No, I think it would be ok to have advertizers sponsor pages. Here is an expansion on the idea. The ad is in small text and simply says:this page sponsored by [[Toyota]]. with a link to their *wikipedia* article. If one doesn't exist, they can write one, but it still must be NPOV. This type of low-impact advertizing often has (ironically) the biggest effect because people aren't as annoyed. A wikipedian could also sponsor the page with a link to their userpage. More than one person or company could sponsor a page. The homepage couldn't be sponsored. Each sponsor request would be screened to prevent linking [[Toyota|Toyota, the beat car company in the world]]. I would cost, say, $1 for 100 impressions, to encourage low-budget advertizers and users to sponsor things. I don't think this would lower our academic credibility at all. --LittleDan
Erik Moeller erik_moeller@gmx.de wrote: Michael-
An interesting way to offer advertising, would be to offer to let people sponsor pages. This is done with Highways, (i.e. This section of highway sponsored by such and such). I think many users would like this idea, and would sponsor pages they contributed heavily to, and you could offer packages for "advertisers" outside of the project like mentioned above, (using some sort of algorithm to figure out what pages are relevant) and then offer a price per page type thing.
Any kind of advertising will hurt our credibility as an educational project. Once the Nupedia Foundation is set up[1], raising money should be easy enough.
Regards,
Erik
[1] A phrase which will in future times be listed alongside similar phrases like "Once Duke Nukem Forever is released" "Once fusion power becomes feasible" "Once copyright terms are reduced to 14 years".
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