw. If you should ever consider it in the future:
    I don’t think you should be afraid of making WotW (maybe just partially) closed to subscribers in the future, if a troll-ish problem should increase… I bet it could even be as low as a nickel a month, as I’m confident trolls will never pay a single cent to be able to continue their low-life enterprise!

    I really hope they don’t go this direction. We have many here on limited income and we’d lose their voices. Besides being able to pay a subscription has nothing to do with being a troll. Just sayin

  47. Happy to contribute to a one off payment. I am in the UK and have used this website for the past 3 years, it is the best around. Keep up the good work.

  48. I did turn off ad blocker, but the site became very difficult to navigate for me. My experience was that I was reading someone’s comment, and then the screen scrolled back up to the top by itself to view a video ad. If I load the site on my phone without an ad blocker it drains my battery quickly because of whatever the ads are pulling. It constantly loads and updates from what I see at the bottom of the browser. I honestly don’t mind ads, but if it interrupts the user experience too much, it makes it very difficult to use the website.

    I did subscribe. I’m happy to pay to keep the site running. Once suggestion would be premium content for subscribers. Attract visitors with free posts on pages with ads and then have a premium area where subscribers have additional posts for premium subscribers only which would be ad free.

  49. Love you guys! All the thanks for keeping your vows! It’s much appreciated by the readership! I don’t post much anymore but I still read everything (eventually, when scheduling allows)! I contribute to a lot of my favorite GoT/ASOIAF related things via Patreon (such as Game of Owns and AltShiftX)- did you guys consider making a Patreon account? I like the interface and it allows you to adjust month contributions easily as finances allow. I’ve had problems with PayPal in the past and am a bit gun shy after my account got hacked.. Patreon instead?? Just a suggestion!

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