It's certainly free publicity for Craigslist, one way or the other. Anybody who does not know what Craigslist is now will see it every time they see the banner, may google it or look it up on WP to find out what it is, and start using it.
Any time we put the name of any kind of person or organization there, that is free publicity so I think it is imperative that we think about what effect that publicity will have in the end. If we put a quote from Nelson Mandela there, for example, it isn't very likely that he will get any money or website traffic or any quantifiable benefit from our banner. If we put an impassioned plea from "The CEO of Webbooks.com", it is very possible that will result in additional traffic and exposure for that website.
Although the banner is not intended as an ad, I must admit that when I saw it I instantly disliked it. If it were up to me, it would not be there. I can certainly understand the reasons for keeping it up and I also don't think this is a terrible situation or anything so I won't argue about this but I wanted to make it known that Geni isn't the only one of the opinion that it's not a good thing.
Mark
skype: node.ue
On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Philippe Beaudette < pbeaudette@wikimedia.org> wrote:
On Dec 14, 2009, at 9:50 PM, geni wrote:
I see we have taken to advertising craigslist. Would anyone care to explain why?
I fail to understand how acknowledging the existence of a company founded by an advisory board member who kindly consents to begging for money on our behalf constitutes advertising for it? Would the banner have been as effective if it had said "Craig asks you to support..."?
Geez. ____________________ Philippe Beaudette Facilitator, Strategy Project Wikimedia Foundation
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