If you visit IGN or other sites, like Airlock Alpha, you’ll note the use of such ads “in-line” with the text. The links are highlighted in a different color (an orange), rather than the yellow or red links of the default style sheet.

Undoubtedly, some of you might find them annoying. Sadly, I find them necessary in order to further secure the Wiki’s financial health for the interim.

For right now, the Kontera service is merely being tested. We don’t know what to expect in terms of revenue from this service, and will not probably know for a few months. If we run across any problems, we’ll shelve it.

Should you find them annoying, I do recommend buying a membership to the wiki (and to our Battlestar Forum). It’s all done through PayPal, so we don’t receive any of your financial information—just whatever money you choose to donate to us. By donating, you’ll be added as a member, and when logged in you will not be bothered with any advertisements! Once you’ve donated, make sure to e-mail webmaster@battlestarwiki.org with your user name on either (or both) the Wiki and our Forums, so we know who to apply the membership to on our end.

Thanks for your understanding, all! Feel free to comment here on the blog, via e-mail, or via the Fourm. I won’t throw you in hack.

I’ll go over the more common ones:

1. Will there be a “Caprica Wiki”?

Yes and no. While we have gone ahead and registered all the .org, .net, and .com domains for “capricawiki,” we will have those redirect to the battlestarwiki.org website. The Battlestar Wiki will encompass the entire universe of every iteration of BSG out there—the original, its 1980 spinoff, the re-imagined series, and Caprica—and the site will remain “Battlestar Wiki” in both name and function, since Caprica itself is in the universe of BSG.

While we could create a separate wiki dedicated solely to Caprica, this is unrealistic as this causes unnecessary compartmentalization and fragmentation of the user base. It is ultimately far more effective and worthwhile to keep everything on one site.

The same goes for the Battlestar Forum, which serves to encompass discussion of every version of BSG and its related spin-offs.

2. How long will you guys be around?

As long as there are humans around.

Realistically, we will be around as long as we can. Our resources are not infinite and we cannot hope to logically sustain two servers as their current level without new blood. While Caprica is on the horizon for 2010, and The Plan will air later this year, we will be around as long as the resources are available to upkeep the site. We are looking at downsizing our operations, assuming that we cannot find other sites to host to financially sustain having two servers. Times are tough and, despite the various streams of revenue we’ve received from ads, affiliate links and the memberships, the money still ultimately comes out of my pocket.

Therefore, if you have a well-trafficed website that you would like to find a new host for, feel free to drop me a mail at:

joe(at)frakmedia(dot)net

Having just said that, we do have sites that are interested in being hosted by FrakMedia!, which is the name of the “company” that we’ve assembled here. (We’re not really a company in the legal sense, hence the quotes.) We’ll have at least one or two announcements on that coming this June! Look for it!

3. Now that BSG is over, what new content can we expect to see on the website?

You can expect to see an increased emphasis on information from the BSG comics, novels, memorabilia—and even props that were auctioned off since the beginning of 2009.

Further, there is also Caprica and The Plan to consider as well. Yes, it seems like there won’t be much new information from the show itself, but there’s a ton of stuff that will still be documented by the hard working contributors who have made Battlestar Wiki possible.

Not to mention all the other languages that the Wiki can be translated into. German, Spanish, French… Exciting!

So that’s all for now! Take care!

Oh, and also, we now have a Twitter feed as well that I (and possibly other contributors) will be updating periodically. Follow us here.

There’s a brief error in the article that I’d like to correct, and it concerns how much FanLib actually pays us. While I’m not going into the exact numbers here, they essentially pay 1/6th of our hosting and technical costs per month. They don’t flip the whole bill.

To get your copy before they get sold out, we dearly recommend that you order it through Amazon.com! Today! This very second, even!

Hell, if you’re new to the series, start yourself on the right path to [[Earth (RDM)|Earth]] and check our our Amazon.com store for all the seasons!

