[Foundation-l] Answers.com stuff

Mon Oct 24 22:21:34 UTC 2005

On 10/24/05, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:

> We don't want pop up ads on our site. We don't want ad sense or Google
> ads, though I find it rather odd that one of the vocal opponents to the
> Answers.com <http://Answers.com> deal admits to running a mirror of
> Wikipedia with Google
> ads.

Since I'm the only one on this list I know that runs a mirror of Wikipedia
with Google ads, I assume you're talking about me.

I'm not against the answers.com <http://answers.com> deal. Not at all. I
think it'd be better if we built our own open source version of the 1-click
software, and took 100% of the revenues, but until that software has been
written I think it's perfectly fine to get 50%. I think that putting a
prominently placed link to the software on [[Wikipedia:Tools]] would be
advertising, but I don't think that advertising is necessarily a bad thing,
and after hearing from Jimbo who has implied that [[Wikipedia:Tools]] will
be open for editing just like any other wiki page I don't even think I'd
call it advertising. Finally, I think a CPA should be consulted to ensure
that any revenues generated won't be taxed, if this hasn't already been
done.

I'm not at all against the answers.com <http://answers.com> deal. In fact, I
think Wikipedia should start putting opt-out Google Adsense ads on the site,
and barring agreement for that (which probably wouldn't be easy to obtain),
that we should put opt-in Google Adsense ads on the site. If that feature
was enabled, I'd personally opt-in to the ads, both to give Wikipedia some
extra revenue, and because I actually find Google Adsense ads to be a
feature. I don't want pop-up ads, though I don't think they'd be effective
anyway. Most people nowadays probably block pop-up ads. I know I do.

So, maybe you were talking about a different person who runs a mirror of
Wikipedia and runs Google Adsense ads on it. If so, sorry for jumping to
conclusions :).

Let me finish by saying that while I make a few bucks off my Wikipedia
mirror, it's much less than minimum wage considering all the time I spend
working on it (and the fact that I roll the majority of the revenues back
into hardware to run the site). If I ever made a significant profit off of
that site I'd gladly share the majority of it with Wikipedia. In fact, it is
my goal to use the money from this site to create The Free Content
Foundation, and as soon as I get a couple people to join me in that goal I
plan to make mcfly.org <http://mcfly.org> a non-profit.

Anthony