On 4/23/06, Tony Bruguier tony.bruguier@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
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.
Tony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bruguiea _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Thanks for your suggestion. I for one would not feel fundamentally disturbed by seeing ads imcluded like at wikia.com, especially not when they can help to secure the future of Wikimedia's projects. However, one major concern persists no matter if we make ads optional or mandatory: How can it be assured advertisers don't influence Wikipedia's content? IMHO, once we start selling ads customers will invariably affect our content to some degree. For the most part probably not in a spectacular way but rather in a very subtle manner. For example articles that deal with companies that regularly advertise on Wikipedia will most likely tend to contain slightly less critisism than they normally would, in order not to lose those customers. They will possibly have a tendency to sound a little bit more well-meaning than articles on competing companies that don't buy ads. On top of that, Wikipedia editors will spend more time and effort on writing content dealing with companies that advertise on Wikipedia. Not because of any gross corruption, simply because they will be more aware of them, seeing their names while spending time at Wikipedia. An increased number of commercial links in articles might be another possible side-effect of allowing ads.
Once again, this is not to say that I'm fundamentally opposing all forms of advertising under all circumstances. It is vital for our project to have a solid financial basis and we might one day reach a point where donations will no longer be sufficient. However, the community should be aware of the fact that generating income by means of selling ads will almost invariably reduce our independence to some degree.
Arbeo