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".