[Foundation-l] Optional advertisement on wikipedia

Sun Apr 23 07:14:30 UTC 2006

2006/4/23, Tony Bruguier <tony.bruguier at gmail.com>:

> I'm new to this list, so please forgive me if I mess up. There's been
> some talk about advertisement on wikipedia or not. Why not make it
> optional, so that each user decides if he/she wants to see the
> advertisement? That way, users can "support" wikipedia or not. I don't
> think that'd be a sell out.

I personally would not object to advertisement, as long as it's not
intrusive (popups, flashing, pushing a significant portion of the
article away from first page, etc.) and editorial independence is
safeguarded. However, I do know that there also exist Wikipedia
editors who do fiercely oppose it, and we might simply lose some of
them.

Having said that, I see some practical difficulty with your proposal.
Would anonymous visitors and people who have not changed their
settings see the advertisements? If yes (opt-out system), then I fear
that the abovementioned people will still have the same strong
objections. If no (opt-in system), then I doubt whether the amount of
money generated by such advertising would be worth the trouble taken.

As said before, I personally think some simple advertisement would be
a good way to raise some money, but I also know there is quite some
resistance in the community about it. Or rather, there was such
resistance a few years ago. Of course attitudes may have changed since
then.

--
Andre Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644  --  Skype: a_engels