Until December 31, 2007, Battlestar Wiki is offering an exclusive deal for those who buy Amazon’s Kindle through us. In exchange for buying it through our Amazon.com Associates Store or through this link, you will be able to get a four-year subscription to Battlestar Wiki and Battlestar Forum for free. This only works for US residents right now, however. We hope that Amazon.com extends this offer to other countries in the immediate future.

Now what does a subscription mean?

Bascially, you’ll have to sign up for an account on either or both any of the Battlestar Wikis and on our Battlestar Forum. By doing so, you’ll get the opportunity to have your accounts upgraded to a paid membership/sponsor status, which allows you to surf our websites without advertisements, when logged in via your user name.

In addition, we are finalizing plans to offer a monthly drawing for our paid members, as a token of appreciating for your support of our websites. This drawing will consist of a Battelstar Galactica product (CD, DVD, or a gift card to an online retailer of your choice for a pre-determined amount, which will be revealed each month) and a second-prize drawing of a one-year’s extension to your Battlestar Wiki membership.

To qualify, you need to click on one of the above Amazon links and order the Kindle. Once done, you need to send an e-mail to me (Joe Beaudoin) telling me that you’ve ordered the product, preferably with the order confirmation e-mail so I can verify it through Amazon.com. (Please be sure to remove the shipping and billing address from the e-mail, since I don’t need that information.) Do also tell me what your username is on both the Battlestar Wiki and Battlestar Forum, so that I can make the proper upgrades once your order has been confirmed via Amazon.com.

Should you have any questions, please let me know via e-mail or (if they are general and not of a personal nature) via this blog post.

So if there are companies wanting to advertise or sponsor us, you’ll have to contact Joe Beaudoin directly.

Basically, this means that for $10 a year (yes, year; less than $1 a month) users will be able to get to surf Battlestar Wiki without seeing ads. Non paying members will not have to fear: they’ll still be able to access all the content on the Wiki, just with ads.

We’ve just rolled this out and more details are up at [[BW:MEMBERSHIP|the English Battlestar Wiki]].

Of course, any questions can be directed either here at the blog, on the Wiki, or in our Battlestar Forum!

FanLib, Inc. delivers People Powered Entertainmentâ„¢ in the form of online storytelling and fun, online events for entertainment fans. At FanLib.com, we provide a free service for people who want to showcase their stories, discover great writers, and share their passions with other fans. We also partner with media companies, publishers, and sponsors to create special events where fans can interact with the talent behind some of their favorite books, TV shows, and movies.

We are pleased to help promote them in return for their willingness to help us cover our monthly server costs! Do check them out, read stories about Battlestar Galactica and other fine television shows written by the fans, for the fans!

If you wish to promote your website or service on Battlestar Wiki and help us financially in the process, please contact me and we can work something out!

So say we all!

As you may know, we began putting up advertisements on the site to offset hosting and technical costs more than a year ago. In addition to commissions from sales done through our portal at Amazon.com and other fine retailers, we’ve recouped about half our hosting costs per month. And that’s if we’re lucky.

It has always been my personal goal to get the Wiki to a point of self-sufficiency, whereby it doesn’t have to depend on me or anyone else for funding.

I believe that paid memberships are the way to do that.

Basically, it goes like this:

A person pays $10 dollars via Paypal or Amazon’s Honor system. That person sends along their username on the Wiki.

Once payment has been confirmed, the user gets moved to the “paying member”/VIP user level, which allows the Wiki Software to automatically remove the ads before they are even shown. (This only works when the member is logged in, obviously.) This also works for a year, so once the year is up, the VIP access is taken away unless they pay up again an additional $10.

The outline of everything is [[BW:MEMBERSHIP|here]].

Do note that none of this is active yet, but if you want to donate anyway, simply click on the Amazon donation link on the left sidebar. It’s not hard to miss.

Obviously, feedback is welcome. You can leave feedback at our Battlestar Forum, [[BW:CN|the wiki]], or as a response to this blog.

Check it out here.

We’re still looking to add YOUR top 10 picks, so please feel free to post them as a response to this blog or at the Battlestar Forum!