OperationFabulous and 1400 BTC Bounty by NoAgendaMarket

[BioMike]

yes, but to keep track of approves you need some sort of account system.

[BioMike]

I've been thinking about how to implement a semi-account-less system and started working on it.

Most db's are in place, initial code for submitting and updating info to the ads database is in place.

The advertiser will go to a website, uploads his ad and an url to link to and gets a bitcoin address.
Then he has 1 day to transfer the bitcoins to that address and the ad becomes active until all bitcoins
are used up. Then the ad is removed.

For the publisher it will be going to look something like this (the line he needs to add to his site to display the ads):

Code:

<a href="somesite.com/link_script.php?btc=bitcoin_address"><img src="somesite.com/script.php?btc=bitcoin_address"></a>

somesite.com is the domain where the "Advertising Clearinghouse" will be placed.

bitcoin_address will be the address of the site owner/publisher, where the earned bitcoins are send to. For every view of the ad the publisher gets some bitcoins. If the visitor clicks on the link, the publisher gets even more bitcoins. I know that this is sensitive for click fraud, but the only place to target that is in the script itself.

The publisher will be able to register his address through the script, to have some control over the ads displayed with that address (the control needs to be done on the clearinghouse website).

[kiba]

So, how the advertisers are going to bid, semi-accountless?

[BioMike]

So, how the advertisers are going to bid, semi-accountless?

Not. I thought you didn't bother about that with the account-less system.

<edit>
To clarify a bit:

For bidding to work you need to track the actions of the bidder and you want that
the bidder is always the person who submitted the advertisement, so you need an
account for that. If you have idea's how to implement that without accounts, I would
love to hear your idea.

Let me know what you want, because I seem to be guessing every time what to do next
and if I'm doing it right. Last thing that I want is wasting time on things that nobody wants.
</edit>

[kiba]

So, how the advertisers are going to bid, semi-accountless?

Not. I thought you didn't bother about that with the account-less system.

<edit>
To clarify a bit:

For bidding to work you need to track the actions of the bidder and you want that
the bidder is always the person who submitted the advertisement, so you need an
account for that. If you have idea's how to implement that without accounts, I would
love to hear your idea.

Let me know what you want, because I seem to be guessing every time what to do next
and if I'm doing it right. Last thing that I want is wasting time on things that nobody wants.
</edit>

Offer him some kind of code to access his bidding page. Though I think you have to make sure the traffic is encrypted lest you get people eavesdropped on ad.

[BioMike]

Encryption (SSL/TLS) works on a different level, that's relative easy to setup.

The "kind of code" you mention would boil down to create an accounting system.
I think I'll continue with my initial code (and maybe put something like openID in later),
that's more straight forward to code.

[kiba]

If you have the basic system going, I suggest you to launch it as soon as possible.

[BioMike]

If you have the basic system going, I suggest you to launch it as soon as possible.

Sure , just that I'm a person with little free time (doing a PhD takes up a lot of time). 
Almost weekend again, so then I can spend some time on it again.

[kiba]

Any progress lately?

[Bimmerhead]

Is this being built off an already available platform like openx or Oasis, or is this a 'from scratch' proposition?

[BioMike]

Building from scratch.

Publishers can now register their websites. Next part will be working on the advertisers side. Next week I have holiday, so this might give me a bit more time to work on this.

[kiba]

Update?

[BioMike]

Sorry, not yet. Have been busy buying a Christmas tree yesterday.

[kiba]

So, any work lately?

[BioMike]

Nope, busy IRL (work) and got some other thing to work on (although I could use the knowledge that it generated for the advertisement clearinghouse). Now weekend (and holiday), so I will be able to spend some time on this next few days.

[kiba]

Weekend update, please?

[BioMike]

Worked on the advertiser side today (currently I'm busy with the Ad uploading). Databases are in place (although I might have to make some modifications on them later). Spend some time on the payment script (payment will initially go through MyBitcoin, later I plan to add MtGox as payment processor).

[kiba]

So anything after that, Biomike?

[BioMike]

Ad uploading is working now (currently you can upload 4 different sizes of ads (square, button, banner and skyscraper), the script checks the type and dimensions of the image and rejects if they are not the right size, I used the same sizes as Project Wonderful uses), started already on the scripts to place bids. The forms for that are already in place, but no code yet to process the data.

I leave currently a lot of possible functionality out to get this released asap (still, a lot needs to be done). After release I have to go back to some parts of the code to extend it more.

For the ad upload I currently don't accept images not larger than 100KB. Is this sufficient for most people? Or should I make it even smaller/larger? (Kiba, both your banner and square bitcoin ad, that I used for testing, are smaller than 10KB)

[ribuck]

For the ad upload I currently don't accept images not larger than 100KB. Is this sufficient for most people?

I suggest to make it smaller, e.g. 40kB. An ad is going to be served thousands of times each day. It's worth a little effort to make the ad load fast.

I'm not saying this for the sake "of the internet"; I'm saying it for the sake of the service. Owners of websites don't like ad services that make their website seem slow.